A walk round the pond - week 36

Male hawkers were very active early in the week, busy hunting, patrolling and fighting but too busy to pause for a photo, so it was a good opportunity to try some in-flight photos.  It is a hit-and-miss affair (with a lot more misses than hits) but a few work out.  This is a male migrant hawker.

And this is a male southern hawker.

For the second week in a row I found a female southern hawker.  When I spot a dragonfly like this I immediately take a few photos with the telephoto lens before moving in closer to get a better view and a better shot.  I found I could move right up to this one and take close-ups with my compact camera.  I even had time to go back to the car for the macro camera and she was still there when I returned.  I ended up taking photos from less than 5cm away with the lens touching her wing and still she didn't react.  Eventually she flew off to begin the serious business of ovipositing but it was an enchanting encounter for over half an hour.

I called in at the pond again as I was passing later in the week.  The hawkers were still busy, mostly hunting away from the water.  This one paused briefly and I could see that it was a male common hawker.

As I was moving to get a better view it flew and landed on my shoulder.  I tried to reach the compact camera but it was off again before I could take a photo.  Several minutes later I found this one, possibly the same one, deep inside a hawthorn bush (common hawkers rarely rest in the open).  I managed to reach into the bush with the compact camera and get these photos, something that would have been impossible with my normal telephoto dragonfly lens.  The pictures show well the gold front edge to the wings (the costa) that confirms the identification.

After I had watched for several minutes it flew off and I was about to move away when I noticed another dragonfly only about 30cm higher in the same bush.  I was again able to reach into the bush to take a couple of photos, this time of a male migrant hawker.  It has similar colouring to the common hawker above but has a different pattern, is smaller and lacks the gold costa.  This one was very comfortable and was still there when I left. 

Even better, on a third visit this week I came across a pair of common hawkers, 50m or more from the pond.

They stayed in a  mating wheel for over 90 minutes after I first found them.

Eventually the female decided it was time to disconnect.

A minute or so later the male let go and she could fly free.  As I had hoped (and the reason I waited all that time) she landed nearby and I took a photo of a female common hawker at rest, I think for the first time.  Seconds later she was off again - I assumed she would head for the water but she was hungry and went hunting instead.  Egg-laying could wait.

Other dragonflies this week were the dependable darters - black darter,

common darter,

and ruddy darter.

I saw very few male blue-tailed and common blue damselflies this week but there were several mating pairs of emerald damselflies.  As I was watching these two they moved down the reed into the water, still in tandem.  First the female disappeared, then the male followed her.  I watched for a while but then got distracted by a hawker.  When I looked again 10-15 minutes later they were still submerged.  I have read about this behaviour during ovipositing but have never seen it before.

So once again there were three hawkers, three darters and three damselflies all flying together.  My guess is that there will probably be fewer next week as we move into autumn.