After dealing with my moth trap this morning, I went to have a look at the pond to see if any dragonflies had emerged. By the edge of the pond were the shiny wings of at least four hawker dragonflies (there were 15 ripped wings), plus part of the exuvia of one.
These were almost certainly Southern Hawkers which had emerged in the night and been scoffed by what I assume was a Blackbird or perhaps a Song Thrush. It is the first time I have seen evidence of predation of newly-emerged dragons and I must say it made me a tad sad.
The slight happy ending came when I saw a single teneral Southern Hawker flying off from the surrounding vegetation. At least one may survive to breed and produce the next generation of nymphs for the pond.
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