It feels like an age since I last posted but what felt like a long winter is finally over. With a few reports of Large Red Damselfly appearing over the past few days, I was keen to see whether any had emerged locally and with some rare warm sunshine today, I was dropped off at a warm Westbere at 11:00. I spent a good few hours walking around in glorious weather and managed to find 21 Large Red Damselfly and 13 Variable Damselfly. It felt like I had to remember how to photograph these mini marvels and it wasn't long until the macro was on and I was in stealth mode and taking a good few shots. I ..read more

Another year seems to have nearly passed by in the blink of an eye so I thought I would look back through some of my shots this year and post a few favourites. A good year for me seeing a number of species including over 400 Willow Emerald Damselfly seen at Nethergong, 70 Norfolk Hawker seen in the Stour Valley, c15 Lesser Emperor Dragonfly seen in west Kent, 5 Golden ringed Dragonfly at a small stream in west Kent and nice to see the Dainty Damselfly holding its own at a few sites in Kent. Add to this a good  range of other dragonflies and damselflies seen and looking back, it wasn't a b ..read more

With some sunshine mid morning today but clouds starting to build up, I thought I'd  have a quick walk around some of the sunny sheltered areas at Nethergong to see whether any dragonflies or damselflies were still on the wing. I spent an hour searching where I managed to find 4 Willow Emerald Damselfly and 2 Common Darter. I'm sure there would have been more to be found if I had longer to look. With some lovely autumnal colours now on the leaves, these made for a beautiful setting to the shots and some lovely backgrounds. It was slightly more awkward trying to get a clear shot without an ..read more

With the weather feeling quite hot over the weekend, I thought I would spend a couple of hours yesterday looking to see what dragonflies and damselflies were still on the wing at Nethergong. With the trees and bushes starting to show the colours of autumn and leaves starting to fall, a few Common Darters were enjoying the sunshine on the floor and were quite hard to pick out unless you accidently flushed them. A single Southern Hawker was seen patrolling low through the trees. Migrant Hawkers were still around and enjoying the number of small flies on the wing but most of my attention was spen ..read more

A few weeks ago a few Southern Emerald Damselfly were found at a new site at Seasalter in North Kent and being a nationally rare damselfly, I was keen to have a visit and see them for myself. Yesterday I met up with Mark Chidwick who watches this area and we were able to find 2 Southern Emerald Damselfly, a male and a female which were in a suitable area where they may possibly breed or indeed may have already bred last year. This however we do not know and it is hoped that they may have already mated and egg layed in the pool which has now completely dried up but fills with water during the w ..read more

I had noticed looking back through my notes that around this time last year, I photographed Brown Hawker ovipositing into decaying wooden sticks in the stream at Nethergong. Despite having dipped for nymphs over the years, I have only ever once caught a Brown Hawker nymph. I decided to hatch a plan whereby I would put a few pieces of wood in the stream with a view that if Brown Hawkers egg layed in them, I would be able to take one back home to my pond where hopefully they would emerge in the next couple of years. In this way, I would be able to study this species better and hopefully watch a ..read more

With sun forecast until lunchtime today and quite light winds, I made a visit over to Oare Marshes where I hoped to find and photograph the Southern Migrant Hawkers that had been seen there a few days earlier. On arrival at 10am, the sun was shining and I made my way over to the west flood ditches. I had been told that they were quite overgrown and this was the case as the paths could barely be seen. Getting down to the waters edge was also overgrown and if it wasn't for where the cattle had been down to drink and had flattened some vegetation, I think I would have struggled to see what was th ..read more

With sunshine forecast today but strong winds, I was desperate to try and see my first Willow Emerald Damselflies of the year at Nethergong, a highlight that I look forward to every year. I initially checked a few areas that normally deliver but with the wind ripping through the area, I had no luck so continued on until I found a nice sunny sheltered area. It wasn't long until I was watching the first of c40 Willow Emerald Damselfly rising from the emergent vegetation and perching up which allowed me to get a number of early season photos of one of my favourite species. They really are a stunn ..read more

With the Golden ringed Dragonfly being reported from a site in west Kent earlier in the week, I thought I would make the 45 minute drive to the location to see whether I could see any and hopefully a photo or two. This is a scarce species to see in Kent with only a few sites where they can be seen. With the forecast for sun, warm temperatures but becoming overcast, it looked like good conditions to see them in so after arriving at the site around 10:30am, I spent a few minutes watching from the bridge which overlooks the small stream. Almost immediately, I saw the first of 5 Golden ringed Drag ..read more

A visit last Saturday afternoon to Grove Ferry, ideally to capture Norfolk Hawkers in flight didn't quite go to plan as I couldn't really find a suitable individual that would hover and stay still long enough for a few photos. However all was not lost as I found a few perched up and after a bit of moving in slowly, a few images were obtained. I probably saw about 20 Norfolk Hawker in just over an hour. There were also a few Emperor Dragonfly, Hairy Dragonfly, Small Red eyed Damselfly, Red eyed Damselfly, Blue tailed Damselfly and plenty of Azure Damselfly. A few Four spotted Chaser and Black t ..read more