A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
anax imperator
These are the largest of Britains dragonflies at a huge 78mm in length, they hardly stop to rest and even eat in flight. This one was guarding his mate as she was laying her eggs under the vegetation in the pond, there was often in air combats with other males if they came any where near his patch. He only stopped briefly for a few seconds in half an hour of waiting.
seen at the ponds of Potteric Carr nature reserve which is owned by the Yorkshire wildlife trust.
in photo 3 the second dragonfly in the distance is a four spotted chaser, the two kept having aerial battles over the landing perch and pond!
Spotted on Jul 11, 2013
Submitted on Jul 14, 2013
![[Anax imperator]](https://lh5.ggpht.com/JozCi0CoAqAJ1r2C94Fhwjz5xhXWTTY9LXdawEmHw0wJLCrs8jDRh3X1CXPlhlyfZNOpXo8AvKl3hL2bKfMOCg=s62-c)
2 Comments
Thanks Injica, I meant to put in my notes that the other dragonfly in my third photo was a four spotted chaser that this male kept having aerial battles with!
the 3rd photo is super cool :)