First dragonflies of 2013

Walked up to local shops to get some bread for lunch. Beautiful sunny day but a bit chilly when the sun went behind clouds. Saw lots of red kites on the way back. Amazing birds - I enjoyed the recent bit on Springwatch about them.

We headed off for Greenham Common in the afternoon. Despite the lovely weather, we seemed to have the common almost to ourselves. There were lots of damselflies around and we got to see our first dragonflies of 2o13. I think this is a female broad bodied chaser. There were several males and females dashing around over the shallow pools and I think I also saw another female dipping down to lay eggs (or at least think about it) in a deeper pond. The pools were full of tadpoles and diving beetles. We had fun trying to creep up on the dragonflies to take photos. They seemed to have some favourite perches in the gorse. Quite a few butterflies around too but they were very fast moving.

Did a gentle five and a half mile walk amongst gorse, daisies, butterflies, bird's foot trefoil, tiny strawberry flowers and may blossom. A great way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon.