Last week, I tried some dragonfly photography at my Brussels patch. There has been a big influx of Migrant Hawkers, with at least twenty of them present but they don't often sit still long enough for a photo like this one did. I had often wondered about the Dutch name, which translates as horse-biter, and, sure enough, lots of them seemed to be hanging around the two horses there. They are not equivorous, however, but just feeding on smaller insects attracted by the horses. This Ruddy Darter also posed nicely amongst the reeds.
Best of all, though, was this scarce, female Southern Hawker, which I've only seen a few times before and was ovipositing along the edge of one of the ponds. There were also a couple of males present but they were constantly patrolling and thus impossible to photograph.
