Spent almost a month in Spain, in north-east Granada, this summer, enjoying Cave-house living and playing the naturalist a bit. Learned a lot, the principal thing being how much I don't know about the fauna (and flora) of Spain. A few posts to come but this, the first, shows a few of the dragonflies we bumped into, starting with the familiar Emperor which we have on our Pembrokeshire pond as well.
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| Emperor Dragonfly |
This next one is a bit more special however, we found it at La Alqueria and El Margen where they were always photogenic. Sometimes called Scarlet Dragonfly or Scarlet Darter; they are real good-lookers.
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| Broad Scarlet |
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| Broad Scarlet |
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| Broad Scarlet |
I imagine the Damselfly is a Red-eyed Damselfly. The Southern Skimmer below was at El Margen, I think it's a pretty common southern Spanish species.
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| Southern Skimmer |
The Red-veined Darters were buzzing everywhere at La Alqueria, mixing with the Broad Scarlets for a nice contrast.
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| Red-veined Darter |
The star Dragonfly was the species below - Orange-winged Dropwing, which like Violet Dropwing (a stunning species I've yet to see) is a recent immigrant from North Africa and still too scarce for any distribution maps as far as I can see. They like little rocky pools even fountains in Iberia. We found two males at a tiny concrete pool with four marble benches around it by a dirt track at El Margen. -presumably some municipal folly. There was a Roller eyeing the insects when we drove up. Soon chased that off, took out the camera - never fails!
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| Orange-winged Dropwing |
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| Orange-winged Dropwing |
The Dropwings as well as the other species often hold their abdomens high to minimise the sun's effect, they often drop their wings low at the same time. These familiar Black-tailed Skimmers were also at La Alqueria.
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| Black-tailed Skimmer |
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| Black-tailed Skimmer |
These beautiful Copper Demoiselles were along the river in Galera one morning. It was really difficult to get the photos to do them justice (I didn't succeed), they were stunning in the right light, especially the darker, copper-red males.
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| Copper Demoiselle |
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| Copper Demoiselle |
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