For the voyeuristic viewers

I finally got around to painting Damien the decoy dragon a bright yellow. Unfortunately, there was heavy cloud cover and not much happening in the dragon and butterfly department. I wanted to see if the dragons would go for the yellow, also if that particular type of butterfly just had a problem with the red or dragons in general. The experiment will have to continue another day.

There were plenty of blue banded bees around but just not enough light to bother with trying to get a good hover shot. A pity really, as the bees were flying noticeably slower due to the cooler temperatures of the cloudy day. Thinking about it now, I could have gone to a fill in flash, but I did not bring my tissue flash cover with me. Next time baby.

After approaching two hours, I was starting to get concerned about actually capturing a blip for the day, so I decided to go for a walk about to see what my lumbering size tens could kick up out of the dirt. Plenty of hoppers scrambled to get out of my way and then this strange insect kind of floated up like a feather and stopped on a twig. I really did think it was a feather and nearly walked away, but decided to take a closer look. My eyes are bad.

Once I realized what I had stumbled upon, I felt a tad guilty for my voyeuristic actions, but I did ask first and they didn't seemed too bothered, dragons are such exhibitionists. When I got too close, they just flew to the next perch but nothing could interrupt their intimate moment, an impressive feat of aeronautics. I did have the complete scene in the frame, but chose to blip this crop for more detail.

So what was looking like a cloud formation backup, turned into one of my best blip opportunities since joining. Things so rarely go to plan. I hope the voyeurs amongst you enjoy today's blip.

Update - Orthetrum sabina sabina (Drury, 1770)

Dave