UK Wildlife Blog

crockford bridge dragonflies

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While in the New Forest we visited the well know dragonfly and damselfly site at Crockford Bridge. This site is well known as one of the best places to see the rare southern damselfly, but September is too late in the year to see this species (see here). On my first visit it was cloudy and a bit breezy, and I did not even see a common darter. All there was of interest was the large species of pond skater

I tried again on the last day of the New Forest trip, when the sun was out and the wind not so bad. There were many common darters about, and a couple of southern hawkers were flying over the ponds south of Crockford Stream, but all my photos came out over exposed or out of focus. Looking around the stream I also spotted a keeled skimmer, which kept landing out of camera range over a bog! But then I spotted my target species, a golden ringed dragonflyAFter a quick pass it just sat a posed for me, taking flight briefly before posing again a few times

And finally a southern hawker decided to pose, abeit at an awkward angle under a bush!

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Comments

L2D2 Sunday, September 20, 2009 5:38:57 PM

so pretty, these dragon and damselflies. I still call the dragon flies Snake Doctors, the name we had for them as a child.

ERWINWulpen Sunday, September 20, 2009 6:24:37 PM

Nice shots

RobinRobinL Sunday, September 20, 2009 11:34:03 PM

Oooo, nice dragon shots! The striders look to be quite big. Interesting shot, with the insects and the reflections!

EricCedarFox Monday, September 21, 2009 3:28:49 AM

Great shots! smile I need to get a new lens, the one I have now is too slow with AF to get dragon flies before they take off.

NeilUkwildlife Monday, September 21, 2009 8:12:21 PM

Thanks everyone.

Something I meant to mention is the golden ringed is joint longest dragonfly in the UK (the other being the emperor dragonfly)

Adele BrandSittingFox Tuesday, September 22, 2009 6:55:33 PM

Excellent!

Words Saturday, September 26, 2009 11:38:37 PM

The skaters are quite eye-catching when grouped like that. And you have such a great variety of dragonflies. I rarely see anything but darters at the moment. Nice pictures up

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