Sunday, June 6, 2021

Dragons & Damsels


Some of the crofts in Backies are sorely neglected but on Saturday the bracken on this one gave us the first sighting this year of....

....a dragonfly, a four-spotted chaser. This was a surprise: after the very late spring we hadn't expected to see either dragon- or damselflies yet awhile, but this was only a couple of days later than last year's first sighting, on June 1st - post here.

After collecting eggs from one of the properly-worked Backies crofts we walked on to the so-called Skating Lake where, on the low branch of a birch, a dozen or more....

....male large red damselflies were competing to mate with....

....passing females.

When not involved in active and very fierce competition the males were quite happy to perch anywhere in the sun, including Mrs MW's arm, or on....

....the boardwalk of the jetty which also made....

....a convenient platter for a meal.

At this stage a year ago we were also seeing blue-tailed damselflies but there's no sign of them yet.

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