Today dawned cloudless and still, and by mid-day it had become hot. What a differance it made to the garden. Suddenly, the californian poppies, wild clary and foxgloves were all starting to bloom, whilst in the meadow strip lots of germander speedwell was beginning to give a beautiful show of blue beneath the hedge.
But the pond! I couldn't believe the change! Suddenly, everything erupted into life with damselflies fluttering around the grassy margins and over the water crowfoot in tandom, dipping their delicate tails in the water to lay eggs. As you can see, most of these were large red damselflies. The first photo is of a pair in a "copulation wheel" where the male passes sperm to it's mate.
Later on in the day, a stunning pair of broad-bodied chasers flew over and we managed to photograph the female as she rested on the washing line.
But the excitment was only beginning. All day we'd noticed that some of the dragonfly larvae had been particularly active, crawling all around the edges of the pond. At 5.30am the next morning, Suesie woke me to say she'd found that two larvae had crawled from the pond onto the sedges and grasses on the bank. Alas, I had to leave for work soon after, but Suesie was able to watch entranced, as two beautiful female chasers emerged and took their first flight.