Recent Ovipositing Action

The Common Darters and Migrant Hawkers are busy ovipositing at the moment, and when a group of Darters get together it is quite mad! Here are pictures of a Migrant Hawker and a close-up shouing the ovipositor inserted into the plant stem. Capturing tandem Darters ovipositing is very hard as they move quite jerkily and quickly, so the images here are the result of over 500 shots.

Migrant Hawkers Ovipositing

Another trip to Finedon Pocket Park found this female Migrant Hawker ovipositing into dead plant stems some 1.5m from the pond margin. This is a protective measure to keep the eggs safe until they hatch in the spring, when water levels have risen.

Migrant Hawker Frenzy

As we enter late summer, early atumun, Migrant Hawkers start to appear in large numbers. At Ditchford this lunchtime I saw about 30 including ovipositing females and mating pairs. I managed to capture these males hovering searching for females. Also seen were a few Common Blue Damselflies, a single Red-eyed Damselfly, lots of Common Darter and a few Brown Hawker.