Chase Me, Chase Me

 

A few days ago I was walking in the woods a few miles from where I live and noticed a sign about how a local conservation group had dredged the pond in the woods to encourage more wildlife to the area. When I got there I discovered a small pond about 10m across, and it stunk. There was no obvious inlet or outlet so the water was just sitting there looking lifeless.

However, from the corner of my eye I noticed something zoom around the edge of the pond. It was a light blue dragonfly flying around the perimeter of the pond and then disappearing. I watched for a while and then noticed a brown dragonfly hovering and dipping it's abdomen into the water - clearly a female ovipositing her eggs. I then realised that the two must have just mated and whilst the female was depositing the eggs the male was 'keeping guard'.

I walked slowly around the pond and then spotted the blue dragonfly on the branch of a small bush on the waters edge - that's where it had been disappearing to.

On my return home I identified the dragonflies as Broad Bodied Chasers (Libellula depressa) - very common in the UK but it was the first time I'd seen one.

Wikipedia has a page here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libellula_depressa


I'll head back to the pond again this summer and see if any other wildlife has colonised it.

Catch You Later!