DRAGONFLIES ON MY PATCH
The wet windy spring weather was receding rapidly.Armed with my brand new Christmas prezzie camera I ventured out onto my patch ,with most of the birds hidden away sitting on eggs I thought I would try my hand at photographing some dragonflies.Below is a list of this seasons collection so far.
 Broad bodied chaser-female |  Broad bodied chaser-male |
 Broad scarlet-female |  Broad scarlet-male |
 Common darter-female |  Green eyed hawker-male |
 Red veined darter-male |  Southern migrant hawker-female |
 Vagrant emperor mating |  Vagrant emperor mating |
 |  |
Black tailed skimmer-male  Southern skimmer-male | Black tailed skimmer- imm male  Dainty damselfly |
 Dark spreadwing |
I am a total novice with dragonflies and even after studying Richard Lewington's drawings/paintings, I am finding it far more difficult than identifying birds.
One morning back in April we decided to go for a ramble amongst the ruins of Miletus,a great archaeology site in SW Turkey,not only for birds, but as I soon found out ,dragonflies as well.
We had just stopped for a snack in the shade when a dragonfly decided to land on a stone just in front of me,I managed a few shots and thought no more about it.That was until I asked for some advice on bird forum on the identity of some of the dragonflies I had seen during our trips out and about.
It turned out that the dragonfly we had seen during our "snack in the shade" was a Long Skimmer which is a rarity in SW Turkey,this is what Vincent Kalkmann an authority on dragonflies in Turkey said about the Long Skimmer:~
"The Long skimmer seems to be one of several African species expanding its range northwards and your record suggest that it might already be widespread but still rare across southern Turkey."
Our first trip out looking for dragonflies certainly produced a lifer for me.
To Be continued ~~~~~
THE LONG SKIMMER
