Freshly minted

This dragonfly - a common darter - emerged from the little garden pond earlier on today.  I missed the emergence itself and only realised that I hadn't checked the pond today when I saw the insect from the kitchen window whilst making a mid-morning coffee.  

The pond is doing exceptionally well this year for dragonflies - in addition to the crop of Hawkers from late May/early June we've now seen a handful of  Common Darters as well. 

When I popped outside it was a trying to drizzle but there were two common darters sitting hardening up before taking their maiden flights and this was the easiest of the two to photograph - the other being in the midst of the iris leaves.  

The photo makes this insect look quite large, but in reality Common Darters are small and rather dainty dragons - their bodies are only about 4cms (1.5 inches) long, although the wings make them seem a bit bigger.