Female Emperor Dragonfly

In my last blog I showed the outcome of a territorial dispute between two Male Emperor Dragonflies which resulted in a new male taking over the windmill farm pond.

All visiting female Emperor such as the one below will now readily mate with the new Emperor and lay their eggs in his pond.

Having mated this female attempts a tricky  ' Log rolling'  method of laying her eggs on a piece of floating reed.

She finally becomes balanced but decides to moves on to more stable growing reeds where she can lower herself into the water margins with better balance and control

I managed to capture a head-on close up portrait  before the female finishes laying her eggs and the last image below shows her departing to rest up before going through the whole cycle again later

My next blog will show a few more damselflies and chasers taken on what proved to be a very productive and pleasant way to spend a Monday afternoon at Windmill Farm

Dragonfly Portraits

With the hot sunny weather prevailing the local ponds and waterways are buzzing with Dragonfly and Damselfly.

I went back to windmill farm ponds yesterday afternoon looking for Dragonfly reflections and  general behaviour images and was pleased with the posted results.

If you decide to venture out there take some repellent or keep covered up as the local horsefly population has also soared at the moment.

Early return to windmill farm

I made an early return to Windmill Farm yesterday afternoon looking to pick up on a few subjects that I missed on my previous visit.

First up are the Common Lizard that I failed to catch on the boardwalks running through the bog areas.

I liked the 90 degree body angles demonstrated by the mating Damselflies.

On this second visit the Broad-bodied Chasers were more accommodating in showing off their mating behaviour,

And yes I caught the female Emperor laying her eggs on my last visit but I just love playing around with their reflections from different lighting angles.

And I saw but failed to capture a couple of fast moving Adder in the car parking area so that's another one on my list for next time.

                                   Another very pleasant afternoon at windmill Farm !!

Dragonflies at Windmill Farm

It was a fine day here in Cornwall and after my usual early morning out and about I decided to make an afternoon trip to Windmill Farm on the Lizard Peninsula to see if the warm sunshine had attracted a good variety of Dragonflies to its ponds which have excellent waterside access for Photography,

On arrival at one of the ponds I was pleased to meet Dougy Wright the warden of the reserve who was very enthusiastic about the amount of wildlife attracted to the ponds so far this year,

I soon got busy with my camera and started with this slimline Newt that had come to the surface to breath.

Next up were a pair of coupled Azure Damselfly which were showing in good numbers

I was pleased to see the four spotted Chaser below land on a dead reed stalk that also neatly showed the husk of a Nymph casing still holding its position from when it had crawled up out of the water to turn into a beautiful dragonfly,

Male broad bodied chasers are good to work with as they so regularly return to the same location time after time when not flying which makes it easy to prepare for a portrait shot

I had to wait a lot longer for this Male Emperor to settle down for a portrait, They seem to have an amazing endurance for continuous flight while looking for females and seeing off all rival males.

Finding an opportunity to photograph a mating pair of Emperor Dragonflies is not and everyday occurrence but is much appreciated when it does come along.

Following the mating it is so good to see the Female Emperor laying her eggs and doing her bit for future generations of dragonflies at this fine location.

Windmill Farm, The fine weather and the dragonflies created a splendid way to spend a peaceful and very interesting afternoon shoot,   HAPPY DAYS !!

Inflight sex can be risky

No I'm not referring to any attempt to join the 'Mile High Club' over the Atlantic here, Just relating to Dragonfly life on one of our local ponds where I watched an aerial mating go wrong yesterday,  As this pair of Emperor Dragonflies linked up in a wheel formation it all seemed to go haywire and the pair crash landed in the pond,  I took eighty four images of them trying to escape the drag of the water over the next 30 seconds or so during which time the will to mate was so strong that they remained locked in the wheel position but it all ended OK when the wind eventually blew them both against a small group or reeds at which time they released each other to escape up the stems,  The male looked all set to give it another go but the female flew off leaving him to consider any improvements he might make to his 'Inflight sex skills' !

Early AM and late PM

Early Am today came with a lovely sunrise that proved to be short lived as it was devoured by cloud cover with in twenty minutes but while it lasted over our Longrock  Roe deer fields I was able to capture three Doe Roe deer in the company of the same buck that was showing two days ago.

The cloud cover lasted well into the afternoon but I did finally pop off down on to the Lizard peninsula at Windmill farm looking for Dragonflies and common Lizards,  The boardwalk lizards gave me a hard time for best part of an hour and at no time did I achieve a clean shot of the two I worked on,  Female Emperor Dragonflies were far more productive and as they laid their eggs on sparse surface pond weeds I was able to catch a few nice reflections some of which are posted below,

I also took a complete sequence of a pair of Emperor Dragonflies aerial mating, crash landing in the water in a wheel formation and eventually hauling themselves out of the water onto a reed that a light breeze blew them against,  I need a little more time but hope to publish them AM tomorrow,

As I was packing up to leave Windmill farm I noticed a pair of meadow pipit that were predating on the abundant local grasshoppers, They seemed to habitually land on the same fence post prior to delivering their prey to their nest creating an opportunity that could not be ignored,  I took several shots from my current position at around twenty metres with the birds back lit, Some were quite pleasing soI decided it was worth setting my camera up on remote shutter release with the sun behind and the relevant fence post at a minimum of 3.5m to achieve a full frame image of the bird front lit,  One original image is followed by one remote image posted below,