13-07-2014 4:49 PM
This little beauty made it's way into my garden today. I took the picture from about 6 to 7 feet away with my tinpot little camera on zoom. It's body is about 3 inches long, maybe a little more. A quick search on the net leads me to think that it's a female Emperor
Dragonfly. Can anyone identify it? The bug is bugging me.http://[URL=http://s556.photobucket.com/user/shadowjet_0807/media/SDC14698_zps4b3e88ee.jpg.html][IMG...
16-07-2014 2:09 AM
Thanks for your replies, particularly wskneil for providing the correct link http://i556.photobucket.com/albums/ss1/shadowjet_0807/SDC14698_zps4b3e88ee.jpg. I haven't added pictures to a message on here before and I kept getting messages in red saying invalid HTML so I didn't realise that the thread had posted.
Photographed at my home in Sutton in Ashfield, West Nottinghamshire. I live right in the town centre but it's surprising how much wildlife we do see here. There's the usual urban foxes and squirrels. Great **bleep**, Blue **bleep** and coal **bleep** are regular visitors. I even have a nice picture of a Golden Pheasant which landed on our wall a few years back. Bats are regular visitors in spring and summer and herons also make an appearance as there is a large mill pond nearby.
Regarding the dragonfly, I couldn't manage to get a view of the upper surfaces so I don't know if there is any blue on it. It was around 7 or 8 feet up in our buddleia and I was standing on tiptoe trying to get a good shot of it. I had 4 or 5 attempts but I couldn't get a worthwhile picture until this one. It flew off shortly afterwards.
I tried to identify it online but I was surprised to see how many varieties of dragonfly there are, and feeling particularly tired that day I had to admit defeat. My best guess was Emperor dragonfly due to the patterns on the wings and the small yellow mark on the leading edge of each wing. As the lower body was green and not blue, I surmised that it was a female. Probably wrong on all counts as I'm not the sharpest tool in the box.
I used to do voluntary work on a local heath and my co-workers and I used to enjoy identifying the local flora and fauna. The most amazing creature I saw was the Scorpion Fly. I never realised that such a creature exited in this country, it looks so unBritish!
Once again, thanks for all your replies, Paul.
16-07-2014 2:45 AM
That's a nice dragonfly site Suzie. The female emperor on page 58 seems to have a different coloured abdomen to the one that I pictured so I'm probably wrong with my identification. It's difficult when you can't see both side and top views, I never managed to see the top of the one in my garden. The costa didn't seem to have any colour but the ptorostigma were a deep bright yellow.
I will have to look at some Lesser Emperors and Hawkers, they both seem promising.
Thanks to all those who posted photographs, some beautiful creatures there.
16-07-2014 9:55 AM
16-07-2014 2:20 PM
Shadowjet
If you want to upload an image that you can re-use (such as a gif), you can add that to your albums
To upload an image - from your pc or from another website:
When typing your message using the Reply option (not the Quick Reply) you see a menu bar - B I U etc.
Move along a bit to the little green tree and click on that to Insert an Image
In the box that pops up, click on Browse button and find the image you want to upload and "Open" or whatever the command is where you're getting it from.
It then shows in that pop-up box.
At this point, decide if you want it to be Private (only you can see it in your album) and tick the box if you do.
If it's a large pic, you can either opt to keep it as Full Size, or select Small/Medium/Large, or you can click on the image and resize it by pushing in from one of the corners.
Once you're ready, click on Insert Image.
When you build up your gallery, you can insert an image into any reply by clicking on the green tree icon and then on the tab to show you your gallery pics and insert image.
You can also upload images to your albums by clicking on your ID here on the boards and then click on View images for (you) on the right and then click on Add Images.
16-07-2014 10:33 PM
Thanks for the tip aernethril, very useful. Regards, Paul.