29 Monday Aug 2022
Posted in insects
A fanciful post on this bank holiday Monday: of course, this Common darter isn’t really winking – I just happened to have caught it moving its head up and back again – but, with a healthy dose of my vivid imagination, the movement has transformed into a cheeky wink.
03 Wednesday Aug 2022
Posted in insects
The latest dragonfly species for 2022 to blip on my inexpert odonata radar is this Migrant hawker (Aeshna mixta) that was lurking amongst the brambles along a local footpath. I disturbed it with my blundering and it flew off, hawking a few insects as it wove this way and that. Fortunately, after a couple of minutes, the hawker returned to its perch, and I was able to get a closer look and a few photos.
16 Saturday Jul 2022
Posted in insects
The latest odonata species to fly on to my 2022 sightings list is the Southern hawker (Aeshna cyanea), a blue-and-green-coloured male patrolling the woodland rides at a local woodland last Sunday 10 July and, yesterday, a brown-and-green female perched on the bramble poking through a mesh fence bordering a local high school. These beautiful beasties fly from June to October and are often seen quite a distance from water, as mine were.
Dragonflies fascinate me, especially their ‘flying mechanism’, that part of their thorax where the two pairs of wings are attached to their body. My Europe’s Dragonflies field guide describes how ‘Dragonfly wings are remarkably strong and light, but flexible, with a complex highly evolved structure. They are powered by strong muscles in the thorax, with neurons connected directly to the brain.’
01 Friday Jul 2022
Posted in insects
Common darters have been out and about in my locale for the past week, though they are still few and far between, and flighty. This little darling is the first I’ve managed to sneak up on for some reasonable photos.
28 Tuesday Jun 2022
Posted in insects
Though the British Dragonfly Society website says this species ‘favours lakes, slow rivers, ponds and occasionally marshy area[s], that have open water and bare patches along the shore’, I usually find Black-tailed skimmers (Orthetrum cancellatum) locally in wildflower fields and along woodland rides, not always with water or damp habitat nearby.
Perhaps it’s their flexibility in preferred habitat that has enabled this dragonfly to spread so widely – the BDS website again: ‘Quite common in south-east Britain. This species has spread significantly in both England and Wales since the late 1980s.’ Although I saw my first Black-tailed skimmer of the year over three weeks ago, on 2 June, this particular skimmer is the first I’ve managed to get close enough to for reasonable photographs.
05 Thursday May 2022
Posted in insects
Golden dragon sounds like the name of a Chinese restaurant but no! This particular golden dragon is a Broad-bodied chaser (Libellula depressa), my first dragonfly of the year and a glorious glowing beauty, I’m sure you’ll agree. Now that my long lens is out of action and I’ve only got my point-and-shoot camera for photos, I didn’t think I’d be able to get good dragonflies shots this year. But this dragon was busy munching on its lunch so I was able to get quite close.
25 Wednesday Aug 2021
Posted in insects
I think I can safely predict that there will be more Common darters at Casehill Woods next year after catching this pair procreating in today’s warm sunshine. The male had found himself the perfect perch on this Ash sapling and, as always with dragonflies, the female looks like she’s hanging on for dear life.
20 Tuesday Jul 2021
Tags
Black-tailed skimmer, British dragonflies, Broad-bodied Chaser, dragonfly, Emperor, Southern hawker
Our local dragonflies seem to relish this hot summer weather we’ve been experiencing, but they are so speedy and flighty I find them quite difficult to photograph. Fortunately, these few were more co-operative …
Black-tailed skimmer
Emperor
Broad-bodied chaser
Southern hawker
10 Saturday Jul 2021
Posted in insects
It may have been only my second ever sighting of this gorgeous dragonfly species but, with its distinctive markings perfectly matching its name, I was certain of my ID – this is a Golden-ringed dragonfly (Cordulegaster boltonii). These beauties can be found in upland areas, heathlands and woodlands that have the flowing water they favour for breeding. The Golden-ringed I saw was close to a small river in a woodland setting, no more than 100 metres from where I spotted the White-letter hairstreak I posted about yesterday. That was a memorable walk indeed!
You can read more about this dragonfly, and see lots of stunning images, on the British Dragonfly Society website.
01 Tuesday Jun 2021
Posted in insects
Beautiful by name, beautiful in appearance, and really quite magical in their delicate fluttering around the bushes along the rides in my favourite local woodland. The Beautiful demoiselles (Calopteryx virgo) seem to have emerged en masse during last week’s warmer weather.
earthstar 
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