Just a short walk from my house is a small woodland which I walk passed daily and on this occasion I disturbed a Dragonfly which was resting in a Buddleia bush, after waiting for a couple of minutes it came to rest again so I could get a photo. It turned out to be a Southern Hawker.
There is no water within half a mile of this wood!!
This is not my first visit to this park, I visited this park a couple of years ago but never recorded it. It as a main pool which is where everybody goes too to feed the ducks, there are some Dragons here but always to far away to photo. Down in the woods there is an area which is called The Oriental Garden were there are a couple of small ponds which are always good for Dragons.
After a coffee in the cafe I went straight down to the garden to check out the pools where I found plenty of Azures and Large Red Damsels, some in tandem and ovipositing.
On a small stream running between the large pond and the small ponds were a couple of Beautiful Demoiselles plus a couple of Golden-ringed Dragons hunting.
On the large pond there was a single male Broad-bodied Chaser and a female Emperor ovipositing.
So quite a good day out.
My first visit to this site for this year, it was very hot and with no shelter so did not stay for long. There was not a lot of Dragons on the wing with only one male Emperor and one male Black-tailed Skimmer near the pool and a few Blue-tailed Damsels in the bank-side vegetation.
May call back again later in the year when its a bit cooler.
