'Hairy' Encounters in England!

Hairy Dragonfly

Brachytron pratense

The last few days in Kent I have been on the look out for the Hairy Dragonfly, our earliest Hawker to appear in England. Luckily near me I have a few sites where this species can be seen so on a sunny day I made a visit to Shuart, just east of Reculver where I spent a few hours wandering along the hedge line in the sun looking for this species. I have often found that this species can spend a lot of its time quite high up in the trees resting so hoped if any were emerging I would be able to get some nice views and hopefully a few photographs. In the couple of hours I spent on site I saw 3 male Hairy Dragonflies flying around busily feeding and occasionally resting. Getting near to them for some shots were quite hard but eventually I found 1 male which performed very well for the camera and allowed me to put the Sigma 150mm macro lens on and approach quite closely. You can clearly see why they are called Hairy Dragonfly from these shots and I was pleased with the results with the lens. Hopefully the next few weeks I can return to various locations and monitor their numbers and progress. The last few days have also seen the Large Red Damselfly emerge in the area but I will leave these shots for another post.

Male Hairy Dragonfly 

Shuart near Reculver

Marc Heath