The flip

All three of these photos were taken within about ninety seconds. During the lunchtime hiatus between hospital appointments (Stratford this morning, then Warwick this afternoon) I wandered down to the wildlife pond to check for dragon exuviae, and as soon as I began examining the vegetation through my macro binoculars I spotted two, close together among the rushes. It took me a split second to realise that one of them was still occupied - duh! - but then I immediately dropped to my knees and captured the shot I've included as my first extra tonight.

I wasn't fully happy with the angle of that image because the exuvia was partly obscured, so I stepped across the pond corner and squatted down again, to photograph the ventral surface of the hanging Southern Hawker. At this point he suddenly flipped himself up to grasp his exuvia with his front feet, and because I was viewing him at close quarters through a telephoto lens at the time, I jerked backwards and made a little oofing noise of shock, which made me feel a bit silly.

After sorting myself out and quickly shooting this scene I moved again, hoping to capture the moment when he extricated his abdomen from his larval case - but even as I was lining up on him I could see that he was wriggling, and by the time I had focus and took the second extra, he'd done an extra little shimmy and popped himself out. I may have used a couple of bad words at this point, but at the same time I acknowledged his entirely instinctive skill: I have a couple of evening dresses that it takes me longer to get out of than that, and I've got opposable thumbs.

R: C4.