Male Banded Demoiselle

I’ve been wanting to visit the nature reserve at Brockadale for several days since I saw a photograph of a Marbled White butterfly that was pasted on FB by a friend.  It was a fantastic morning and the butterflies were incredible, but as I walked towards the bridge one of these damselflies flew off in front of me so I decided to stay put and see if it came back, which it did.  On my return I stopped there again and spotted at least five males flying over the stream and one female (in extra).  This was my second bonus of the day (the first highlight was tripping over two grey partridges - I’m not sure who was more startled)!  I’ve got one or two nice Marbled White photos too but still need to do some sorting and editing.  

The tragedy of the morning was that one of the dogs who was out for a walk with two women I met near the bridge had some kind of unfortunate accident, was in a great deal of pain and couldn’t walk.  Eventually it stopped crying and allowed them to look but they couldn’t see anything wrong.  It was an Airedale Terrier - a hefty weight and a long way back to the car-park.  The younger of the two carried her, stopping for rests along the way.  I hope they made it.  I ended up feeling so helpless - they needed someone with a pram or perhaps a wheelbarrow to come along and not someone with a camera bag and hefty lens.