Dragonfly hatching from the Green Shop's pond

While I sat waiting for my car's MOT to be finished, Roger, the owner of the Green Shop walked up and asked if I'd photographed a dragonfly. I was holding my camera with a long lens, but was actually idly recording a wagtail enjoying the insect life of the pond, and some bees inspecting the Iris flowers in the water for pollen.

He said he'd show me some and I got up and joined Roger by the pond's wall as we looked into the clump of reeds. We immediately saw some empty shells of the dragonflies which had hatched, but it took a minute to spot the two dragonflies as they were in the middle of shedding their nymph stage's shell. You can see the dragonfly has its legs wrapped around the head of its shell as it clings on to the reed to allow it time for the final transformation to finish. Its wings need to receive fluids and the insect needs to be warm. There must have been at least ten empty carcasses dotted around the reeds and in the pond water.

I had to stand back a long way to let the lens focus but that meant there were few vantage points between the reeds, which were rustling in the strong breeze. I had deliberately only brought this lens out with me, thinking I might see birds flying up on the Cotswold hilltops, and had left my macro lens behind. Oh well.

One of the staff came to tell me that my car was ready (it passed the test luckily!) but I stayed a few more minutes to see if the dragon fly started to open its wings, but to no avail. I must admit that whiling away the time became a real pleasure and I'm grateful to Roger for pointing out this rather magical transformation of one of nature's weirder insects.

The British Dragonfly website will show you much more about the amazing life cycle of a dragonfly.