My wife and I had our annual pilgrimage to Slipper Tarn at Cragside last week for the Damsels and Dragons. We were only there an hour because, apart from around five minutes, the, weather was dull and overcast and there were few if any Damsels or Dragons. When the sun did shine for that five minutes there were dozens of Black Darters mating and posing and it was these that I concentrated on I still however did not get many shots.
Male Black Darter.
Nearly every year we go to Slipper Tarn a male Black Darter
will land on my wife, here it is on her hand.
Immature male Black Darter.
A mating pair of Black Darter.
Another mating pair.
The same pair in tandem.
Southern Hawker. This is the only one that stayed still
long enough for me to get some shots.
I think this is a Sericomyia silentis Hoverfly.
Looks like you only had slightly better luck with the sunshine than we did, though I believe your female Darter is an immature male going off the shape of the abdomen. otherwise they look pretty much the same and tricky to separate.
ReplyDeleteCheers Alan. No doubt we will be back next year hoping for better luck with the sun. I can see where you are coming from with the immature male, I should have noticed that too.
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