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Dragonflies & Damselflies Page 31

Image Taken on 21 Aug 2013 at 13:37    Image of day on 14 Oct 2013

Photographing dragonflies in flight outdoors is very hit and miss. Lock the camera focus at 2 or 3 meters, lock shutter and aperture (camera Manual mode), about 135mm lens, point the camera at the darting little creature and hold down shutter on 'repeat' whenever you are pointed in roughly the right direction and distance. We get about a 1% useable rate but it is fun trying!


Ref: 20131014_df1_20130821_1337_789 southern hawker dragonfly male in flight 2 of 4 (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 08 Aug 2022 at 12:25    Image of day on 23 Sep 2022

Detail from the 3rd from the right montage above.


Ref: 20220923_d72_20220808_1225_264 southern hawker dragonfly male in flight 3 of 6 (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg


Image Taken on 01 Sep 2014 at 16:15    Image of day on 12 Nov 2014

Hawker Dragonflies can basically fly in any direction they want. This Southern Hawker one was dropping down at about 45 degrees under perfect control. Accurate montage at 7 fps


Ref: 20141112_df2_20140901_1615_002-005 southern hawker dragonfly male in flight @ 7fps 1-4 of 4 (accurate montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 27 Aug 2013 at 12:45    Image of day on 26 Oct 2013

This male Southern Hawker Dragonfly photographed at 7 fps was hovering and drifting slightly left over the duckweed. So imagine the head just moving left at the same height.


Ref: 20131026_df1_20130827_1245_446-448 southern hawker dragonfly male in flight at 7 fps 1-3 of 3 (spread montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 22 Aug 2015 at 12:12    Image of day on 21 Oct 2015

This is a male Southern Hawker viewed from below (i.e. flying vertically upwards). They often perch in a sun-warmed Blackberry hedge to warm up before starting their patrols over the ponds.


Ref: 20151021_da1_20150822_1212_201+1326_345_ft1 southern hawker dragonfly male in flight from below + blackberry leaves (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 29 Sep 2011 at 15:14    Image of day on 12 Nov 2011

After initially fighting at one pond, two unexpectedly pristine (for late in the season) male Southern Hawker dragonflies settled to patrolling one pond each for hours on end for a few days - lovely to watch. We brought one of them in for a little photo-shoot.


Ref: 20111112_da1_20110929_1514_310+1450_253_ft1 southern hawker dragonfly male in flight with autumn hawthorn leaves (montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg


Image Taken on 08 Aug 2010 at 15:05    Image of day on 25 Sep 2010

This Southern Hawker dragonfly landed on a Cypreses (from which this frond was cut) in a small cloud of pollen. We brought it in for a few pics in flight, of which this actually has the whole insect in view. One of the 4 wings is pointing straight at the camera - a useful illustration of the total independence of each wing in flight.


Ref: 20100925_da1_20100808_1505_067+1601_154_ft1 southern hawker dragonfly male in flight with conifer frond it landed on (montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg


Image Taken on 06 Aug 2009 at 11:15    Image of day on 14 Sep 2009

This is a male Southern Hawker Dragonfly which has become a regular summer visitor in the last few years. We finally managed to net this one for some portraits. The first image was taken in our flying insect setup.


Ref: 20090914_da1_20090806_1115_068+1123_085_ft1 southern hawker dragonfly male in flight with hawthorn (montage)(r+mb id@576).jpg


Image Taken on 19 Aug 2012 at 14:46    Image of day on 26 Sep 2012

This large & colourful male Southern Hawker dragonfly was quite accommodating for the few minutes before we released him to carry on guarding the main pond as his territory - i.e. looking for 'girls'.


Ref: 20120926_da1_20120819_1446_312+1516_402_ft1 southern hawker dragonfly male in flight with hedging (montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg


Image Taken on 17 Sep 2010 at 13:39    Image of day on 04 Nov 2010

Hardly a nick in the wing of this beauty despite being almost at the end of his life.


Ref: 20101104_da1_20100917_1339_077+20100912_1444_080_ft1 southern hawker dragonfly male in flight with teasel head (montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg


Image Taken on 01 Sep 2014 at 16:18    Image of day on 12 Nov 2014

This male Southern Hawker dragonfly seemed at the time to be stationary, but over the 22 frames of which this is the first and last, he rose about 1 body length during the 3 seconds.


Ref: 20141112_df2_20140901_1618_051+072 southern hawker dragonfly male in slow rising hover over pond @ 7fps 01+22 of 22 (accurate montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 27 Aug 2006 at 18:04    Image of day on 07 Sep 2006

This beautiful Male Southern Hawker Dragonfly was in a sycamore tree glowing in a pool of sunlight. Note the tracery of its wings shadowed on the tree bark.


Ref: 20060907_p32_20060827_1804_906 southern hawker dragonfly male in sycamore tree(r+mb id@576).jpg


Image Taken on 02 Sep 2011 at 12:14    Image of day on 18 Oct 2011

As the sun went behind cloud this male southern hawker dragonfly ceased his patrolling and literally hung himself up inside a pond-side bush. We could only find him because we saw him fly in.


Ref: 20111018_df1_20110902_1214_022 southern hawker dragonfly male inside bush hanging from twig (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg


Image Taken on 31 Aug 2009 at 18:05    Image of day on 07 Oct 2009

A warm wind with intermittent sun brought out a wonderful show of dragonflies including at least a dozen of these beauties over the hedges, ponds and along the paths. Near the end of the day this one perched on a sequence of dead weed stems and finally stayed on this one. It was still there 10 minutes later when we left it in peace.


Ref: 20091007_db1_20090831_1805_080 southern hawker dragonfly male on desiccated hogweed stem (web crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 28 Sep 2008 at 14:54    Image of day on 17 Oct 2008

On the last of the recent warm days this beauty was still on the wing. We last showed you some indoor shots on 5 September - these are a more natural (if technically more limited) views,


Ref: 20081017_da1_20080928_1454_002 southern hawker dragonfly male on hawthorn (web crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg


Image Taken on 28 Sep 2008 at 14:56    Image of day on 17 Oct 2008




Ref: 20081017_da1_20080928_1456_064 southern hawker dragonfly male on hawthorn side view of upper body (web crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg


Image Taken on 06 Sep 2015 at 12:36    Image of day on 04 Nov 2015

A bit of sunshine and air temperature of about 19C or more bring out the Dragonflies. This male Southern Hawker was warming itself on a hedge.


Ref: 20151104_df3_20150906_1236_005 southern hawker dragonfly male on hedge(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 05 Oct 2016 at 16:06    Image of day on 19 Nov 2016

A southern Hawker Dragonfly landed in a woodpile and was quite hard to locate. Here he is mostly hidden and given us an unusual view of the underbody.
If you have an interest in the underneath of Dragonflies you will find some moderate quality normal light views as part of our Ultraviolet survey (over 50 insects over 10 pages).
The insects are not dead - just chilled to calm them, and flew off once warmed up.
In the Section Index you will also find plants and moths, butterflies, other insects and (surprise!) moorhen, plus links to technical details of the work and the paper produced by Wendy Harris on the results of the Dragonfly work of which we are secondary authors.



Ref: 20161119_df3_20161005_1606_085 southern hawker dragonfly male partly hidden perched on twig(r+mb id@576).jpg


Image Taken on 18 Aug 2021 at 16:10    Image of day on 25 Sep 2021

Glistening in the afternoon sunshine, this male Southern Hawker Dragonfly warms himself in the fitful sunshine


Ref: 20210925_d73_20210818_1610_214 southern hawker dragonfly male perched in hedge(r+mb id@1024).jpg


Image Taken on 19 Aug 2018 at 15:22    Image of day on 11 Oct 2018

This beauty is a male Southern Hawker Dragonfly stopped to warm up in the fitful sunshine.


Ref: 20181011_df3_20180819_1522_185 southern hawker dragonfly male perched in hedge(r+mb id@768).jpg


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