Well its not every day an Emperor visits your garden and takes a breather on a plant less than five feet away from you, fortunately my camera was not far away and I fired off a few shots. before it moved on.
This is the first Emperor I have seen in the garden, Migrant Hawkers are the usual garden visitor and even those are quite scarce in the garden.
This looks to me to be an female Emperor, my field guide describes the female as having a dull green abdomen but sometimes blue, the brown markings instead of black could indicate an immature female, eyes are definitely green on this specimen, another indicator of a female, or could it be an immature male to be honest I am not entirely sure, I can say its definitely an Emperor Dragonfly.
( over to you Mr Conehead )
Ironic really when I think of the time I spent at Rainham Rspb reserve watching an Emperor flying around the "dragonfly pools" willing it to land close by on a reed for a photograph that was never going to happen.
Makes this sighting all the more satisfying.
I had my first garden migrant hawker here the other day, these are the dominant hawker species to be found here
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