ogden-a week ago today (when it was sunny!)

Well its been a while since all of this actually happened but that is no reason why not to post it, even if it is a week late. I took the long route there via soil hill, but it was windy to really bother for a look, only a kestrel was up there that I could see from the road!

Down at Ogden the wind was broken by the trees so there was slightly more, although Bird life was pretty thin on the ground there was some other things too keep you happy. I was headed to some pools that the Ogden people had built because my dad said that he had once seen some broad-bodied chasers there, a species I have only seen once and so need a record shot! I had checked up on flight seasons before I came and, as it turns out, the flight season of a broad-bodied chaser ends in early august so there was little hope really. At the first damn however I managed to catch up with a hawker of some species which on my photo recollection was a common hawker. I decided to try and take some photos. Right on Que, it landed (or disappeared) but when I went to look it was not there. I managed to find a red damselfly that I took some photos off. however whilst I was doing that, a giant frog jumped out of nowhere and splashed into the water!

I made my way to the pools I talked about earlier but unfortunately the two nearest the path were dried up so there was no point looking there! I then discovered that there were lots more pools, five more, but these were hard to get to because of the dense vegetation. still, I made and effort. There were giant frogs all around me, I thought they must be rabbits the grass was moving so much. I spotted one which was sat still in one of the pools so I decided to take some photos.

I didn't give up looking, in case there was a dragonfly but just as I decided that it was time to move on I spotted a common hawker resting on some bracken, exactly where I needed it to be, so obviously I took hundreds of photos the best of which are listed below....

I eventually left it to rest in peace. I decide to go for a look up at the giants tooth for crossbills. It would be a challenge without my binoculars but I was up for the challenge. I didn't find any, but this oak eggar caterpillar was crawling across the path which was really nice to see. I decided that, for its own good, I had best move it off the path so that it would not get trodden on (and so I could get a more "natural" photo).

there were still no birds to speak off. I decided to head off home because I was tired and thirsty (the drink i had brought tasted like sewage (not that i know what sewage tastes like)). However at the second damn I was distracted again by more dragonflies flying really low so I managed to get my first reasonable shot a dragonfly (common hawker) in flight!

overall an exceptionally good day!