Damselfly emerging! (1 Viewer)

[Surreybirder]

Third and finally, black-tailed skimmer ( a species I've yet to see as an adult).
Ken

 

[Richard Ford]

Ken, i'll show you a load of BT Skimmer in exchange for White legged Damsel and Red Eyed, these would be new for me.

Great photos BTW i have never seen a life larvae.
Rich

 

[Surreybirder]

By coincidence, I saw my first black-tailed skimmer when I was walking our dog this morning. It was immature (wasp-coloured) and flying around a large meadow.

PS LMG, you didn't realise what a long thread you were starting! I hope you don't mind that we've wandered rather a long way from your starting point.

 

[Richard Ford]

Yes I guess we have.

Anyway I have had a day off today and a great day for Odonata.
Firstly I found my first ‘just emerged’ Dragonfly an emperor I think.
Unfortunately as I was standing nearby getting photos some dogs came bounding over trampling all over the area, I must admit I had to restrain myself from shouting at the owner. The poor insect was knocked from its stem but luckily not into the water, I quickly grabbed some vegetation and managed to get it back up onto a few stems and it seemed ok, I waited for a few hours in the area, but it never fully pumped its wings up and left before I had to leave, I think it was ok though.

When I left it was mid day, is it normal for emperors to be this helpless and at risk from predation in the middle of the day?

Also around were my first confirmed sightings of Broad bodied chaser (I think) I could have been miss identifying these as Black tailed Skimmer up till now.

Rich

 

[Richard Ford]

The best sighting of the morning was another first for me however in the shape of a very impressive Golden Ringed Dragonfly, which posed for photos. Among other pictures I took this one of it eating a bee, what a monster!

 

[Surreybirder]

Superb photos, Rich! You should be entering them into the competition--unless you've got even better ones of course.
Two ticks in one day... well, believe it or not, I had two today. I've already mentioned the black-tailed skimmer. But after lunch I saw two downy emeralds--absolutely stunning odos, with metallic copper on their abdomens and apple green eyes, similar to the colour of the thorax of your Emperor (above). The two emeralds kept on the move the whole time, never landing but occasionally hovering for a few seconds. I didn't have a hope of photographing them. This was at the Surrey Wildlife Trust Bay Pond reserve in Godstone. There were several red-eyed damsels there, too, and one actually landed within a few feet for a moment. I took a photo so I'll see (eventually) whether it's any good or not.
(I'm not sure whether I've seen golden-ringed or not. My wife and I have a photo of one which she took in Cornwall many years ago... and I cannot remember seeing it!)
We had a broad-bodied chaser briefly in the garden today, so, as you say, a good day for odos.
Ken

PS Where was your golden-ringed seen?

 

[steve covey]

Lovely close-up of Golden-ringed, Rich.
It's my favorite British Dragonfly - looks like it's been painted with Chinese lacquer!
Regarding the Emperor - did you notice if it's wings expanded any more before you left or was it more or less as you filmed it?
Cheers,

Steve.

 

[Richard Ford]

Hi Steve

Its wings did expand a little after the dog incident but then did not seem to for quite some time after that, I had hoped to get the finally shot of the wings fully expanded but did not have any more time to wait.

I have put this photo in for the comp
http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php?photo=5996&password=&sort=1&cat=500&page=1

And here is another, I think this is now my favourite Dragonfly too.

Sounds like you had a good day too Ken, the downy emeralds sound like a challenge to photograph.

Richard

 

[steve covey]

The reason I asked about rate of expansion of wings was that the abdomen appears to already have a certain amount of blue colouring which is very unusual. Teneral male Emperors usually emerge as a buff/brown colour taking on the blue over a period of a day or two - I was wondering if this individual was in trouble and had been trying to 'pump-up' its wings for some considerable time [a percentage of all odo's have 'faulty pneumatics' and fail to expand - and so perish]!
Your Golden-ringed appears to have some white on the golden areas or is this just light reflection/highlights?
Cheers,
Steve.

 

[Richard Ford]

Yes Steve I was just reading something similar.
I have a feeling now that this was such an insect, it did not seem to make a lot of progress over a period of 3 hours.
How long should this process take and at what time of day is normal for an Emperor?
I first found it at 9.30ish and it was still there after midday, it was certainly alive.


Rich

 

[Surreybirder]

"An Emperor with faulty pneumatics"... now there's a thought!
All great pix, Rich.

 

[Richard Ford]

Sorry Steve, yes you are right some of the Golden Ringed pictures suffer a bit from the yellow areas being blown out, I didn’t quite get the exposure right with a few of them.
The close ups however are all pretty good colour wise, the Nikon Tele-converter is earning its keep. This is probably my favourite close up and you can see the true colours of the insect.
Golden Ringed Dragonfly eating a bee

Cheers

Rich

 

[Surreybirder]

A very good advert for the Nikon Coolpix... another great shot, Rich! I wish I could add a teleconverter to my Fuji digital camera. 3 times magnification is not quite enough.

PS You were talking about 'bent' damselflies earlier. I came across one today. Not a brilliant shot with my digital camera but you can see the kink!

 

[steve covey]

Yes Steve I was just reading something similar.
I have a feeling now that this was such an insect, it did not seem to make a lot of progress over a period of 3 hours.
How long should this process take and at what time of day is normal for an Emperor?
I first found it at 9.30ish and it was still there after midday, it was certainly alive.


Rich

Sorry for the delayed reply Rich - PC was hijacked by daughter for college project [a frequent occurence!]
Most of the larger dragonflies [Anisoptera] tend to emerge overnight so that they are ready to or have already taken their maiden flight before dawn, to avoid the obvious risk from predators. Your individual is thus remarkable in having avoided the attentions of any predators thus far. Unless it managed to fully expand it's wings however it's life will be a short one;-(
Cheers,

Steve.

 

[Surreybirder]

Redwing, here's a shot I took of a white-legged damsel. Unfortunately the light was poor and I've lost depth of field. I must try again. Waiting for you to find one!!