Odonata Heaven!

[glsammy]

Over the last two days we've been checking out a new local pond.
It's proving to be an Odonata viewer heaven!

Today, without moving from one small area, we saw over 20 Emperors, Male and female, Broad Bodied Chasers and Four Spotted Chasers, all in large numbers, Black Tailed Skimmers, and Brown Hawkers. Not forgetting the smaller damselflies, Azure, Common Blue, Blue tailed and Large Reds.
It was a real viewing feast. I've never seen such condensed action in one area. The Emperors were constantly trying to chase off the other species, and then chasing each other! The end result was the chance to get some shots of them.
More often than not they were right in front of us, a real treat!

Here's a few of the shots I got.

















The surprising part for me was how new this pond setting is. I remember when the pond was being created, only in 2005. Now it's a wildlife treat for anyone bothering to go and look.

Here's a couple of shots of one of the two ponds:





This last one shows another point, Mallards have been extremely successful there this year! There are two females, one with 10 and the other with 11 young. There's a Little Grebe there but so far its managed to avoid all my efforts to get a decent shot of it.

The pond has had other benefits for this area, which backs onto Forestry land. This shows itself with the large number of bird around the pond. Not only Swallows and Martins we also saw a flock of at least 8 Linnets, 10+ Yellowhammers and numerous Blackcaps. My shots of them were embarrassingly poor so I'll have to go back again soon to try and do better.

This site is already a firm favourite with us, and the best part is it's within 15 minutes of home.

[Ollie]

Wish I had something like this on my doorstep Graham

Some great shots, love the Emperor ones. You will have to share your pond with Ben and myself one day.
Roger

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by Ollie

Wish I had something like this on my doorstep Graham

Some great shots, love the Emperor ones. You will have to share your pond with Ben and myself one day.
Roger

It would be my pleasure Roger. It's not far from Rufford, so it's possible. It really need to be seen soon, whilst this lot are in their prime!

[Ida]

Really enjoyed your pics, Graham. My favourite is the first one of the female emperor, and her reflection, egg-laying - great composition.

And, lucky you - I wish I had a pond like that near me!

[mh68]

Looks like you`ve found a little gold mine there Graham. Nice looking ponds too considering how young they are

Mark H

[aeshna5]

It's always a great joy to find these pearls on your doorstep. Even though I get to travel a lot I always love checking out my local patches to see what I can find! Great photos too!

[djackso]

Thank you for sharing these beautiful shots - how lucky you are!

[RobSutton]

I'm really quite jealous, we're having a really poor year for dragons and damsels (and butterflies). All I've seen so far are a few Common Blue and Large Red Damselflies. We are high up though (c. 380m) and everything is always late but I wonder also if we are paying the price for the poor summer we had last year.

[Hobjob]

Those two ovipositing emperors with their reflections
are magical photos Graham.

[mrs fish]

The place looks lovely, the photos are good

I like the Four Spotted Chaser pic, I haven't knowingly seen one of those.