#ruddy darter

[michaelnordeman]

Ruddy darter/Sympetrum sanguineum/blodröd ängstrollslända. Värmland, Sweden (13 July 2026).

[unkn0wnvariable]

Sunny Darter

A brightly coloured ruddy darter dragonfly sitting in the sun, at RSPB Fowlmere.

[echolonely]

Roll for bugs #3 - Style study

For this Roll for bugs, I ended up with this prompt:

a real insect

p53 n5 in my book: the Sympetrum Sanguineum (Ruddy darter)

my choice of style

So I decided to take this opportunity to do a style study of one of my favorite artists Eliot Baum. I used the emperor card of the Sefirot tarot deck, and try to take elements of its style and apply it to my bug drawing.

Even though I manage to get a similar feel, the style is not even close ahah 😅 But it was pleasant to draw and I really love this style. What do you think?

[aeridanus]

Guess I’ll die / This is fine - dragonfly with meme potential :D

Snapshot from our vacation at the Mecklenburg Lake Plateau. It was a beautiful week, lots and lots of hiking to bird and insect watching spots. We ticked many boxes of the “Lake Pokédex” with ospreys, white-tailed eagles, a bittern, red-backed shrikes, a golden oriole, kingfishers, scarce chasers, a migrant hawker, a brown hawker, common bluetails with alternate colorations (Shinys? :D) and absolute heaps of black-tailed skimmers, ruddy and scarlet darters. I’ll post photos of them in the next days :)

[glaucidiumpasserinum]

Bees and a dragonfly

[grimsauce]

First time seeing a Ruddy Darter (Sympetrum sanguineum) in the garden, hopefully not the last.

[dansnaturepictures]

We have had an awesome weekend in Rutland attending the Global Bird Fair which I always love going to. Across two days in the fair it was good to have our annual photo with Simon King, chat to lots of other great people, hear inspiring talks, watch fun quizzes and see birds including Whitethroat, Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Wren and Green and Great Spotted Woodpecker being ringed at the ringing demonstration and Elephant Hawk-moth, Brimstone moth and others at the Butterfly Conservation stand. The talks and chats included insightful looks into how Springwatch and the wildlife bits of the One Show are made, a look at the groundbreaking and inspiring work of Roy Dennis and others translocating species to return them to areas especially Ospreys and White-tailed Eagles, hear fascinating tales of David Lindo and Simon King’s lives in nature and catch up with people we know from the fair in the past, social media and Heatherlea the company we have been on Scotland birding holidays with. As always a feel good and fulfilling weekend for a good cause of the brilliant project the fair is supporting this year helping the Southern Ocean’s Seabirds. 

The wild side of the weekend was wonderful as we enjoyed special time in the Rutland Water Lyndon and Egleton nature reserves on Friday and Saturday. Dragonflies claimed the stage of sunny heatwave days as Brown and Southern Hawker and Emperor confidently patrolled the pathways and water’s edge and ruby Ruddy Darters flitted around vegetation with Black-tailed Skimmer and Broad-bodied Chaser enjoyed too. On Friday a stunning patch of path side meadow adorned with tufted vetch, scabious, viper’s-bugloss, bird’s-foot trefoil and more teemed with lepidoptera life with Comma, Peacock, many Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Common Blue, Small Copper and Small Skipper butterflies and Six-spot Burnet moths with Mother of Pearl moth seen on a magical and tranquil Saturday evening immersed in nature. I was mesmerised watching a Muntjac at close quarters in a hide. Birding delight came in the form of a glorious gull seen, only our second ever Caspian Gull and Green Sandpiper and Greenshank were another two fine sightings. Also top of the tree for birds were Red Kite, an exciting view of a Hobby and the regal Rutland Ospreys with some splendid views of these terrific raptors. 

Other highlights this weekend included Stock Dove, Great White Egret, Yellowhammer heard, Red Admiral, Brimstone, Black Clock beetle, water mint, marsh woundwort, hoverflies and oh so many wasps the emblem of this Bird Fair. The photos in this set from the weekend are of; goatsbeard, Mute Swan, Large White butterfly, a hot view, the Caspian Gull, an Osprey with the scenic Burley-on-the-Hill house visible from much of Rutland Water in the background and bird's-foot trefoil, scabious and yarrow.

[unkn0wnvariable]

Resting Darter

A ruddy darter dragonfly resting on a plant stem in the afternoon sunlight, at RSPB Fen Drayton Lakes.