Saturday 21 September 2019

A walk round the pond - Week 38

The two swans returned this week and brought the family with them.  They have four cygnets, all more or less full grown.





Migrant hawkers were the most numerous dragonflies this week, with many males on patrol while others were resting up and waiting their turn.



This one adopted a very strange posture.  Darters sometimes stand like this to avoid overheating in very hot weather (it is called obelisking) but I haven't heard of hawkers doing it and it wasn't very hot.

These two have damaged wings, probably damaged in a fights with rivals, perhaps with each other.


Females are much harder to find, partly because they don't usually come near the water except to mate and also because they are well camouflaged.  I was pleased to find these two in the hedge.


No black darters this week but some young ruddy darters so they will be around for a while yet.

And plenty of common darters - this is a mature female

Last week I saw no common blue damselflies and only a few emeralds.  This week one common blue and no emeralds. Both are near the end of their season.

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