Pastel

Today was another crazy day: Warwick this morning for a hospital appointment, then home, then back out to Stratford this afternoon to get a slow puncture investigated and repaired. En route to Stratford I stopped off at Barton for forty minutes and yomped around the meadow between Dorothy's Wood and the river bank, determined to get a more edifying photo than the one I'd already taken of a rather tragic Southern Hawker at our neighbours' pond, who chose his emergence support badly and paid the ultimate price. In the spirit of Springwatch, I hope his floating remains were picked up by a bird with chicks to feed, and thus did a little good within the ecosystem.

Anyway, pickings at Barton were on the thin side, the afternoon being overcast and none too warm. Also, as we're now in June and the fishing season has begun, the BAA guys have been down to the river bank and strimmed away the nettles around the fishing pegs. The Banded Demoiselles haven't taken this well, and many of them have moved back onto the feeder steam, crowding out the Beautiful Demoiselles that breed there. Where they've gone in their turn I can't say, but quite possibly further up into the woodland - I've observed over the years that they seem happier in woodland than Banded Demoiselles, which seem to prefer more open territory.

I don't like to big myself up, as you know, but I'm about to do it anyway, so if it offends you, please look away now. Taking a photo of a slender, pastel-coloured damselfly on a wildly swaying blade of grass, at very close quarters with a very long lens, and getting it (more or less) sharp from stem to stern, is quite difficult, and I'm pretty pleased with myself for managing it.

R: C2, D7.