The Local Damsels Are A Frisky Lot....

Close to where I live, about 5 minutes up the road, is Sywell Country Park.

Created in 1902 when a shallow, pastoral valley was flooded to provide a reservoir to supply water to High Ferrers and Rushden, it is now a very well maintained nature reserve, based around the lake.

I went for a look-see yesterday, and quite without intending to, ended up walking right round it. Very Slowly. This turns out to be a fraction under 3 miles,and considering this is the first time I've been able to walk more than a few hundred yards in almost a year, I was feeling pretty chuffed with myself.

There's a lot of wild life at the lake, and several bird watching hides, for folk of that persuasion;
but yesterday the most striking thing was a massive hatch of Damsel Flies. Everywhere I walked, I stirred up great clouds of little, electric blue, darts. All hell bent on mating before they die. A short life, but a happy one!

Not having the right lens with me to photograph them there and then, I went back again today, better equipped, and got some fairly respectable results. It would have been better on a brighter afternoon, with less wind, but I learned a few tips for next time.

The male is universally blue it seems, whilst the female, although drabber, comes in a variety of shades from pale, almost transparent yellow, though greens and browns, to some who have a distinct pink tinge.

The only downside to photographing them, is the myriad insect bites I have aquired from lying in the grass for two hours...How I suffer for my art!

I'm not sure who the last chap is, but he's colourful enough, and was sitting obligingly still.