This handsome beastie was another wonderful find from my recent trip to Slade Wood in Gwent. The Southern hawker, also known as the Blue hawker (Aeshna cyanea), though quite similar to the Migrant hawker, can be identified by the broad yellow stripes on the top of its thorax, and, with a flight period running from the beginning of July to the end of September, is seen flying a month or so earlier than the Migrant.

Woodland rides like those at Slade Wood provide the ideal environment for its hawking of insects and, when it finds an ideal location, the Southern hawker will often defend its territory quite aggressively from other dragonfly intruders.