Murder from the Oriental Empress

Sorry this is going to be a fairly quick post this week as most of my creative juices over the last week or so seem to have been pumped into the FoHESC Blog, and the Save St Peters campaign. Not just creatively dry, but physically drained too, having shed blood sweat and tears on a number of far too physical projects down at the Hanson Centre (in some particularly sultry weather) whilst being transfusion vamped by the rampaging mosquitoes.

I do however have at least one interesting encounter with the pond side battle for survival to recount and hopefully also, a couple of snaps for the ToaBV faithful to enjoy.

On Sunday morning the weather was quite pleasant – sunny if not overly warm – and so I stationed myself near to a pond which had contained quite a few dragonflies the week before, in the hope of a good photo opportunity. If you have seen the FoHESCBlog you may remember the photo of the female Emperor Dragonfly ovipositing, whilst a Four-spotted Chaser hovered nearby, apparently curious, although I’m sure there was a more basic reason involved (food or sex usually covers it).

Anyway the lady in question was definitely for turning and turning ugly at that, as a whirling mass of odonata rattled past my head and alighted in the nearby grass. At first I thought they were mating, but the tiny but unmistakable sound of crunching combined with Mrs Emps jaw grip on the poor unfortunate 4-spots thorax (the head had been bitten off and can be seen on her lower wing) confirmed that dinner was served. Because there was quite a lot of grass around them, it was difficult to get a good, clear, picture but I hope these give a reasonable idea of the scene.

She's only gone an bitten is ead orf

Love Bite?

(At least vampires leave the heads on while they suck the goodness out)

Finally Mrs E got fed up with the paparazzi intruding on her lunch date and with the now diminishing 4-SC firmly clamped in her jaws, relocated beyond my reach. Back on the path however, was a male Black-tailed skimmer – the first I have seen so far this year in the masculine blue livery and very nice too.

Black-tailed skimmer

The knees were now starting to give out with standing for too long in one place, so I walked on round the reserve and was rewarded with these pictures of the Pyramidal Orchid (now a little further in bloom)

The flowers have opened out further since my last picture (see FoHESC Blog)

a Marbled White Butterfly

and A Large Skipper Butterfly.

My what a long proboscis you have

We seem to have Small and Large Skippers on the reserve at the moment (although I have to confess that I am not experienced enough to be totally confident of the differences - I did also think we had Essex Skippers but have since been corrected).

Finally, and with a bit of luck, the Common Terns might hoover up a few of the mosquitoes along with the flies they are catching over the water.

A good morning for all (well apart for one).

再見 for now.