Common, but beautiful!

In the centre of our science block is the quiet little 'Russell Crockford courtyard' named after a very dear work collegue who sadly passed away 3 years ago. In the middle of this courtyard is a sizeable square pond, which is lush with emergent vegetation. Each year we see about 10 - 15 dragonfly exuviae left attached to the rushes where drogonfly nymphs have crawled out of the pond and become beautiful dragonflys ( mostly Southern hawkers). We have also found dragonfly nymphs when we have been pond dipping as well as damselfly nymphs, and other interesting creatures.
I was in one of the labs overlooking the courtyard today, when I noticed this beautiful Common Darter dragonfly Sympetrum striolatum resting on the brick tile topped wall that surrounds the pond.
At speed I rushed into the prep room, grabbed my camera, braved the comments of various curious girls and took a few shots of him enjoying the sunshine.
Common darters are one of the most common dragonflies in the South east where I live, and are on the wing from the end of June to as late as November.
They are quite small, 3.8 - 4.3 cm and the males like this one are red, while the females and tenneral males are a pale golden brown. They are very similar to the Ruddy darter, but the common darter has bi-coloured legs, while in the Ruddy darter they are all black.
He was very willing to pose, I hope you enjoy him!