Sunny Saturday Delights

With some nice warm sunshine forecast for this morning, I decided to have a leisurely walk around Nethergong to see what could be found. I arrived around 10:15am in glorious sunshine and spent three hours checking a number of areas where I managed to find c40 Willow Emerald Damselfly. Most were found in an area away from the stream where there is normally a shallow lake but this has completely dried up with the recent hot weather we had. This has meant that the overhanging Willow trees are now about two metres from the reeds but this didn't seem to deter the Willow Emerald Damselflies as quite a number of pairs were seen either in tandem, mating within the reeds and then flying up into the Willows where they were observed ovipositing.

 

Willow Emerald Damselfly (Chalcolestes viridis) -  pair in tandem

 

I can only assume that they like myself are hoping that the pool fills up during the winter period. I decided to stay in this area for a good hour as there were a few Migrant Hawkers flying and landing in the reeds as well as the odd Southern Hawker. This provided a few photo opportunities with patience and also a few inquisitive campers wondering what I was doing looking in the reeds.

 

Southern Hawker (Aeshna cyanea) - male

 

They were soon given an education on some of the dragonflies that can be seen here and were soon themselves capturing a few photos on their phones of the Willow Emerald Damselflies. At the end of a pleasant session, I ended up seeing c30 Migrant Hawker, 2 Southern Hawker, 2 Ruddy Darter and a few Common Darter basking on the dead leaves in the sun which are starting to fall now. I may try to get back tomorrow morning if possible but if not, weather permitting, I shall once again hopefully be back enjoying the delights next weekend.

 



Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta) - male