Southern hawker

Another Saturday - another hawker dragonfly! Last Saturday I brought you a photograph of a migrant hawker. This Saturday a southern hawker kindly landed close to me and stayed long enough for a few captures.

The southern hawker Aeshna cyanea is very common in the southern part of the UK, and is usually encountered on its own, patrolling a favourable feeding or breeding area. This is a male, as it has bright green markings on its abdomen, becoming blue towards the end. Both female and male have bright green stripes on the thorax which distinguishes than from the migrant hawker, which has two small yellowish marks, as well as having much bluer markings on the abdomen.

The males are very inquisitive and this one came to have a good look at me, before the sun went in and it retreated to a nearby perch on a sallow bush. They most often breed in woodland ponds, lakes and canals and often visit gardens, because of their similarity to woodland clearings. We usually have one or two visit us each summer. They will fly until October and are one of the last dragonflies on the wing.