'Ol red eyes is back

Today is Cathy and my wedding anniversary.  In the 37 years we've been married there have been less than a handful of days on which the 9th May was as warm and sunny as the day we got married, but today was one of them.

On the spur of the moment, we abandoned plans and went for a walk in the glorious sunshine followed by lunch at a village pub, in their garden.  It was delightful.

In the morning I had a careful look in the pond to see what was going on.  We certainly have a lot of newts, at one time I could see 6 of them without even trying, so there's a few more than that.  I'm pretty sure that this is why we don't have any damselflies emerging this year.  The large red that features as today's blip has taken over the pond as his territory, but I'm pretty sure that he's an immigrant from a neighbour's pond.  

What we do have, lurking in the depths is the dragonfly larva that features as my extra.  I'm not too worried about the newts getting it, as it's almost as big as they are.  It's not a great shot, as I've had to shoot through the water, to where the larva was hiding under a pond lily leaf, using a polariser to try to remove reflections.  I think that its probably a hawker, possibly a southern hawker.  From the size of it and the shape of the wings I would guess that it won't be too much longer before it emerges, if the weather holds.