Gently smiling jaws

R and I are busy, busy, busy right now, with the family coming to stay at the weekend, so I didn't have much time today to search the garden for invertebrates. I can say two things quite confidently though: we haven't had any further emergences from either of the ponds, and of yesterday's three Common Darters, only this one was still using our garden today. I hope that the other two made it through the night without being predated, and have simply gone off to explore other territories.

Of the Darters, this one was Number Three, who failed to find a cane to perch on yesterday, and whom I described as sitting sulkily on the montbretia. I know this because she was paler than the other two, and her black markings are quite distinctive. Today she had a free choice of perch, and used it, but this photo of her resting on the same montbretia spray is my favourite photo of the day. I'd like it even more if I'd managed to get her sharp step to stern, but she was angled in a way that made it hard for me to get parallel to her, and this was as close to it as I managed. A few seconds later, when I risked taking another step forward with my left foot, she said "Enough!" and left, and though she came back to the same area later I didn't catch her on the montbretia again.