Keepers Pond

As I had the day to myself and inspired by our lack of success in photographing insects at Potteric Carr yesterday evening, I decided that I might take myself and camera to the `keepers pond' in the parkland of Wentworth Castle Gardens.  I found a really good place for damselflies and sat down to wait.  I began with my 105 macro but quickly swopped to my 70-300mm Canon with which I got much better results.  Then feeling a bit peckish I walked down to the Strafford Arms for lunch (I haven't been down there for several years), enjoyed my sandwich and then struggled with the heat as I made my way back uphill.  I made a detour into The Serpentine but there wasn't a lot of evidence of damsel/ dragonfly activity.  Still it was cooler under the trees so was a pleasant respite.  The parkland is beautiful at the moment as the grass is quite long and the seed-heads are really attractive, especially with the sun on them.  There were quite a lot of butterflies among the grasses - Ringlets and Skippers and then Meadow Browns and Small Tortoiseshell on the thistles.  I did stop at my spot at Keepers Pond again on the way back but there was still no sign of ovipositing and is was very, very hot so I decided it was time for home and a walk along the lane as it has more shade than the track out of Hood Green.  I have to confess I was pleased to be home and to be able to step into a cooling shower.  It's looking quite dark now so maybe we'll have a thunderstorm before the evening is out.

p.s I think the damselfly is a `large red' though most of the insects that were present were `common blue'  and I did photograph a dragonfly but I didn't get close enough to capture detail.  There were at least two of them buzzing about over the pond, plus a family of Moorhens with three chicks.