Wednesday 5 June 2013

FIVE DAMSELS AND A DRAGON






With the onset of sunnier and warmer days (it's about time!) the Damselflies and Dragonflies have begun  their annual immergence. A couple of days ago I went down to the riverside to see what I could find.... 

Large Red Damselfly (male)





 Common Blue Damselfly (male)

 




Common Blue Damselfly (female)  The pale colour and  the not yet fully hardened wings show that this is a newly emerged  specimen. The spine under section S8 of the abdomen also denotes that this is a female. 






Blue-tailed Damselfly (female)  The female can be one of five different colour forms...this is a rufescens colour form.





 Azure Damselfly (male)


Banded Demoiselle...one of the more striking looking Damselflies! These were out in good numbers with the males constantly patrolling back and forth along the tops of the riverside vegetation looking for avaliable females and having the occasional altercation with any other male that came within close range.

 Male

I don't know if this male was protecting the bug as a future meal or if it was just coincidence that they happened to settle in the same place!


 Female







This was the only Dragonfly species that I managed to see and I found four of these newly emerging Scarce Chasers. Three flew high up into the overhanging tree branches where they could wait for their wings to harden off, luckily this one stayed low on a Reed stem and posed for a photo call! You can see that it's wings still have creases and wrinkles in them and are not yet fully hardened.








25 comments:

ADRIAN said...

These are brilliant.....for an engineer....I'm not a sycophant. Seriously! it's great to see them. You get these with the one lens?
You make me look an idiot but then I know I'm a gear freak. A gear freak who always has the wrong lenses mounted and was too idle to carry a tripod.
Have you sorted the posting problem? You have this time.

The Herald said...

Thanks Adrian...I'll take any amount of flattery!!

I used the 100-400 lens for the Demoiselles and the Scarce Chaser, because of the vegetation I couldn't get close, for the rest I used the 100mm Macro (and crept up slowly!) All hand held.

It's sods law that says we'll always have the wrong lens on the camera. This time of year I always carry both lenses with me...the macro in my rucksack just in case I find some flowers or butterflies.

As for the posting problems?...I'm still employing the same system I've just sped it up a little! Fingers crossed!!...[;o)

holdingmoments said...

Cracking set Trevor. Love that Large Red.
I've only seen mostly Common Blues at the moment, and only one dragon.

The Herald said...

Thanks Keith. This warm weather should hopefully bring more of them out!...[;o)

FOREST SNAPPER said...

These are great photos Trevor, you have done very well.

peter

FAB said...

Trevor, its good to see a few different species on the wing at last.
I can appreciate the 'creep up slowly' to use your macro lens .. I'm not that fortunate but occasionally they co-operate so that I can get within inches with my pocket Powershot.

Roy Norris said...

A superb set Trevor. Glad you have found some at last. I have not seen any yet.

The Herald said...

Thanks Peter...[;o)

It's good to see them again Frank. Yeh, I can be very stealthy when the need arises..lol...[;o)

Thanks Roy. I hope you get to see some soon!...[;o)

Douglas Mcfarlane said...

Stunning images Trevor, no problems receivng the post on my blog list either.

The Herald said...

Thanks Douglas, Glad you're receiving me loud and clear!!...[;o)

Heather Wilde said...

The colours on are always so striking on these lovely bugs. Not a single dragon fly out along our river yet :( maybe they are waiting for the summer BBQ!

theconstantwalker said...

A fantastic series of images Trevor... wonderful to see.

Margaret Birding For Pleasure said...

Hi Trevor These are awesome shots. With my little camera I could never get these shots but I love looking at yours. The only thing that spoils a 'little' bit of the beauty, is that your name goes right through the delicate wings!! Could you not place that somewhere that it does not catch the eye or take away from the wonderful shots? Just a 'little' thought. Margaret

ShySongbird said...

Superb photos Trevor! Not easy creatures to photograph, the damsels are so tiny but you obviously had no problems :-)

Hope you have better weather today than we do, it was supposed to be wall to wall sunshine all day...it isn't...dull, dull, dull, :-(

theconstantwalker said...

A wonderful post Trevor... stunning images.

Carole M. said...

such variety and great clarity Trevor; I especially love the luminescent colours on some. I'm impressed at how many differing species of that you captured. I looked but couldn't find any reference to your camera gear?

The Herald said...

Heather,
Andrew,
Margaret,
Jan,
Carole....

Thank you all for your very kind comments and I'd like to apologise for not replying to them sooner. Over the last couple of weeks I've been spending lots of time out and about enjoying the countryside and consequently have been rather lax on keeping up with blogger comments etc. although I have been keeping up to date with, and reading, all your excellent blogs....[;o)

BlueShell said...

Wow...man: fabulous! All those photos are great! thank You for sharing.
xoxo
BShell
blueshell.azurara.net
(I had to quit Blogger because I was having a lot of anonymous unpleasant comments
See you
BShell

The Herald said...

Isabel, thank you. I'm glad you liked them...[;o)

Bob Bushell said...

Lovely dragonflies, it is your best Trevor.

The Herald said...

Thanks Bob...[;o)

Stewart M said...

Great set of pictures. The dragons and damsels down here are rather more divers than in the UK, which makes IDing them rather hard. At least when I lived in Somerset I felt I had a fighting chance.

Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

The Herald said...

Welcome Stewart, thanks for stopping by and following my blog. I've just been checking out some images of the Aussie damsels and dragons and yeh, as you say, they're rather different, but just as spectacular, to the ones here in the UK. I think I'll stick to IDing 'ours' for the time being though!..[;o)

Stewart M said...

Hi there again - it came as a shock to me when you could not use the wing positions -ie sticking out or held along the abdomen - to tell Dragons from Damsels!

SM

The Herald said...

Stewart, I'm not quite sure what you're saying there?
Normally the wing positions when the damsel(closed along the abdomen) or dragon(spread open) is at rest is an assured way of telling the difference!...in flight all four of the damselflies wings are the same shape (zygoptera)...whereas the dragonflies front pair of wings are a different shape to the rear pair (anisoptera)...[;o)