Whereas my month of May was taken over by butterflies, June has gotten off to a distinctly dragonfly-focussed start. This is a Red-veined Darter, a predominantly Mediterranean species which irrupts northwards every few years and has suddenly appeared in several of our city parks. Today, I found at least ten different species on my regular patch, plus a possible Lesser Emperor which got away before I could be sure of the identification.
The unusually numerous Scarce Chasers, on the other hand, were showing extremely well. There were also several Norfolk Hawkers, which were constantly flying and rarely perching although I did eventually manage to get a picture of one of these 'green-eyed cigars'.
