What To Do During The Winter Months?

With another weekend of rain, dull days and low temperatures barely getting above 7 degrees celsius, it looks like I will not be seeing anymore dragonflies this year but all is not lost as the dragonfly season moves under the water during the colder months. Most dragonflies and damselflies spend most of their life in the nymph stage but because its takes place under the water, most are totally unaware that their lives carry on. For some, they will spend the winter in the egg stage and will await the slowly warming months where they will hatch and grow quickly in order to emerge a few months later. It would be very easy for me to go into hibernation now that the adult stage is seemingly over but I will hopefully once again spend some time pond dipping at various locations to see if I can collect, photograph and study a few different species of nymph in my indoor tank set up. It has certainly provided many rewarding hours so far, not only photographing them and learning of the different settings required to photograph them but also studying their behaviour, how they move, what they they eat and how different species hunt. Hopefully over the long dark winter months, I will be able to get out and  find a few new species I have not yet photographed in the nymph stage but am always looking to improve on my photos from previous years and expand my own personal knowledge in these areas. The answers to my last post concerning the wings of different species were as follows: 1. Broad bodied Chaser, 2. Brown Hawker, 3. Common Clubtail, 4. Four spotted Chaser, 5. Hairy Dragonfly, 6. Norfolk Hawker, 7. Red veined Darter, 8. Scarce Chaser, 9. Southern Emerald Damselfly, 10. Southern Hawker, 11, White faced Darter and 12. Willow Emerald Damselfly. Below are a few photos of nymphs I have taking in the past couple of years. 

Banded Demoiselle Nymph 

Broad bodied Chaser Nymph 

Hairy Dragonfly Nymph 

Migrant Hawker Nymph