Skimmers and Brown Hawker on the wing!

Great to get some sunshine yesterday and to be surrounded on the Long mynd by numerous Four-spotted Chaser doing everything at 100 miles an hour! Records have started to come in for Black-tailed Skimmer Orthetrum cancellatum the first being seen near Woore by P.Roberts back on 7th June. I visited a number of private pools yesterday and Black-tailed Skimmers were definitely putting on a good show and resting typically on the bare ground in between activity.

Cheating with an old photo here, but hopefully you can see the clear wings of this skimmer- a diagnostic feature that separates skimmers from chasers (who all have a patch of colour at the base of their wings). You can also make out a black area half way up the abdomen- males often have this patch where the females legs have rubbed the blue pruinescence away during copulation.

Also out and about I saw 2 brown hawker -fabulous large insects with striking brown wings- unlike anything else we have in Shropshire. Really difficult to catch a photo so any shots gratefully received!