The Willows are Waking

With some lovely warm sunny windless conditions over the weekend, I spent a while on both mornings looking for emerging Willow Emerald Damselflies at Nethergong. I generally see my first here during the second week of July and it's always a highlight to see the newly emerged ones making their maiden flights to the long grasses and nearby trees. I checked a few areas and although I found plenty of nymphs, I could only find about 10 Willow Emerald Damselfly. No doubt a little early here still and I imagine in the next few weeks that hopefully a few hundred at least will safely emerge. I managed to find a few in the long grasses and with some patience and slow stalking, I was able to spend some time photographing a pristine male. After a couple of hours of emerging the colours start to come through nicely and as anyone will know who follows me and reads the blog, the Willow Emerald Damselfly is a favourite of mine. With such a long abdomen they can be tricky to photograph and get all in focus but I was quite pleased with this set showing off those superb colours. There are bound to be many more experiences with this species over the next few months. Also see were a few Migrant Hawker exuviae, Broad bodied Chaser, Emperor Dragonfly, Brown Hawker, Emerald Damselfly, Black tailed Skimmer but alas, still no Southern Migrant Hawkers. I'm still hopeful that they might find the pool again should they pass through. I will keep looking. 

Willow Emerald Damselfly (Chalcolestes viridis) - teneral male