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Stephen Burch's Birding & Dragonfly Website |
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Home | Trip Reports | Gallery | UK index | Oxon pics | UK pics | Dragonflies | Other Nature | Contact | Links |
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Stephen Burch's Birding & Dragonfly Website |
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Home | Trip Reports | Gallery | UK index | Oxon pics | UK pics | Dragonflies | Other Nature | Contact | Links |
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Migrant Hawker, Faringdon Folly Park Pond, Oxon. 4 October 2024 I was beginning to think I had missed my chance for late season Migrant Hawker in flight shots - something I've managed to obtain in most years, going back to 2007! As this species tends to hover, it is a relatively easy photographic subject with both DSLRs and Mirrorless cameras. This individual briefly came into a dark sheltered corner of the pond, where it was still fully in the sun. Click to enlarge |
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Migrant Hawker, Faringdon Folly Park Pond, Oxon. 4 October 2024 Another photo as above, but slightly more distant.Click to enlarge |
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Common Darter, Faringdon Folly Park Pond, Oxon. 4 October 2024 With the nice sunny conditions over the last few days, there is still some dragonfly activity. This one of a handful at this pond today, and briefly came quite close to me in somewhat dull conditions. Click to enlarge |
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Southern Hawker, Grove Meadows Stormwater Pond, Grove, Oxon. 30 August 2024 Another late afternoon visit to this site. I was fortunate to obtain this flight shot from a fleeting visits that soon ceased as the sun got lower in the sky. Again a photo obtained using my new Canon R5 Mk II! Click to enlarge |
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Willow Emerald, Grove Meadows Stormwater Pond, Grove, Oxon. 27 August 2024 Visiting this site was a good deal easier than previously as the perimeter had been mown. I was pleased to find a group of 4+ Willow Emeralds in the Willow bushes at the southern end of the pond. I first saw this species here last year, and it appears that numbers may have increased since then. This is a photo stacked image obtained using my new Canon R5 Mk II! Click to enlarge |
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Migrant Hawker, Dix Pit, Stanton Harcourt, Oxon. 13 August 2024 Seen during my Lesser Emperor hunt (see below). Migrant Hawkers were easier to see and this one setttled nearby briefly. Note there were several presumed damselfly exuviae on the same stick! The wind was in the wrong direction to get flight shots of this species at this site today. Click to enlarge |
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Lesser Emperors in tandem, Dix Pit, Stanton Harcourt, Oxon. 13 August 2024 I went to Dix Pit looking for this species as it had been reported from several other nearby lakes and ponds, and public access is possible (at least along the west side) unlike many of the other flooded gravel pits in this complex.On a nice afternoon, I found 5, including this tandem pair ovipositing. This is unusual for hawkers, but is said to be characteristic of this species. Unfortunately they were some way out, and showed no sign of coming closer. Also the light wasn't great, so only a record shot. Click to enlarge |
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Emerald Damselfly, Whitecross Green Wood, Oxon. 2 August 2024 My main aim of this visit was to secure more photos of Southern Migrant Hawker but I only saw one briefly so no chance of pics.There were however many Emerald Damselflies around this pond, so I took numerous focus stacking sequences of shots. Of those, I like this one the best with the damselfly in sun, with a nice uniform background (actually the brownish water below). Click to enlarge |
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Emerald Damselfly, Whitecross Green Wood, Oxon. 2 August 2024 A crop of the focus-stacked image above.Click to enlarge |
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Emerald Damselfly, Whitecross Green Wood, Oxon. 2 August 2024 Another focus-stacked image with a green (vegetation) background but well "dissolved". I find using the x1.4 extender helps with this sort of shot.Click to enlarge |
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Common Darter, Grove Meadows Stormwater Pond, Grove, Oxon. 31 July 2024 Only my second visit to this site this year, and a somewhat disappointing one. This site is getting more and more overgrown and access to the water's edge is really only possible on the western side now.There were only a few Small Red-eyed Damselflies to be seen, compared with over 100 in previous years. Only this Common Darter presented itself to have its picture taken today! Click to enlarge |
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Lesser Emperor, Tar Lakes, nr Witney, Oxon. 30 July 2024 Until this year, Lesser Emperor has been very rare in Oxon. But they are now being seen at multiple sites all across the county in an unprecedented influx. My quest today for closer images took me first to Standake Pit 60 where one had been seen recently. It was there but was uncooperative never coming close. I thought I would then continue on to Tar Lakes, where none had been seen. To my surprise I saw one shortly after I arrived, very close! It then disappeared and it was only on my return, having been around the second lake, that it was showing much better, patrolling up and down the SW side of the lake and close to the path. Still a tricky subject to get onto, but I'm very pleased to have been able to get these photos on a very hot afternoon! Click to enlarge |
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Lesser Emperor, Tar Lakes, nr Witney, Oxon. 30 July 2024 This photo was taken in the same sequence as the one above, and I liked the way it was framed by an intervening bush.Click to enlarge |
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Lesser Emperor, Tar Lakes, nr Witney, Oxon. 30 July 2024 It occasionally flew a little higher giving a sky background which made it much easier to lock on to.Click to enlarge |
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Lesser Emperor, Tar Lakes, nr Witney, Oxon. 30 July 2024 Couldn't resist processing and including this shot as well!Click to enlarge |
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Lesser Emperor, Thrupp Lake, Radley, Oxon. 19 July 2024 A distant shot of this Oxon rarity - re-found by Wayne Bull after an interval of a few weeks. This one was patrolling the eastern side and another male was along the southern shore. Click to enlarge |
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Lesser Emperor, Thrupp Lake, Radley, Oxon. 19 July 2024 A head on shot as it turned towards me brieflyClick to enlarge |
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Lesser Emperor, Thrupp Lake, Radley, Oxon. 19 July 2024 Another flyby a little later in the morning.Click to enlarge |
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Northern Emerald, Kinlochewe, Highland, Scotland. 5 July 2024 Finally caught up with this rare species, following trips in 2011 and 2013 that resulted in only a single distant shot of one on the top of a tree! I was very lucky to get these images, as the weather, which had been very poor all week, finally relented with a very brief sunny spell just as we arrived at this site. There were then 2+ in flight but these quickly disappeared as overcast conditions returned. Many thanks to a Nick from London for spotting this one roosting, close to the picnic table on the Kinlochewe path at NH02416243. Thanks also to Ian Lewington and Doug Bartholomew, the Beinn Eighe Nature Reserve Manager, who both provided invaluable site info in advance of this trip. This is a fully focus stacked image. Click to enlarge |
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Northern Emerald, Kinlochewe, Highland, Scotland. 5 July 2024 Another image of the individual shown above. This is a partially focus stacked image, to get the body fully sharp, leaving the wings out of focus. Click to enlarge |
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Northern Emerald, Kinlochewe, Highland, Scotland. 5 July 2024 This was a different individual, spotted by another observer by the track at about NH02336242. Another focus stacked image. Click to enlarge |
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Banded Demoiselle, Boundary Brook NR, Oxford, Oxon. 21 June 2024 A distant "habitat" shot but there was no way of getting any closer, and I quite like the background! Click to enlarge |
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Four-spotted Chaser, Faringdon Folly Park Pond, Faringdon,
Oxon. 20 June 2024 Several of these at this site in the nice spell of weather we are having at last. This is a focus-stacked image. .Click to enlarge |
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Four-spotted Chaser, Letcombe Valley BBOWT, Oxon 7 June 2024 With the recent poor weather, I've been struggling to get dragonfly photos so far this season.At least today there was forecast to be a window of sunny weather in the morning before the clouds rolled back in. I found this dragonfly on the small pond near the northern reserve entrance. It was consistently coming back to the same perch, with only brief sorties out. So I would wait for it to depart before firing away to await its return. This technique was very hit and miss, but I got one shot that was reasonably sharp. Click to enlarge |
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White-legged Damselfly, Little Meadow, Goring, Oxon 25 May 2024 Out looking for Clubtails at this traditional site for them but there was no sign of any exuviae on the wall under the railway bridge nor adults elsewhere. One lucky observer had had a brief sighting a little further downstream.Little Meadow frequently has White-legged Damselflies and did again this time, but all were immature. This is a focus stacked image. Click to enlarge |
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Banded Demoiselle, Standlake Common, Oxon
15 May 2024 The gate at the end of Langley Lane was surprisingly productive today, with several damselflies and a Downy Emerald very briefly. This latter even settled but was gone in a flash before I could get a photo.For this head-on shot, I tried a hand-held focussing stacking sequence but it failed so I used the image best focussed on the head only. Click to enlarge |
| © All pictures copyright Stephen Burch | |
