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Friday 26 August 2011

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.


3 comments:

HowdonBlogger said...

Brian,

its just amazing to watch and I have now watched 3 this year, the shortest being just over 2hrs and the longest being about 6hrs. Where did you see this happen ?
With ref to your comment on Fungi searching unfortunately a little thing called work stops me. Ask John (Segedunum Warbler) he is a man of leisure nowadays and actually unlike me can tell the difference between a mushroom and a toadstool.

John
Howdon Blogger

Johnnykinson said...

The slideshow was excellent. Never fails to blow me away.
I remember last year seeing a female ovipositing there Brian and it spent most of the time i was watching it on the face of and on the legs of the boardwalk laying.

Northumbrian Birding said...

This was at Thornley I thought I had wrote that, yes the Female did spent time along the boardwalk not sure if it actually lays I could find no eggs, but when it found the log it did stay on it for a long time the wood being softer where it was rotten. Just had to get a shot with my compact when it settled on the path as the camera was fixed on the tripod.
Thanks Guys
Brian