Autumn damsels and darters

 Lunch was a leisurely hour in the sunshine with two old friends of mine but before we met up I grabbed a few moments by the ponds at MVCP.  I love the purple michelmas daisies - a kind of North American aster I think. Timely flowers as it will be michelmas in a couple of weeks time when we celebrate the feast of the archangels. A real sign that autumn is with us and the months moving on. Can't say that I like autumn- the colours yes, the fruits on the trees yes, even the mists, but it is a sign that summer has gone and winter will be here too soon. I really love the spring most of all - a season of freshness and expectation. But no gloom today the sun was out, good friends putting the world right, laughing lots and a nice lunch.

 

By the ponds I saw several common and ruddy darters and watched with some pleasure the migrant hawker as he flew back and forth over the ponds snacking as he went.

And then a late afternoon stop at DENR. Again the signs of autumn were obvious, not least the wonderful aroma of apples that were both on the trees and the ground, the blackberries still glossy and purple and a few butterflies still on the wing. It was good to see the butterflies having just read that the recent weather had killed off many of these fragile creatures.  Had the wrong shoes on really as the reserve was quite wet underfoot and my camera has not yet caught up with me from its sojourn in Cornwall, but I had my pocket camera and managed to take some shots of the 6 emerald damselflies all perching around the long pond. They were all very still and almost torpid, probably an indication that this is the very end of the season for these prettiest of damselflies.

A restless migrant hawked over the pond and nearly made lunch of a tomato red ruddy darter. Sadly I also found this spiders web and the spider had made lunch of a a damselfly and from the bright blue eyeball still in the web a pretty emerald I think. 

I hope my camera will be reunited with me soon so I can look at the dragonfly shots from my recent visit to Cornwall - the striped golden ring being in much evidence. But today was a lovely if tinged with the sadness of autumn coming on, but then too planning for next years dragon forays and maybe even a few more sighting this year yet............