Colchester day 2

Sadly it rained this morning and a planned trip to a local country park resulted in a pleasant hour spent drinking hot chocolate and reading National Geographic in the visitors centre.
After a wonderful lunch at 'The Whalebone' in Fingringhoe, we went for a quick trip to Fingringhoe wick NR. It was a good visit, with very few horse flies and loads and loads of Dragonflies!
I had hoped to be able to get a few shots of the Small red damselfly, but it was not to be as they were all sitting on the floating vegetation in the middle of the pond- very frustrating!
In the end I have decided to blip this shot of a very beautiful Ruddy darter (Sympetrum sanguineum) The male Ruddy darter is slightly smaller than the Common darter, with a more 'waisted' abdomen, all black legs ( the common darter has a yellow stripe on the legs) and it a wonderful bright red in colour. They fly from july to october, and can often be found perching on vegetation waiting to fly round and chase off rivals!
I find Ruddy darters are more common here in Essex than they are in Sussex, where most red darters are Common.
We are off to Minsmere tomorrow - yipee!!!