Thursday, June 18, 2009

This is a song of hope







Emperors emerging from our pond (late May), ascending the stairway provided by Water Soldiers (all DSLR).

3 comments:

The Drunkbirder said...

Fantastic Mike. Following your advice in Bird Watching, I'm breaking out an old, useless prefab pond and digging a new wildlife pond in the garden now I'm back off holiday.

As someone getting more and more interested in Dragonflies, what time of day were the Emperors emerging?

Mike Weedon said...

Hi, John

You can't beat a pond! The Emperors were coming out at the end of May and first week of June. I reckon they were probably from eggs laid in 2007 (when the pond was quite new). I have read that when nymphs take 2 years to mature, they have a synchronised emergence. Whereas others take 1 year and emerge in a more spread out way. Mine were pretty well synchronised (with 12+ emerging one night), but at the time I had seen no other adults flying about anywhere!
Good luck!
Mike

Mike Weedon said...

Sorry, John, I was slack in reading your comment! You asked what time of day (not year, as I read it!). Many emerged compeltely under cover of darkness, flying at absolute first light. Others emerged in the evening, though didn't fly until the next day. Others still climbed out and emerged during the morning light and did their whole drying during the day.
I think this differs, though, with different species.
Mike