Summertime

It's a good time for insects at the moment as far as the weather is concerned. I added a dragonfly to my life list on Saturday. I took a drive up to Kegworth in the north of Leicestershire where the River Soar meanders peacefully towards the Trent. In recent years a small number of Scarce Chasers have made their home along the county border north of Kegworth. I was fortunate to find five males and one of them posed well.

Scarce Chaser, River Soar, Kegworth

Also quite a few Banded Demoiselles fluttered around the river bank. Not always easy to photograph as they are flighty, but a few showed off for the camera.

Banded Demoiselle, River Soar, Kegworth

After this I headed off to Shawell and the gulls were not playing, so I had a look at the ponds off Shawell Lane where at least 20 Black-tailed Skimmers were bombing around.

Black-tailed Skimmer, Shawell Lane Ponds

After that Marbled Whites took over. Half a dozen were in the long grass at the back of Shawell Gravel Pits and at Croft Quarry on Sunday morning, Adey Baker and I found about 20 on the embankment near the picnic tables.

Marbled White