When we rediscovered Norfolk last June, our primary goal being to search for the Norfolk Hawker/Green-eyed Hawker (Aeshna isosceles), we made our first visit to what we now refer to as Guillaume’s petit coin [Guillaume’s little corner]. We’d hardly installed ourselves before an immature example of our quarry came and hung-up in the hedge bordering Guillaume’s petit coin.
Guillaume’s petit coin has gone and done it again. This time, as we were staring wistfully out of a side window, a Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta) sniffed about the hedge, chose a spot and hung-up in it about three feet off the ground. It stayed while I extracted the camera.
In what has turned out to be a somewhat disturbed year from an Odo-watching point of view, this constitutes my first Hawker at rest. It was a female and access wasn’t great so I initially snagged a shot through a gap in the obscuring foliage. I quite like the framing effect of the out of focus leaves.
Then I tried to squirm round to get a clearer line up. As usual, I struggled with the lack of light before remembering to use my built-in flash. One day, I’ll think of using flash straight away!
Unlike last year’s Norfolk Hawker, this Migrant had been round the block. Her abdomen was slightly out of true and her left eye was very dented. I’m not sure what causes this but I did read somewhere that the pressure of the male’s anal appendages during copulation might be to blame.
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