Green Eyed Beauties

Although we have been blessed with some lovely sunshine in the past few weeks, it seems that most of my sessions have been hampered with some quite breezy winds. This has proved quite a challenge when trying to photograph Norfolk Hawkers in flight and as of yet, most of my attempts this year have been disappointing to say the least. I made another attempt yesterday afternoon and again, the winds were blowing quite strong on arrival which meant that any attempts at photographing flight shots were soon dashed. The particular ditch I like to photograph flight shots from is rather open but with vegetation quite low, there are ample opportunities to search for likely targets but with the wind howling through, I decided to search in some of the other more vegetated areas where it would be more sheltered. In a few hours searching I managed to find 13 Norfolk Hawker which included a mating pair seen in flight and an ovipositing female which I managed to get a few shots of through peering through the reeds. The camera was thankfully kept busy and I managed to take a number of pleasing shots of this species which I just can't get enough of. With their season well under way, a few are already showing signs of wear and tear but a few pristine individuals are still to be found. I also managed to see a few Black tailed Skimmer, Four spotted Chaser and Emperor Dragonfly too. With some hot weather and lighter winds this week, I'm hopeful of a few after work visits to see whether I can at last capture a few pleasing flight shots of a Norfolk Hawker before their time is up. Fingers crossed that my perseverance might pay off.

 

Norfolk Hawker (Aeshna isosceles) - ovipositing female

 

Norfolk Hawker (Aeshna isosceles) - male