It is a teneral male emperor dragonfly (Anax imperator) which had just made its maiden flight. It was sunning itself as its wings continued to harden.
After a while it flew a few metres farther from the water to rest in the grass. The abdomen will turn bright blue as it matures.
You can see how well it is camouflaged, useful as at this stage it isn't a strong flier.
This is just about as far north as the emperor gets. Here is the distribution map on iRecord for the past 10 years.
The emperor wasn't the only new dragonfly of the week. Four weeks later than last year I finally saw a four-spotted chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata). There were only three, whereas by this time last year there were probably a couple of dozen flying around. I don't know why the delay as the other species have emerged on time - the emperor was on precisely the same date as I first saw one last year.
There were many dozens of blue damselflies this week, mostly common blues.
These azure damselflies came to grief in an old spider's web.
These two were also being harassed by another male.
There were still plenty of large red damselflies.
But only occasional blue-tailed damselflies.
Butterflies this week included common blue,
dingy skipper,
and small copper.
A couple of other interesting insects I saw were this ichneumonid, one of the 2500 UK species,
and a beautiful bejewelled beetle, one of the 4000 UK species.
Plenty of warblers were still singing including blackcaps, chiffchaffs, common whitethroats and willow warblers. All were typically shy but I did spot a willow warbler.
Long-tailed tits are much more obliging. There was a large tribe in the hedges, with many young fledglings.
This is a youngster (R) with an adult (L).
Next week I hope to see more chasers and an emperor on patrol.
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