Summer Loving!

Readers of this blog would have noticed that I quite rightly have been obsessed with the Southern Migrant Hawkers that have taken up residence at Nethergong this year. Not know whether this year is just a lucky year or whether they will successfully breed and stay, I have made the most of every trip there to take as many photos as possible and spend time watching this species. The poor Willow Emerald Damselflies must wonder where I am at the moment! Having now achieved quite a few perched and flight shots and witnessed some ovipositing which will hopefully mean they have a chance of emerging next year if the water stays in the pool for long enough, I wanted to see whether I could photograph ant mating pairs. This in itself would at least tell me whether they are attempting to breed. With a good number present, I made a few visits around early afternoon when the activity seemed at its highest and just kept wandering around in the hope of finding a mating pair. Eventually with some luck, I was photographing a perched male when I noticed a mating pair low down in the grasses. With the light good and the sun mostly behind me, I took off the rucksack and emptied the pockets and started the belly crawl nearer. Any campers at this point must have wondered what was going on if they saw me but I think I went unnoticed. I took a few shots every few metres until I was in a better position although as ever, there were grasses in the way. Eventually I was in a comfortable position and fired off a few shots at a nice angle before needing to get up as various parts of the body were now aching. Happy with my initial efforts, I continued on watching and soon found another mating pair but this time, the female was of the blue form which takes on the colouring of the male. I took a few shots at distance before they moved off and landed again shortly afterwards which then enabled me to start the ninja process again of creeping up slowly. I ended up quite near and took a few more pleasing shots. After a while they flew off into the thicker reeds to no doubt oviposit. I'm very hopeful that with the pool normally filling up in the winter months, that the nymphs will have a chance of making it through to emergence before the pool normally dries up in the summer months. Perhaps last years male I saw did get lucky and managed to find a female and lay eggs in the pool and this might explain the sudden increase in the species here or perhaps they emerged elsewhere and just congregated here to mature and got lucky with some suitable habitat. Either way, I will be looking next year for the nymphs as this is one species I would like to photograph at this stage. With a bit of luck, this could be the start of a small colony which in turn could spread outwards to start new colonies elsewhere. It certainly continues to look good for this species in Kent still. 

Southern Migrant Hawker (Aeshna affinis) - mating pair including a blue form female

Southern Migrant Hawker (Aeshna affinis) - mating pair

Southern Migrant Hawker (Aeshna affinis) - in tandem