Dragonfly

Over my years of watching nature, my attention has rarely strayed from birds and mammals, with the exception of Butterflies which I've always had a fondness for.

It comes as much as a surprise to myself, as well I'm sure as it does to certain people who know me, that recently my Insect interest has broadened and I've developed quite a strong liking for Dragonflies.

Up until this summer, I have never really given these wonderful creatures the attention they deserve, but I feel by overlooking these marvels of the lake, I have spent a good number of years missing out.

I'm not sure what sparked this new found appreciation of the Dragonfly...I must say that this summer has been a good one for spotting them and I've never seen so many as I have done this year.
There have been lots of times over the last few months, when waiting for birds to photograph my attention has been drawn to these huge Insects.

On last weeks visit to South Yorkshire, I couldn't believe the numbers of Dragons that were flying about...Hundreds of the things!



I'm certainly not by any stretch of the imagination an expert on these Insects, but after narrowing the search down I've decided that this particular species of Dragonfly is likely to be the Ruddy Darter.
Of course I could be wrong and the Ruddy is very similar looking to the Common Darter, but I just feel that the deep red colouration makes the Ruddy the more likely...I would of course welcome any information from anybody that knows a little bit more than my very basic knowledge on the subject.

I was quite pleased to witness a pair of these beautiful creatures mating...A truly fascinating experience watching them contort producing some incredible geometric shapes...