I had to go to Stratford early this morning, for a routine breast scan. R drove me there, and afterwards we went to BTP for coffee and cake. After a quick detour into Waterstones to look at children’s books we headed for the river, and I walked along the south side in search of wildlife, while R stopped at the Warwickshire Firefighters’ Memorial to listen to the busker who so entranced the Boy Wonder on Thursday.
By this stage of the season I expect the area around Lucy’s Mill Bridge to be busy with Migrant Hawkers, but so far at least this year has been a poor one for them. Because this is always the last of the dragonflies to emerge here, I rely on Migrant Hawker sightings to carry me through the last dragon days the year, and I’m struggling not to take their absence personally. Today it took me about ten minutes to find this one lone male, who was patrolling a small area north east of the bridge, and having no luck at all in finding either a potential rival or a potential mate.
I’ve always wanted to capture a photo of a dragon flying directly below me, and while this isn’t quite the image in my mind, it’s close enough for jazz. This, coupled with the fact that the Hawker was flying over water at the time rather than reeds, giving a plain, dark background to the shot, makes it my best and favourite photo of the day.
