Thursday 1 July 2010

Emperor at Kearsney

I took Pam's car to Leads at Kearsney for it's MOT today and used the time to walk down to Kearsney Abbey and Bushy Ruff.

This isn't really a quiz question, but as Rolf Harris might say- can you see what it is yet?

Emperor Dragonfly (Anax imperator)

One of the reason for visiting the lake at Bushy Ruff was to see if the Emperor Dragonflies were around yet, and I wasn't disappointed. There were at least three around and at one time I witnessed them in a group chase around.

The slight downward curve of the abdomen is immediately obvious and a good first clue to the identification. Mature males are blue with a black dorsal line. It is one of the largest of our dragonflies, and it is a voracious hunter, continually chasing and catching small insects over the water.

Although this picture isn't as sharp as I would like, it does show the strange angles and twists that the wings take during flight.

Mute Swan cygnets, when small are quite appealing, but when the get to this size they are rather gawky and inelegant especially when it's bottom's up to one and all.

2 comments:

Birdingben said...

Well done on getting Dragonfly in-flight shots,Tony!

Graham James said...

My eyesight must be getting bad, Tony. I was thinking what a wonderful shot of four otters together!!!!