A walk round the pond - week 37

This week I visited the pond more in hope than expectation but found that the cooler windy weather had encouraged the dragonflies to spend more time basking in the sun.  They were sheltering from the wind on the sunny side of a hedge.  I saw several migrant hawkers, at least three southern hawkers and two common hawkers.  At one point I found males of all three species within 3m of each other.  Here are migrant hawkers,

common hawkers,

and southern hawkers.

This week there were no blue-tailed damselflies but I did see a couple of male common blue damselflies (for the 18th consecutive week).

After seeing it for the first time last week I found another pair of emerald damsel ovipositing underwater.

Common darters are still very common.  This is a mature male.

This is a mature female.

And a young male, so they will be around for a while yet.

This is a mature female ruddy darter

And a male back darter.

Individual dragonflies have a fairly short life.  This common darter was being recycled by pond skaters.

Butterflies this week included comma,

small copper.

red admiral,

painted lady,

and speckled wood.

These speckled woods were all sharing the same blackberry.  It must have been extra tasty.

Swallows are still skimming over the water, fuelling up for their long trip south.