Scarce Chasers still scarce

As ever, there were loads of Banded Demoiselles at Roxton this morning.

But only a handful of Scarce Chasers were to be seen

Four-spotted Chaser

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Scarce Chaser? Too right...

Made my annual pilgrimage to Roxton today in search of Scarce Chasers, but they were nowhere to be seen (despite being out and about at Woodwalton Fen, not that far away)!

Banded Demoiselles

Red-eyed Damselfly (I think)

Seven-spot Ladybird

the River Great Ouse

Hawthorn and Ash

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM or Canon Powershot A640

They're not orange anymore

Another visit to the banks of the Great Ouse at Roxton. I nearly didn't go because it looked like it was about to rain. But...



Male Scarce Chaser


Female Scarce Chaser
(Well, there's only a little bit of orange on some of the females now)






Banded Demoiselles were frolicking everywhere

Along with

Blue-tailed Damselflies


Common Blue Damselflies


and a White-legged Damselfly


While butterflies included this Large Skipper


Painted Lady (a worn adult, from north Africa)


and Small Tortoiseshell


There were quite a few Harlequin Ladybirds getting busy, too...


Good to see this family still stands at a total of nine cygnets


Compared to the last couple of times I've been there this year, Scarce Chasers have now become harder to find. They're not orange anymore, and they weren't perching quite so prominently. Maybe they're busy with other things...

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM, Extender EF 1.4x II or Canon Powershot A640

Riverside

Scarce Chasers




Banded Demoiselles


Hairy Dragonflies mating


Mute Swan with nine cygnets!
Went back to Roxton today, in search of Scarce Chasers. I had rather grand plans to walk further south along the river, but in the end we walked about a mile in total!
It was very successful, however; the total number of Scarce Chasers seen was 45! All were orange (i.e. no mature males, which are bluish); females are supposed to have more black on their wingtips but I'm not sure how reliable that is.
We also bumped into a few Hairy Dragonflies, including two mating, plus Azure, Common Blue, Blue-tailed and Red-eyed Damselflies, and loads of Banded Demoiselles. And a family of Mute Swans with nine cygnets, which seemed a lot (BTO BirdFacts says 4-7 eggs, but 12 have been recorded).
photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Mosquito hawks and others

Four-spotted Chaser in poor repair

Male Banded Demoiselle, straying to The Lodge from the Ivel

Bees

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Dragonfest

I thought a stroll by the River Great Ouse at Roxton might be nice this morning. It certainly was...





Banded Demoiselles are probably my favourite insects. If I had to choose one species to watch all year, it would be this one.

I can remember seeing them for the first time along the River Nene when I was a kid, but I couldn't work out what the funny black-green-blue butterfly fluttering along the water's surface was. It all makes sense now...

They're beautiful, graceful, common, easy to photograph - but then they do things like this:

female demoiselle eating mayfly

There were a few other insects out and about, too:

Scarce Chaser: so scarce you have to have a license to handle them. We saw 20 today (and 250+ Banded Demoiselles) in less than a kilometre of riverbank vegetation

Hairy Dragonfly

White-legged Damselfly

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM. They didn't look this dark in Photoshop...