Common Darters - Up Close

I had a play around yesterday with some macro shots of Common Darter dragonflies. It is amazing watching them catching flies in mid air. On the second picture you can see it is holding it's freshly caught prey. It must be pleased with itself, as it has such a lovely smile.

Spanish Insects

I have just spent eight days in Mallorca intensively photographing birds and anything else wild that appeared before the camera with my good friend Rich.
We had hoped for an assortment of migrant birds, which should have been in abundance. There were however, very few. The weather was very warm and clear so possibly the migrants were passing straight over the island. There was still plenty to photograph though and not one hours sunlight was wasted.  With many thousands of bird images to sort through, I thought I would get the few insect shots I took out of the way first. 

A couple of Dragonflies starting with a Red-veined Darter

A female Black-tailed Skimmer

A pair of mating Blue-tailed Damselflies

The impressively large Swallowtail Butterfly

It was shame this tiny Green Hairstreak Butterfly had damaged wings.

Dragonflies

I'm sorting through images from earlier in the year and found some Dragonflies taken in the Summer. I usually spend quite a bit of time each year photographing Dragonflies and Damselflies but didn't seem to manage it this year, I think probably down to the poor weather in late Summer.

Southern Hawker

Black-tailed Skimmer

Broad-bodied Chaser

Broad-bodied Chaser

Common Darter