With a dragonfly tour which I am leading Saturday at Westbere, I thought I would have a few hours yesterday to see what was about. I was dropped off at 10:30 where I spent c3 hours walking around the area and along the river. Although the weather was quite cloudy (what a surprise), there were a few breaks in the cloud which allowed a warm sun to tempt the odonata on the wing. I managed to see 33 Scarce Chaser with some lovely looking males which prompted me to take a few images. Although quite flighty, I was able to slowly move in with the trusty Canon f4 300mm lens and get some of my best photos I think of this species.
There were also 7 Norfolk Hawker on the wing and I suspect in the coming weeks, their numbers should build up in the area. I spent a while watching a male patrolling the dykes and when I had enough information, set about trying to capture a few flight images. Whilst they are not too bad, I think there is plenty of room for improvement here. Also noted were 3 Hairy Dragonfly, c50 Banded Demoiselle, good numbers of Variable, Azure and Blue tailed Damselfly with lesser number of Red eyed and Common Blue Damselfly. Fingers crossed for some good weather for the tour on Saturday and in other good news, the cows have been moved to another field which will allow me to perform a better survey result of the Southern Migrant Hawker nymphs in the drying up pool.
Lovely photo's Marc. Wish I could hold my camera as steady as that. Best wishes, Mike.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks Mike. It's pretty hard and you only see the ok shots. I find myself holding my breath as not to shake the camera. Take care.
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