Willow Emerald Damselfly
Lestes viridis
After the success A Few days ago at finding c80 Willow Emerald Damselfly at Nethergong, I wanted to return to see How Many others HAD Emerged and continued my study of this damselfly. Given I Had Myself a pair of targets for this session, Was one to photograph a Willow Emerald Damselfly at sunrise and l'autre Was to try to find a Willow Emerald Damselfly nymph That I Could put in my tank to photograph. I Was up early at 4.30am Where thankfully after-getting ready and checking the weather forecast, I Was off out of the house and driving over to Nethergong. The forecast suggéré clear skies early on with cloud building up so pleased I Was When I arrived to see quite clear skies to the east. The great thing about this site Being a campsite Is That You can drive around in the car and as I Had quite a bit of equipment with me today Including camera, tripod, net and tank etc, I made The Most cette and parked quite near to Where I needed to be. I did not-have to walk far and I Was confident I would be ble to find Willow Emerald Damselflies Some roosting and This Was the box as I soon found one resting nicely and set up the tripod and camera in preparation for sunrise. At around 5.15am the sky started to turn orange and red as the sun Prepared to Rise And Then A Few minutes later, the sun Appeared and I Began Taking a number of images.
Willow Emerald Damselfly (male) at Sunrise
There arent Many times I find better than photographing at dawn When no one is around and all you can see and hear is kind. Spider webs shimmer with early morning dew and the sound of buzzing wings in the fat Can Be Heard as the damselflies prepared to dry Their wings. Its just a magical time of the day and I never pulls of getting up early for Such a session, HOWEVER I do get tired later on in the day! After Taking a number of pictures I Decided to put the camera away and go for a walk along the waters edge to see what Could Be found. I Spent the next couples of hours searching the reeds for fat and damselflies and ended up seeing c30 Willow Emerald Damselfly , Many HAVING just Emerged and c30 Emerald Damselfly. I found aussi c15 Willow Emerald Damselfly exuviae. There must-have-been over 100 Easily Emerged in the past FEW days and I hope many more will continue to emerge. To end the session, I Decided to-have a go at 'stream' dipping 'to see if I Could find and Willow Emerald Damselfly nymphs. The stream is mostly covered in floating weed and it Was Easier To drag Reviews some of this in with the net and have a look. After only the second Attempt I struck lucky and found a nymph, the first I have caught. Reviews This was put in the tank with plenty of weed and will be photographed in the next day or so at home Where if I am really lucky and keep checking, I May-even witness the emergence and photograph. A superb session once again with A Few quality pictures taken. Hopefully I will return in A Few days time again for some more action.
Willow Emerald Damselfly (male) at Sunrise
Mark Heath