The kindness of strangers

The interweb is a great place to find information. Some of it hidden away like the file name of a photo that revealed the location of some apparently obliging dragonflies. On Sunday I went to look for the pool and found it easily enough. The guy with the camera on a tripod pointing at a plant was a give away. Two others were pointing their cameras at vegetation too. The pond was so small there wasn't much space for me! I soon spotted something, got my camera from the car and set about staking a male ruddy darter - the first I'd ever seen. Quite obliging it was. In short order it had my macro lens in its face.

Although that was something I had hoped to see and photograph what I really wanted to get a shot of was a southern hawker. The ones I'd seen elsewhere were not in the habit of settling. I was assured they did so at this location. When the sun was shining and really quite warm they were hawking round the pond, inspecting the human intruders into their domain and chasing each other. When a cloud passed in front of the sun they disappeared. The original couple with cameras were replaced by another pair, and one of them soon spotted a resting hawker. Obviously more attuned to their habits than I. Southern hawkers perch closer to the ground than I had expected. Brown hawkers seem to perch higher, head high or above and I expected the southern hawkers to do likewise, but they were all alighting around knee level. Eyes down for a full viewfinder.

After he had taken a few shots of the first hawker to be spotted the original photographer on the scene let me have a go. The insect was completely unperturbed by our attentions.



After this yet another photographer arrived. Making it three grey-bearded men poking camera lenses in the faces of insects. Only one of them being daft enough to lay on the damp ground exposing his bare arms to the nettles...

One of the blokes pointed out some shield bugs. There were a lot of them about, and different species too. When you get a real macro view of them they are intriguing little bugs well worth seeking out with a camera.

There being only so many ways to photograph a perching southern hawker, and with my mission achieved, I headed on over to the nearby nature reserve where I fully intended to cough up the fee to use their hides. However, hardly had I crossed the car park towards the visitor centre than my Tourettes kicked in and I began mumbling obscenities to myself. There's something about clean walking boots, spotting scopes and Berghaus jackets that raises my bile. I availed myself of the toilet facilities, thumbed through a few books in the shop so I could choose which to buy off Amazon, and left.

Rather than hang around I took a very scenic route home, stopping off in a pay-and-display (without paying or displaying) to listen to the final overs of the one day cricket international. Then it was home to stick my pics on the screen and see what I'd got.

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