It has been a marvellous Indian summer for dragonflies at my local nature reserve (I'll write a review soon). The warm weather continues but I think the season will be over within a week or two. Last week I found four male black darters at Gosforth Nature Reserve. There seem to be no females so they spend most of their time sitting around in the sun. (I think these were dispersing from breeding waters not too far away in the hope of finding new territory.) There were lots of male common darters as well and they were also resting in between chasing each other and females. Another animal spends quite a lot of its time sitting around and made a very comfortable resting place.
The swan seemed irritated by the dragonflies and kept waking up and shaking or chasing them off. Once it caught a common darter on its back but it was so quick I couldn't see whether it ate it or just got rid of it.
This one had the sense to keep out of range.
As did this black darter.
Common darters are common so I expect the swans will have to get used to them. I hope there will be more black darters in future seasons as well.
What extraordinary images!
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