Feeding dragon

At the grove today, I set up for Damien shots. This time setting up the camera and tripod BEFORE setting the decoy, after missing shots yesterday. Unfortunately, it didn't happen today. Minor interest from a few wasps, but I was set further back and so not blippable.

The red dragon landed a few feet away, so I waited patiently for the dragon to hopefully inspect Damien, but nothing. I wasn't going to shoot the dragon because I knew that I had already blipped it a week ago, but nothing was happening and I needed a blip.

I managed to sneak up on the resting dragon fairly close, taking lots of shots as I approached. The dragon then leapt into the air just as I was shooting, I thought I had caught it, but could not be sure of the quality, so I still needed a blip. The dragon landed no more than a second or two later on a different perch, this time facing me. This was the blip, I was sure.

I managed to get close again, only this time I noticed that the dragon was eating. The dragon had leapt up, plucked its dinner from the air, landed and started feeding. In the few seconds it took for me to re-approach, the meal was almost finished. Dragons really are deadly hunters.

The significance of the blip was not realized until I returned to the lab and processed the shots. Notice in the bottom left image of the combo, that the front legs of the dragon are folded up behind its head, in preparation for the attack. The top image shows the dragon in flight, legs still folded, unfortunately no insect in view, that would have been some blip. This front leg folded posture can be seen in some of the other dragon pics too.

Well, that was job done for today, all over in fifteen minutes. Still no Damien shot, will try again tomorrow.

To avoid confusion, the shot is one dragon, photographed three times and combined in PS.

Red dragonfly - Orthetrum chrysis (Selys, 1891)

Dave