I had a feeling that I’d see my first #dragonfly of the year today & I was right 🙂
A new species for me too – a male hairy hawker (Brachytron pratense) sunbathing in the grass 😻
Initially similar to other hawkers, like the migrant (Aeshna mixta) which I see a lot of, the hairy hawker flies much earlier in the year & is, well, hairy 🤷♂️🙂
Anyone know what the pink blob is under the anal appendages?
(As I understand it this is known as the "obelisk posture" - raising the abdomen minimizes surface area exposed to the sun which helps prevent overheating.)
It might be for practical reasons, but omg it's completely adorable lol.
It hasn't been a great year for dragonflies for some reason, so I was happy to see this female vagrant darter (Sympetrum vulgatum) this morning, perched on one of the bamboo sticks I have out in the garden for them 🐲🪰
Unlike some of their cousins, they love to pose for the camera 📷🙂👍
I rarely upload video here for all the well-known reasons 😬
I'm making an exception today though, as few things make me happier than seeing a squadron of ten or more dragonflies patrolling our garden, as they were this morning 🐲🪰
Very likely migrant hawkers (Aeshna mixta) as they do this every summer, but I'll try & get a close-up photo in the coming days 📷
Every year it's the same story – the migrant hawker (Aeshna mixta) dragonflies arrive in July hunting en masse, but refuse to land for even a moment, making photos nigh on impossible 🤷♂️
And then around the start of August, they start perching & allow me to get very close 👁
So here's a male that was making the most of the post-rain sunshine this evening 🙂👍
Bit surprised to see, well, hear this blue emperor dragonfly (Anax imperator) clattering around in our unfortunate car port glass roof trap today – normally they’re only around earlier in the season 🧐
Anyway, managed to catch it the filthy (sorry) glass I keep outside for this purpose & take a quick phone picture – now it’s freely patrolling the neighbourhood again 🙂👍
Turns out that I had an even better shot of that vagrant darter dragonfly in the garden today, with its face in focus & the lens flare sunbeam more squarely anointing it as the chosen one 🤷♂️
A Violet Sprite (Archibasis viola) spotted at Ulu Sembawang Park Connector, Singapore, on 9 July 2023. An uncommon damselfly, this one would take off and land at any sudden movement, so I had to slowly approach it to get this shot.
Was talking this morning about how lovely our garden is for damselflies & dragonflies in the summer, but didn’t expect to see my first Odonata of the season the same day 🙂
This is a large red damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula), usually the first damselflies of the year to emerge in April & May, in a quick iPhone picture.
The yellow shoulder stripes & abdomen appendages identify it as an immature male.