Early riser.

Spoonbill rising over Cresswell Pond early this morning before the sun broke through.

Is that a Hobby up there ?

Is that a Four-spot Chaser down there ?

Falco Subbuteo

With four others hawking over the Water Tower Pits, Dungeness, Kent.

One by one those beautiful wings drifted to earth.....

...and the predator continued to consume its' quarry,

The predator was a HAIRY DRAGONFLY its' quarry a BANDED DEMOISELLE.

Warren Baker, The Pittswood Birder, and i made our way to Westbere Lakes in Kent having spent a few hours at Stodmarsh, the highlight there being a flyover Osprey. Our main reason for visiting Westbere was to hopefully see a Scarce Chaser dragonfly something that would be a first for both of us. More of that in the next post. We hadn't been there too long when Warren called me over not far from an area where i had had good numbers of Banded Demoiselles last summer on my only previous visit to this site. He was frantically waving so i rushed over not having a chance to swop to my other camera with the 100mm macro lens already set up and ready to go but with my 300mm lens. A Hairy Dragonfly was munching away on a Banded Demoiselle and feelings of excitement, shock, horror and sadness all seemed to whirr through my mind at the same time.
As mentioned at the begining the Demoiselles wings came off as the Hairy chomped merrily on. Eventually all that wat left was the abdomen which disappeared like we would suck in that last strand of spaghetti that was poking out ! An incredible sight to witness.

Yes i know i could have done with more dof but i hadn't taken a "macro" image for some 6 months, that's my excuse anyway. For some more, and better, images of this amazing wildlife experience check out Warrens images on his blog HERE

You're so beautiful.

I'm in Kent house and pussy sitting and managed the first of my target species on Wednesday.
I've seen Banded Demoiselle in Northumberland and Durham but the Beautiful Demoiselle doesn't occur in our region so having seen one of the possible sites in Kent i decided to go for it. Warren Baker has a blog PITTSWOOD BIRDS and he describes his patch and sightings well. This was the place to find one hopefully so i set the satnav and off i drove. Turning off the A26 just before Tonbridge i headed up a stunning country lane and shortly after i spotted a gentleman sporting bins and a camera so pulled over and asked in my broad geordie accent (as reported elsewhere earlier !!!)" You don't happen to be the Pittswood Birder by any chance ?" "Yes" was the reply. Brilliant.
I explained that i was hoping to see a Beautiful Demoiselle and immediately he offered to show me around his patch and that with a bit of luck we might just get one. Talking me through the various habitats we passed through we eventually reached the "Scrubby Woods" where the Dems generally turned up. After 30 minutes or so doing a couple of circuits of the area which had lots of nettles, some of which were waist high, Warren spotted the quarry high in an oak tree. I took some images and enjoyed what views i was getting in my binoculars but Warren wanted me to see one close up. Another hour and quite a few more circuits and a heck of a lot more rashes we found one at shoulder height. What a fabulous creature.

MALE Beautiful Demoiselle

I would have struggled to find the "Scrubby Woods" never mind the Demoiselle if it hadn't have been for Warren and during our conversations i discovered that he had given up driving. I had planned to go to Westbere Lakes, a brilliant site in Kent for Dragonflies, next week but it turned out Warren was off to Wales on holiday on Saturday so i arranged to pick him up the following day so we could both head there to try and find the Scarce Chaser Dragonfly a species that would be another first for me and as it turned out for him. Fingers crossed we would get reasonable weather.