A lovely sunny afternoon on Sunday was good for a visit to a couple of dragonfly sites, including Duck End. The marshy pond appears to be a real nursery this year for large red and azure damselflies and they arise in small clouds from the plants alongside the pond when diturbed by my footfall. The meadow behind this is abalze with wildflowers in particula the semi-parasitic yellow rattle, a member of the figwort family. The inflated capsules do indeed rattle when the seed is ripe inside them. But this was a nice chance to photograph a female large red damselfly- one of the red form typica.
And it was encouraging to see several damsels in the wheel- a hopeful sign for azures again next year. There were also couples flying together and a few ovipositing the fertilised eggs onto vegetation at or just below the surface. And thus the circle of life starts again - after a few weeks green coloured larvae will hatch from the eggs and live in the pond r. They will feed greedily on small invertebrates until they emerge next spring as the beautiful azure- which seems to hold itself so ably as it flies.
And I couldn't resist this shot - question- who is looking at who?
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