I set off this afternoon with my trusty Lumix camera to walk to the King's Fleet and on to the Wilderness to see if any new dragon- or damselflies had emerged. It was warm in sunshine tempered by a light breeze, on a walk which takes just half an hour.
I found two male azure damselflies in a dyke close to the fleet, took out my camera and then spotted....
....what I took to be a chaser, a dragonfly which I haven't seen in two years. I turned the camera on, for it to announce it had a low battery, after which it died.
I have a spare battery, so went to the pocket in the camera case to find it, to discover it wasn't there. The spare was at home. I had taken it out of the camera this morning to charge and forgotten to put it into the case; and the flat battery which was in the camera must have been one which died on a previous walk and which I had omitted to re-charge.
Meanwhile, the chaser had landed on a nearby reed and was posing perfectly.
I hurried home, which took 25 minutes. I rushed back to the dyke. This took 22 minutes. By this time the breeze had risen and there was no sign of any dragon- or damselflies. At the King's Fleet I glimpsed what might have been a hawker. The only other things of any interest were the hoards of tadpoles feeding off the scum which has collected overwinter on the fleet.
I hurried on to the Wilderness to see what was there, passing a hare which was hiding amongst the heifers.
The Wilderness provided half-a-dozen male azure damselflies.
I used to be a boy scout. I pride myself in being as prepared as possible - for example, I make extensive lists of things to take and do before I go away on holiday. Yet I still make mistakes.
The photo of the chaser was taken two years ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment