Last summer

I was going to blog about something completely different, but Lightroom has just been upgraded and I’ve been scrolling through some older images, making sure they have “beamed up” properly. I seem to have missed an awful lot of bugs from last year. So here is a quick tour of just one day from the summer of 2021.

Featured at the top is still one of my favourite damselfly photographs. Taken towards the back of a huge meadow in my local country park, I struggled to focus on this male banded demoiselle in a stiff breeze. I didn’t think I had been successful until I got home and not only did I have a sharp image, but if you look closely, you can see a tiny spider hiding near the bottom. The demoiselles are more nervous than other damselflies, but if you are lucky enough to creep up on a freshly emerged individual (like this one), the rewards are worth all the trouble.

The demoiselle was the last bug I photographed that day. On arrival (and only yards from the car park), I was lucky enough to spot this lovely male violet black-legged robberfly with a captive weevil. I did see quite a few in the same area this year, but couldn’t get close enough.

In the same location, I also found a colourful orb weaver spider making a new web at record speed.

A pair of white-legged damselflies. They are seldom seen in numbers reaching double figures, but I know where to find them in the hundreds. I contacted the British Dragonfly Society about them earlier this year, as they have been encouraging people to submit counts since 2018 – White-legged damselfly investigation. Sadly, they were too busy to send a local expert, but having spoken to the manager of the park, I’m confident the wildlife on site is being well cared for.

One of the plentiful mayflies.

Two individuals of the violet form of blue-tailed damselfly. The second one is newly emerged.

And last, but not least, an orange form of blue-tailed damselfly.