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Spotted one of these beautiful creatures in my garden today but needless to say the camera was indoors!  Also saw one of my big frogs, a wood mouse and lots of bees, moths and hover flies.  It was far too hot here today for any serious gardening so it was lovely to just sit and watch nature go about its business.   :)

G x

And hasn't it been lovely weather, perfect for nature watching. We spent the day by the lake nature watching but like you I didn't have a camera handy. :)

Hi Autumn Beauty. Is that your own lake or one near by?  What did you see?

G x

No, not mine, wish our garden was big enough for a lake! ;D We saw lots of geese, mainly canadian but another sort too which I'm not sure of their name. Loads of really fat tadpoles, we have tadpoles in our pond but these ones seem much fatter. Dragonflies, ducks, all sorts of birds, a few little fish, swans, rabbits, bees. We spent a while looking in the woods near the lake looking for pretty flowers, collecting pine cones and other "treasures". The children love just being outside and playing, they were paddling in the water scooping up tadpoles with their hands and then let them back into the water again. There was a lot of comfrey and yellow irises growing along the river banks, all in flower and so pretty. None of the foxgloves were flowering yet which is strange as the ones in the garden at home are all beginning to flower.

Sounds idyllic.  :D

G x

Managed to get a pic of her today.  It's not very good but at least it proves I wasn't seeing things last week.   ;)  G x

You are lucky getting a snap of the lady in repose!
One of the loveliest sights I ever saw at my chum's city pond was a dragonfly being born, from its husk on the leaves of a flag iris. We sat for seven hours watching the dull little critter creep out with pitiful draggly fragments of wing. Gradually the body turned to blue-green irridescence, and its wings dried and spread into transparency before it flew away and got on with its business too :)

Looks like a female Ceriagrion tenellum, the Small Red Damselfly.

well captured G :)

Lovely tale, supersprout.   :D

But Robert, it must have been at least 6 inches long!   ;)

Thanks GW.   :)

G x

Are you sure of the size? That would make it a large dragonfly, but these have much stronger wings which they hold out flat when at rest, rather than folding them like that. That looks like a typical small damselfly.

No wonder you love watching, Georgie!

Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on June 12, 2006, 17:00:20
Are you sure of the size? That would make it a large dragonfly, but these have much stronger wings which they hold out flat when at rest, rather than folding them like that. That looks like a typical small damselfly.

Oh Robert, I was pulling your leg.  Sorry. 

G x

I thought you had to be. Otherwise we'd have been in the realms of fantasy; I remember a series on a boys' magazine from when I was a kid where there was a radioactive area of Africa (I think) where everything was giant-size, including 20-foot tall Roman soldiers from a lost legion!