A flutter of Admirals

R and I went to Stratford this morning to run errands and eat cake, and I offset the cake a little by taking a rapid walk down to Weir Brake lock in search of dragons. I didn't find any, probably because the light was too poor to tempt them into getting out of bed and going hunting, but as compensation the bankside vegetation around the lock was swarming with Red Admirals. Most of them were this season's fresh adults, and all were feeding on the teasels and burdock that have just come into flower. 

Red Admirals tend to be territorial, and surprisingly aggressive considering that they carry no weapons of any kind, so it's unusual to see a group of them together in a small area, but at this time of year the young adults need to put on as much fat as they can before hibernating, and with plenty of flowers to go round they were all concentrating on eating, and completely ignoring each other. A few individuals were so mesmerized that they didn't even react when the narrowness of the path forced me to walk very close to them.

My second photo tonight shows a female Banded Demoiselle on the reeds by the riverside path, making heavy weather of eating what looks to me like a Common Mayfly. I've seen demoiselles chasing mayflies on a few occasions, but never actually catching them, and it's always seemed as though they were reacting automatically to the mayflies' fluttering movement, but losing interest when they realised that the thing they were following wasn't a potential mate. I'd never considered the possibility of predation, but the general rule with Odonata seems to be that any insect smaller than you is fair game, and a Banded Demoiselle (which is around 45mm long) is two to three times the length of a Common Mayfly, so there's no reason for the mayfly not to be on the menu. Except maybe its extreme chewiness: I stood and watched this spectacle for a couple of minutes, and took quite a few photos, and the demoiselle didn't seem to be any further forward with her lunch when I left than she'd been at the point when I arrived.