A walk by the river

I walked from Oak Road to the Ennerdale new ponds by the river this morning. It was sunny, warm and breezy. A walk around Oak Road Lake gave me my first Small Skipper of the year.

Small Skipper.

Large Skipper.

The river was reaching its highest level with the tide and starting to ebb. The banks had just been cut so I walked at the bottom of the bank, by the edge of the riverside vegetation.

The River at high tide. Looking downstream towards the Croda turbine.

Sutton Bridge.

The marginal vegetation by the River Hull.

Mowed down.

Tractors mowing the bank opposite.

I flush a Brown Hawker from the bank, my first this year, who quickly disappears amongst the trees. After crossing Sutton Brdge, and very close where I found the female Banded Demoiselle a couple of weeks ago I found another one (or the same?!) This time I could get closer and take a clearer shot.

Female Banded demoiselle.

 I went straight to the Ennerdale new ponds. The north pond had lost a lot of water and I couldn't see much on it, but the south one looked promising.

The South Pond. 

Teneral common darter (above and below).

Several teneral Common Darters flew away from me, first for the year too. 

A couple of Emperor dragonflies were patrolling the pond, clashing occasionally and chasing, sometimes almost brushing my hear. A third one joined them at some point.

Male Emperor.

A female Emperor oviposited on the emergent vegetation, rejecting a suitor by curving her abdomen underneath her.

Suddenly, I spotted Black-tailed Skimmers: a female ovipositing and a male behind or over her, guarding and fighting off the male Emperor away from her. 

Female and Male Black-tailed Skimmers.

After the bout of egg laying, the male went to bask at the edge of the water, on a bare patch of shore...

Male Black-tailed skimmer.

While the female preferred to bask amongst vegetation, away from the water.

There were also ovipositing Blue-tailed and Common Blue damselflies. I spent a good hour leaning on the perimeter fence of the pond, watching the action, and there was lots of it!