Ah, yes. I know this one. Homo Brittanicus bushcraftus vulgaris. The Common olive green British bushcrafter. Easily identifiable by the lack of cranial hair follicles; extended proboscis; pogonotrophy (look it up!) and stupid grin. My life, those canines are decaying! Obviously not a juvenile.

As regular visitors know, I’m quite keen on Dragonflies. This year I’ve not had a great deal of luck photographing them. The weather hasn’t helped I suppose. Now the end of summer is approaching I hoped to see a few more, but with no rain for a couple of weeks, some ditches and small ponds have dried up. You can’t win can you?

I decided to spend some time watching the ponds at Broaks wood. There are about 30 permanent ponds of various sizes. Sunday was bright and warm and I was rewarded with the standard appearances of the Emperor, the Common, Southern and Migrant hawkers and Common darter. Today there was an abundance of Common darters who appear right into the autumn months. I even managed to get one or two on my fingers. They (the redder males) didn’t seem to mind me sticking my finger close to their heads and slowly moving my finger underneath them, they simply climbed on board. Very accommodating. They only flew off when buzzed by another male only to return to the same outstretched finger. It was fascinating to study this insect close up but I did actually wonder who was studying who.

A couple of young kids came to see what I was doing and when I placed the dragonfly on their fingers, their jaws almost dropped to their knees. This kind of thing give me a kick. I felt like the old man of the woods. Well, there’s some truth in the old bit I suppose. I persuaded them to move slowly and not talk too loudly. I wonder if this will insipre them to take more interest in the natural world. Wouldn’t it be great if, in years to come, one of them said, “It all started many years ago with a man who put a dragonfly on my finger.”

There seemed to be quite a bit of mating going on and it was interesting to see the darters flying “in tandem”.

The Emperor is notoriously difficult to photograph as they seem to be continuously in flight. I have been advised to put a stick at a 45 degree angle at the side of the pond. This seemed to work for all the other Dragonfly species on Sunday, but on this occasion, not the Emperor. It’s an excellent tip though if you want to photograph Dragonflies or Damselflies.

I was lucky enough to catch the Southern and Migrant hawkers resting on some vegetation. The Southern hawker has joined spots on the last segments of the abdomen (first pic) while the Migrant hawker has a golf tee shaped mark on the 2nd abdominal segment.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.