Cloudy Days Have Rewards Too!

I've spent the last couple of days visiting Westbere Lakes in the morning where yesterday, there was a mixture of heavy rain and sunny spells. Today the whole session was mostly cloudy with the occasional downpour which had me running for cover. I spent a good few hours yesterday walking in the long grasses and nettles near the river where I managed to find a female Hairy Dragonfly, 2 Scarce Chaser and a few Variable, Azure, Red eyed, Large Red and Blue tailed Damselfly. I spent some time looking for resting Banded Demoiselles again and after a while, found an obliging male which showed well for photos briefly. The colours on this species when you study them up close are nothing shot of incredible.

Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) - male

Walking on along the river produced a resting male Hairy Dragonfly which after moving in slowly, I was able to fire off a few pleasing photos.

Hairy Dragonfly (Brachytron pratense) - male

Other than more damselflies along the river, I decided to call it a day as more dark clouds were rolling in. Today and with the weather looking quite dark on my arrival at Westbere around 8:30am, I walked up to the river and again checked the vegetation of resting dragonflies. After a while I had found 2 Scarce Chaser, 1 female Hairy Dragonfly and a few Variable, Azure, Red eyed, Large Red and Blue tailed Damselfly.

Scarce Chaser (Libellula fulva) - female

Hairy Dragonfly (Brachytron pratense) - female

It would have been easy to stay at home with no sign of sun and dark clouds, but it just goes to show you that if you are prepared to put the time in searching, the rewards are there to be had. I decided again to search for male Banded Demoiselles to photograph and with the weather as it was, if I found any, they weren't going to go too far. They took a bit of searching for but eventually I found a couple and using my monopod in the background to lay over the vegetation, this provided a nice clean background. I managed to take a few pleasing images and I think I could photograph this species all day, they are such stunning insects.

Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) - male

With the wind picking up and rain moving closer, I called it a day late morning and made my way back to the car just in time before a heavy shower arrived. Hopefully back out in the week which weather depending, I shall be visiting Sandwich Bay to survey for the rare Dainty Damselfly. I can't wait.