Common hawker

A trip to Cragside, to Nelly's Moss Lakes and the Slipper Lake.  Plenty of black darters and common darters and emerald damselflies about and still a few common blue and large red damselflies.  The highlight though was seeing the common hawkers.  The males spend most of their time patrolling the water's edge which makes photography difficult but they do rest occasionally.  This one first landed on my camera strap which afforded a great close-up view but didn't help with the photos.  Fortunately he then landed nearby so I was able to get this view.

The only view of a female was this one ovipositing.

Then I found a pair in a mating wheel about 3m from the ground in a pine tree.  They were there for about an hour.

The male then got his breath back while the female immediately started to lay eggs until harassed by other males.