… and other dragonflies. It’s that time of year again when the dragonflies are buzzing and the lakes and water extinguishers are buzzing around. Did you know that this is actually the final stage of their existence. The larvae sometimes spend up to 5 years in the water, hunting and growing, until they pupate and then buzz around as dragonflies for a summer, lay eggs and then die. Beautiful animals. This big blue arrow was quite “shy” at first and I had to stand quietly in front of a stalk in the lake for a good 15 minutes until he came back to me. The mosquito bites on my body still itch today.
Father’s Day, oh yeah. I wished I could spend a few hours in the forest with my family, without any appointments. Last fall I discovered a few small pools in the forest and wanted to show them to the children, so we set off with our bikes and picnic basket.
No large animals to be seen and the drowned mandarin duck from two weeks ago had also disappeared. Marie then spotted this dragonfly that was just hatching. We watched her spellbound. A laborious process, but beautiful. After a good 20 minutes she had made it, but had fallen off her blade of grass and was lying on a leaf, like on a platter on her back. She was happy to accept a helping finger. We eyed each other and then set her down in the tussock further down, next to the leaf. Really pleased that my kids had the chance to witness this little wonder…
It is so much life around the rivers and meadows. Seems to be a good year for dragonflies – they are everywhere and overall. Here are some pictures of banded demoiselles, minding their business.
At the risk of getting you bored by all these dragonfly pictures that lately come up here… just one more. This couple was one of many at a river in Cromartin/France. Sadly the upper one shifted out of focus. Did I mention that I need to get macro? I could swear, I told you that before… 😉
Summer seems to be early this year. It is the beginning of June and the thermometer already passed the 25° C mark. Afrer meeting with friends ind Frankfurt for lunch I took a small detour on my way back and wandered through the beatifull Bethmannpark. Besides the hughe coys in the pond, a couple of big dragonflies where doing their maneuvers. This particular one was taking a break in the late afternoon sun…. and yess, I still don’t have a macro lens, but Sigmas 135-500 does a fabulous job, don’t you think? 🙂
[lightgrey_box] Facts würden hier stehen [/lightgrey_box]
I am no big fan of dead center compositions but with this shot I had to break my rules. This little fellow was buzzing around the pool and kept constantly chasing off other dragonflies off its territory. It came back day after day and so I just hat to wait for it to appear. Shooting it with a 300mm lens was another stroy. Nailed it!
Dragonflies are predators. In fact they help control the population of harmfull insects like mosiquitos. They can fly back an forth and even stall like helicopters. Their eyesight is 360° and they prefer to sit on higher grounds. So nature does have its killermachine up and flying…. good they do not get that big. Talking about sizes: I need to get a macro lens anytime soon…
