The Dragonfly Season Begins

Having collected and reared a few Hairy Dragonfly nymphs over the winter in my garden pond, I have been keeping a close on them during the past few days after dark with a torch where I have noticed a few of them starting to come to the surface to start the transition of breathing in water to air. When they are nearly ready to emerge, you can start to see the colours of the dragonfly showing through the larval skin so it was no surprise last night when I went out to the pond after dark to see one of the nymphs on a reed with its head sticking out. With a mild night and little if any wind, it seemed a good night to emerge and after checking a few times more, the nymph started to climb higher up the reed. This was my cue to go and get the camera, tripod, mat to lay on, warm clothing and a flask to keep me warm. Having warned the neighbours that there could be some flashing going on soon (from the camera, not me), I settled into a position away from the pond to allow the nymph to find a good emerging position and once settled, I moved in slowly to set up everything. I had made it a challenge this year to try and photograph a male Hairy Dragonfly emerging and little did I know, my challenge was about to be met. The nymph spent a while as they do making sure everything was alright and likewise, I made sure the camera was in a good position and how the shots would look. Not long after, one of nature's miracles started to happen when the nymph started to emerge and I then spent the next hour and a half at least taking a set of photos of the whole emergence. Normally, the newly emerged dragonfly rests on the exuviae which makes for a nice shot but with an active frog below moving in amongst the reeds, the dragonfly moved further up and found a new position. This made me miss a few photo opportunities but I was soon firing shots off again once it had settled. With enough photos taken and the time around 23.30, I packed up and hoped I could take a few more photos in the morning. I was up early this morning and after dressing, went out to the pond where I could see the male Hairy Dragonfly resting up on the reeds. It wasn't long until the sun come out and it opened its wings where I was able to take a good number of photos against the backdrop of Grape Hyacinths. I will post a few more of these photos in due coarse as I think they deserve their own post. Before completely warming up, I collected the Hairy Dragonfly and put it in a small box where I then drove the few minutes where I collected the nymph from and released it. When I got back home, another male had started to emerge and although I missed some of it, I took a few photos and made time to sit and study this marvel happening before my eyes. With a few more to hopefully emerge in the next few days, I'm hopeful I can take another emergence set to better these and fingers crossed, I get another chance to photograph a male emerging. An unbelievable spectacle to witness and photograph and if you haven't seen an emergence, I suggest you get up early one morning and go looking for yourselves. You will not be disappointed.  

 

Hairy Dragonfly (male) Emerging 

Hairy Dragonfly (male)