Autumn Delights

With seemingly the last of the warm weather for some time last weekend, I made a couple of visits to Nethergong where it seems, autumn has arrived. The leaves are starting to fall already and change colour and the temperature early morning has that familiar chill about it. Over the weekend, I made an early morning visit and a late afternoon visit to see what differences I could find. I was very surprised despite a good search around the area that I did not find that many Willow Emerald Damselflies. Early morning was of course a little harder to find them but from about 9am, I started to find a few descending from higher up to some of the lower branches in the sunshine. This gave me the opportunity to take a few pleasing efforts with the camera which were taken.

 

Willow Emerald Damselfly (Chalcolestes viridis) - female

 

Migrant Hawkers and Common Darters were seen easily around the site in good numbers and I will have to spend some time in the coming weeks capturing the Darters as they sun themselves on the autumnal floor. The late afternoon visits were again quite productive and with the temperature higher than the mornings, Migrant Hawkers and Common Darters were again the most numerous species. Whilst a few more Willow Emerald Damselfly were noted, I was somewhat disappointed not to see them in better numbers but I suspect many were hidden away ovipositing in the various trees. The ones I did see were often tucked away in groups in the branches egg laying so I am hopeful that more are still around to be found in the coming weeks. With autumn well upon us now and the weather starting to turn for the worse, I'm going to have to hope that my weekend sessions coincide with some nice sunny and mild weather. We can only hope!

 

 Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta) male

 

Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta) - mating pair