Emerald

The temperature went down a few degrees overnight, and I decided it might be cool enough for a walk around Croome. It was still a fairly sticky experience, I have to say, but I managed to circuit half the watercourse, and that was enough to put three new species on this season's Odonata list. Over the past couple of years Croome has been a pretty disappointing site for dragons and damsels, but this season it's properly back in business.

I was almost home when it occurred to me that I might yet manage a fourth addition to the list, if the Emerald Damselfly emergence had started at Cleeve Prior. I've been searching for these damsels for a couple of weeks now, hoping to find some while they were fresh, because last year I didn't see any until they'd been out for several weeks, by which time they were dirty and battered and didn't photograph well. So I made a detour to the Community Orchard, and was delighted to find this very fresh female resting in the bankside vegetation by the Orchard Pond. There were several other specimens around as well, mostly male, but I wasn't able to get nearly as close to any of them.

A day that's taken my Odonata count for the year from nineteen to twenty three species, and provided me with the best shots of a Common Emerald I've had for several years, counts as a very good day.

Before I go, a quick reminder that this week's Tiny Tuesday tag is TT527, if you'd like to take part in the challenge. I'll look through the entries and choose my favourites on Thursday.