Tuesday 31 August 2010

Migrant Hawkers & Common Darters






Back from holiday in Turkey where we had 39 degrees C every day. I didn't go dragonfly hunting because it was too hot, but did manage to see plenty of Red-veined Darters (typical isn't it, you go 1800 miles and see a species that appeared in Northants last year!), and a new one for me - a Small Skimmer.

Anyway, back to Northants. Ditchford was buzzing with Migrant Hawker, with almost 100 males, females and mating pairs flying around. Not as many Common Darter as I was expecting though. Still some Brown Hawker, Common Blues and a few Red-eyes.

I managed a few in flight shots, shown above, including a sequence of a male cleaning ist legs to remove some fluff collected while he was hunting through the reeds.