I’ve got far too much to do at the moment to be wasting my time on dragon hunts. On the other hand, it’s going to be a long, Odonata-deprived winter, and the season could end any day now. So. Clear my desk, cut the grass, or go to Stratford after Migrant Hawkers…? Not much contest, really, when you put it like that.
So, here I was yet again, standing on the river bank at Lucy’s Mill, hoping that despite the dodgy light and a distinct feel of autumn in the air, some dragons would decide to play nicely quite soon. I already had a lot of images on camera, but I knew even without checking through them that none were much different to photos I’d already taken over the past couple of weeks, and was what I really wanted was… something else. At this point I decided to move, and because my position, right on the edge of the bank, with nettles and brambles underfoot, was almost custom-designed to induce a quick trip into the river, I glanced downwards to be sure that I wasn’t about to do something foolish. And there she was, clinging to a dead stem at about rib height, no more than two feet in front of me: a female Willow Emerald Damselfly.
These large damsels are pretty assertive, but still, it beggars belief that she would have flown in and landed so close while I was standing there. But if she didn’t, it would mean that she was already there when I arrived, and held to her perch while I walked up and stood within touching distance of her, which seems equally unlikely. Whatever, there she was, and there she stayed (quite possibly mentally rolling her eyes) while I edged backwards a few inches at a time, until I finally reached the minimum focus distance of my lens and was able to start photographing her. By the time I’d worked out the right distance and angle to get her sharp from frons to ovipositor she was probably bored to tears, but it was only after I finally thanked her and stepped right back that she left this stem, moved out over the river, and selected a new perch in the reed bed.
This is only the second Willow Emerald Damselfly I’ve recorded at Lucy’s Mill, though there have been several occasions recently when I’ve been thought that I’d half seen one, only to lose track of it immediately against toning foliage. In fact I was pretty sure there was a second individual floating around this afternoon, but once again I lost it before I could be sure. The fact that this female was presenting herself so obviously at the water suggests she was looking for a partner to fertilise a batch of eggs, so I hope I was right, and before the afternoon was out she found, or was found by, a suitable mate.
