After my post yesterday on the annual return of the Large Red Damselfly to the pond I decided just before midday today, when the sun decided to replace the dismal clouds for a while, to go and clear some of the algae from the pond. there is something rewarding – like painting the Forth Road Bridge – in knowing that however much you do today there will still be just as much waiting to be done tomorrow. Anyway as I knelt down and dipped my hand into the water a flurry of Damselflies rose and flew off. I was irritated by the fact that I hadn’t been aware enough to have seen them first. However they soon came back, by which time I had my camera in my hand. I counted three coupling pairs and several others who seemed variously to be chasing the pairs or just being voyeurs. I was really excited. Helen’s enthusiasm for Odonata has rubbed off on me. And all that’s thanks to CJ for making me so aware of the world of insects in general.
So here are what will probably be the last photos I will ever post on this Blog of Large Red Damselflies – unless, of course, I ever manage to catch some hatching. I wonder if they do hatch in my pond.
Is that a grin on their faces? 
Seems like the male and the female are the same colour with these red ones? (Unlike my blue vs brown ones that I saw last year.) Seems to be a slight difference in the shape of their wings though or perhaps that's just a trick of the eye. Great catch, anyway ;)
ReplyDeleteNo wonder she has a headache!
ReplyDeleteThese are incredible shots GB! Love their wings.
Your first photo wouldn't load for me but that's probably only a matter of time. But the second and last are like a little itsy fly's view of their magnificent cousins. Oh, and by the way, it's not a good idea to use the word excited in the sentence following voyeur. I made a very amusing word association there!
ReplyDeletePauline: The photos are not very large files but there's a few of them so they may time out on a non-broadband connection. Apologies.
ReplyDeleteExcited! It takes a bit more than that!!
Excellent photos GB - very pleased to see them breeding at your pond and even more so that our enthusiasm has rubbed off on you! I'm sure you'll spot some recently emerged ones next year (catching them actually emerging seems to be far more tricky).
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be an Edwards if I didn't point out that dragonflies and damselflies are Odonata (etymology: something to do with teeth if I recall correctly) rather than Ephemeroptera (which is mayflies and named because they live for such a short-time) ;-)
Thanks for the correction, Helen. I've amended the post so that when I or others read the post in the future without the comments we don't get misled.
ReplyDeletegreat photos Geeb, a lot better than I can get on my Kodak Instamatic 126. oh.. I think you'll find it's the Forth RAIL bridge you need to refer to !Thanks
ReplyDeleteExcellent shots GB.
ReplyDeleteWonderful pics! Wow.
ReplyDelete