Dragons and Damsels 2018

Decided to have another go at the Dragonflies in Alexandra Park, Hastings. On good days it is possible to find 10 species without really putting in too much effort, however, finding them is not always the problem, it's getting them in a position to photograph them.

Most of my efforts are spent around a couple of the ponds with good emergent vegetation as these hold large numbers of Damselflies, also along the stream as this can be particularly good to Large Red Damselflies as well as later in the year the Beautiful Demoiselle.

The interesting (and rather frustrating for me) thing is that despite the large numbers of Damselfly present, every 'blue' one I have a decent photograph of has turned out to be Azure, rather than the Common Blue which I was initially expecting to find on site.

The other mainly blue Damselfly that appears in good numbers now is the Red-eyed Damselfly, this species is a fairly new colonist to this part of the country, it used to have a very restricted range, it is now increasing but still not widespread, so having a healthy easily accessible population of this species is a bit of a treat.

As I mentioned earlier, I also spend time along the stream to hunt for Large Red Damselfly, and fortunately they performed well too....

As I walked around the Park I suddenly noticed a stunning female Broad Bodied Chaser sunning itself on some of the ornamental shrubbery, just goes to show the benefits of having the camera ready to go....a fantastic way to end the walk.