Broad-bodied dragonfly at the Green Shop pond

I went to fill up with fuel at the Green Shop Garage, which is very close to my favourite farm-shop in Bisley, where I'd already bought some lovely new colourful Cosmos-like pot plants. Having refuelled I topped up the air in my tyres and could overlook the pond they've built by the forecourt and their shop.

Roger, the owner, is a friend from when I visited Bisley back in the 1980/90s. Two years ago he pointed out the dragonfly nymph carcasses on the reed in the pond. Today I went to see if any more dragonflies were hatching, and noticed one of their carcasses still attached to a reed about a foot above the pond’s water.

I went to the car which was only ten yards away and brought out my camera to record the carcass. As I looked around me I spotted many red and blue damselflies which were flying about the pond and rather busy mating. Then a large dragonfly whizzed past me and circled the pond before landing on a water plant. I managed to get a good close-up but wanted to see if I could catch one in flight. That was more problematic as they are very fast fliers and turn really sharply in the air.

I was quite pleased when I finally managed to catch this dragonfly above the water. Surprisingly it was taken with my 100mm macro lens. I gather it is a very common male Broad-bodied Chaser.

Have a look at my earlier Blip, which shows a different dragonfly actually in the process of hatching at the same pond. This was on the day two years ago when Roger told me that they were there.