Bands of Beauty!

With some lovely warm sunshine and warm temperatures Saturday morning, I had a few hours at Westbere Lakes again to see what species could be found and photographed. With a Scarce Chaser being seen a few days earlier, I was keen to see this species. I made my way to an area where last year I found a number of Scarce Chaser exuviae and started searching in the vegetation. Almost immediately, I could see a newly emerged Scarce Chaser still clinging on to its exuviae. I have never actually captured this species in the act of emerging so It was nice to catch this. I managed to find a small gap in the reeds and took a few pleasing images. A few more exuviae were seen and in my walk, I saw a total of 3 Scarce Chaser. No doubt, a few more to emerge in the next few days. I also managed to see 10+ Hairy Dragonfly and good numbers of Variable Damselfly with lesser numbers of Blue tailed Damselfly, Azure Damselfly, Large Red Damselfly and Red eyed Damselfly. As mentioned in my last post, I have a great passion for the Banded Demoiselle and I make it an annual challenge to try to get a few pleasing photos. I managed to find a few Banded Demoiselle and after some patience and stalking, I was able to grab a few pleasing images of this stunner. On my way back, I checked in on the Scarce Chaser which had now climbed up the reed and was in a nice position for some photos. The couple of hours had gone too quick but so good to be seeing the dragonflies and damselflies again. It's just a shame I only really have the weekends to see them as I would love to see some of the other species that are on the wing currently. I have a couple of weeks off in two weeks time so I will hope the weather is kind and I can make the most of my visits to see the various species on the wing. 

Banded Demoiselle - male

Banded Demoiselle - female

Hairy Dragonfly - male

Scarce Chaser - Newly emerged female

Scarce Chaser - teneral female