The first of the year for me: a Large Red Damselfly in the far garden this morning. If you’ve been following my pointless ramblings for any length of time you’ll know that damsel and dragonflies hold a special place in my heart – which accordingly lifted when I spotted the shimmering movement as he flew past me. I was on my way to the compost heap at the time, having been gardening (eeeurgh), and didn’t have a camera with me, but luckily he landed with his breakfast, and was still there by the time I got back after scuttling to the house to fetch the macro. I’ve been back several times since to what I should really now be calling the wilderness garden – because over the past fortnight the weeds have run so rampant that you could quite easily get lost down there – but I haven’t seen him again. Odonata are pretty territorial though, so provided he escapes being predated himself, he’ll be back.
I’m now thinking about a trip to the water meadow in Warwickshire where all the Banded Demoiselles hang out; but it’s quite an isolated spot and I’m feeling a bit girly, so I’m going to try to sweet-talk R into coming along as my bag carrier and bodyguard. I’ll let you know how that pans out.
