More Odonata

Loch Unes lies in the middle of Ferry Wood and seems to be the best place locally to watch dragon- and damselflies, so while we were at Littleferry on Friday we spent some time on the overgrown shores of the loch, which is now largely filled in with vegetation.

It's difficult to identify dragon- and damselflies at the best of time but bright sunlight doesn't help and my identification of this pair, that they are willow emeralds, seems highly unlikely since the species is a recent colonist from the continent and supposed to be confined to East Anglia.

This one, posing beautifully, is easier: it's an emerald damselfly, a male.

This one is more difficult but I think it's a black darter, again a male, settled on a water avens.

In the last week Mrs MW has twice seen large dragonflies and some were out on the loch on Friday, patrolling up and down but never landing and not even hovering long enough for a good picture - look hard, there's one at bottom left of this shot.

However, this picture is good enough to suggest that they're common hawkers, this one a male.

While we were watching the insects this roe deer appeared, watched us for a few moments, and ran off into the pine trees.