My Garden Pond - Broad-bodied Chasers

After seeing a female Broad-bodied Chaser emerge in the garden on 7th May, I haven't seen any more of this species! That is until today... with a male and female flying about...

Here's the female which I suspect (hope) had been laying eggs but it was very stand offish and soon hopped the fence into next door!

The male was very obliging however!

Posing for various angles amongst the pond Iris plants...

A cleaner background always helps...

Wonder if I'll get anything else interesting over the pond this year?

My Garden Pond - Broad-bodied Chaser

My second species of Odonata to emerge in the garden, a teneral male Broad-bodied Chaser which was spooked as I was doing a spot of weeding!

Sadly, I'd missed the emergence in the pond and its probable maiden flight then ended up on the garage wall! The images are in chronological order over an hour... 

The wings harden and colours deepen although its quite subtle!

Both sexes have a similar appearance at this stage but the relatively narrow body and appendages point to a male

There's a few more species to come!

My Garden Pond - Large Red damselflies

I haven't been looking at the pond for quite a while but checked this afternoon for Damsels? There were four teneral Large Red Damselflies including a male and female close enough for the camera...

Here's the male, note the slim abdomen...

A female forma typica amongst the Aubrieta flowers

Same Damsel offering a nice close up!

I'm sure there will be more soon!!

My Garden Pond - White-legged Damselfly

I was just sunning myself in the heat of the afternoon when the flutter of wings of a Damselfly caught my eye... It came to rest next to #MyGardenPool and eventually I relocated after fetching the camera and managed a few shots, clearly a pale immature insect and I knew at a glance it wasn't a garden resident - it was a White-legged Damselfly. Probably having made its maiden flight from the Rea Brook which is one 600m or so down the road...

Difficult to sex but in view of what appear to be claspers, a (probable) immature male...

This close up shows the bristly hairs on the legs which are used to grasp prey...

And a new species for the pond!

My Garden Pond - Azure Damselfly

Lockdown has meant I'm spending a lot of time in the garden! In fact there once was a time when it was my 100% passion... However, even with Birding now dominating my 'normal' year, I have an equally compulsive passion - Odonata. Dragonflies and Damselflies, so #MyGardenPond gets the once over every day...

Let's see how many species come my way this year. I've only ever recorded 6 species at the pond which I hardly ever watch normally!

Today, my first 'visitor' unless it sneaked out of the pond, was a pair of Azure Damselflies...

The male - easily recognised by the U shaped mark on segment 2 and bow tie on segment 9...

And here's his good lady, ahem... enjoying a ride 'in tandem'

And making the most of the effort by laying her eggs on submerged vegetation...

A close up of the female, overall green coloration with extensive black on the abdomen and of course the abdomen where the green antehumeral stripes are narrow...

And if you are wondering what the heck segment 2 or 9, antehumeral stripes, thorax and abdomen is all about? You need to check out my Hobby Good Food Guide.