As The Sun Sets

With the second week of July normally heralding the first emergence of the Willow Emerald Damselflies at Nethergong, I was up and arriving at Nethergong at 5:30am where after parking up, I spent an hour or walking walking along the edge of the stream and checking the long grasses. On a concerned note, I have only seen 1 Emerald Damselfly so far and just hope that their emergence has been a bit delayed this year. Despite a good search of the vegetation and grasses, I didn't find any, just good numbers of Banded Demoiselle, Azure and Blue tailed Damselfly. I then spent a while walking along the eastern edge where the sun had now warmed up the area and after a brief search, I found 1 Willow Emerald Damselfly (female) at rest before she was soon flying up higher into the trees. Hopefully there will be a good emergence of this species in the next few days or so. With some sunny, calm weather forecast for last night (Saturday), I decided on a visit to Nethergong at dusk to see if I could find and photograph a Banded Demoiselle roosting. Arriving at 20:15pm, I soon found a number of Banded Demoiselle still flying and a few starting to rest up. I set up the tripod and camera and took a few practice photos to see what they might turn out like. Around 20:45pm, the sun was starting to set quite quickly and I was then able to take a number of pleasing images of the Banded Demoiselle against the setting sun. With birds still singing, a Little Owl calling and a Barn Owl hunting nearby, it was just beautiful to be out enjoying what nature has to offer. I returned this morning for another search but failed to find any Emerald or Willow Emerald Damselfly but did have lovely views of a male Southern Hawker which posed well for photos. I will hopefully post these in the week all being well.

 

 



Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) - male at Sunset