Southern Hawker ... Emerging

Southern Hawker caught at the time of emergence when it turns from Larvae to Dragonfly the process took most of the day and it was still not complete when I left several hours later, it was rather cool in its chosen spot despite the pleasant and sunny day ,fascinating to watch this must be one of the sources of those alien movies as their back splits and the transformation begins .

Also witnessed the patrolling of up to three males ,a female egg laying, also the brief visit of Common and Migrant Hawker, with a good number of Speckled Wood ,with at one point four spiralling up chasing each other     

 At first it just hung there for some time ,but now you can just see the back is beginning to split open.

 It hung upside down for some time and at one stage I thought it had died ,but suddenly it had swung up and I had missed it.

 The wings are slowly pumped up ,but you can actually see them enlarge.

 Veins starting to show and also the wing spots called Pterostigma

The Female looks for a suitable place to lay it's eggs ,even trying the boardwalk below , till it eventually finds this rotting log in the pool where it remained for an hour or more.

Pond Skater  comes across a Moth that tried to settle on the water

I have linked some shots together to make a slide show of the process ,a bit of a breeze so it has moved at times.