Well, the warm weather has done its job and the dragonflies are beginning to emerge. I saw my first damselfly in the garden at the weekend (no photo, wrong lens etc… 😉 ), but had more luck today when I headed over to the dew pond at work only to come face to face with someone else sporting a 100-400mm lens! It's somewhat of a relief to not be the only camera-nut around the place. He was after dragonflies, and sure enough a couple of male broad-bodied chasers were about. I don't recall when I first spotted them last year, but I don't think it was as early and 2008 proved relatively quiet, so the early sighting this year is very positive.
The real fun will begin when the females are egg-laying and the chance of 'in-flight' shots increase, but today I made do with a static shot when one of the pair finally decided to rest up for a moment. I'd switched lenses by then and took this with the 105mm macro lens.
Male broad-bodied chaser dragonfly
Other news of the garden is the continuing tale of the badger. I repositioned the trail cam last night, and laid out a handful of peanuts. This sequence (altogether I had about 3.5 minutes of footage) was captured just after 2.00am.
Badger Watch!
One day I'll manage a real photo, but for now I'm delighted to be getting even this much.
Camera note: dragonfly taken with the Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG macro lens, hand-held.
AOTEAROAnz
11 May 2009Love Badger watch. 2am :eyes:
I thought the Dragonfly season at my0pera was all year round :p.
Thankyou! Beautiful enrty, choice post!
Words
12 May 2009LOL at Dragonfly… I must check it out again. Glad you liked the post 😀
AOTEAROAnz
12 May 2009😀
gdare
12 May 2009Maybe the badgers are the reason you don`t have foxes around this year. I don`t know much about them but maybe they are intolerant toward foxes.
Words
12 May 2009Darko, the occasional visit by a badger shouldn't make much difference (there are lots of foxes and badgers in the area). They can fight, but usually just avoid each other. I think the foxes have their den a little distance from here (a few gardens away), so only pass through. It also means it's too far for the cubs (like last year) so we won't see them until they are quite a bit older, if at all. It's a shame though. 🙁
Flying Red Fox Blog
12 May 2009Lovelly photo and footage there. 😀 Its a pity the Foxes dont come as much now but its good to have something than nothing 😉
Ukwildlife
12 May 2009Nice dragondly photo. Im up to 3 species of damselfly, but no dragonflies as yet (not adults anyway).
Words
12 May 2009Mark, thanks. I guess there's no way to predict how foxes will behave from one year to the next. they still show up, but generally late at night and they seems quite shy. I've lots of trail cam footage but haven't spent so much time trying to get photos. Maybe as the night air warms up I'll try a bit harder.
Words
12 May 2009Neil, thanks! 3 species of damsels is good going :up: Our garden pond should spring into life soon (given the number of nymphs we had), but nothing yet at my usual haunts.
sprogger
13 May 2009Great detail on those wings :up:
Words
13 May 2009Thanks Sprogger!
cakkleberrylane
14 May 2009You're getting some great footage with your trail cam! Our dragonflies are just coming out now too. We had a very late spring, so I guess we should have expected the dragonflies to be late too.
Words
14 May 2009The trail cam is good fun and was worth the hassle of actually finding somewhere in the UK that sells them! I can't wait for some decent sun to really start this year's dragonfly collection.
annoushkiss
16 May 2009We have the dragonfly season much later to begin, of course 🙂 I'm just looking forward to it!
Very nice macro you've got, so sharp. Can't watch the video at the moment, hope to be able tonight.
Words
16 May 2009Yes, dragonflies are wonderful to watch and great fun to photograph.
SittingFox
17 May 2009Beautiful chaser! I think that badger is going to take ownership of your garden soon 😉
Words
17 May 2009Haven't seen much of the badger since then (unfortunately), but no doubt it will be back at some point.