No, I haven’t just seen a Common Darter.
I have been at it again. Identifying animals on other peoples blogs and so…
This is how I know that it is a Common Darter.
Here is a beautiful Common Darter.
A fairly small to medium sized Dragonfly they are easy to confuse with Ruddy Darters.
This next picture is a Ruddy Darter. Notice that it has black legs.
The Common Darter has a pale yellow stripe on the outside of it’s black legs. Like this š
Colour isn’t a very good indicator of species. The Ruddy Darter is, as you would expect, quite red but a male Common Darter is also red and this next Common Darter is ruddier than the Ruddy Darter above but it does have a yellow stripe on the outside of it’s leg and I know what it is.
The Common Darter is an ambush predator. Unlike the Hawkers that patrol the skies Darters find a nice perch and wait for something to fly past.
They are quite an easy animal to approach for a photograph. (as animals go) They look a bit brownish and dull as they cruise around you but if you can get up close they are absolutely beautiful.
A Tramp in the Woods 
Do they interbreed?
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I have never heard of them interbreeding and given that the leg colour is always used to identify them I would say no. If there was a hybrid I am sure that I would have heard of it. Thank you for an interesting question š
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Very nice . . . I can’t usually get that close to the dragonflies I come across here.
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Thanks Emilio š Most of the time I go out ready to photograph anything that will stay still and sometimes that is a Dragonfly. It is when I go out with a specific target in mind that it gets really difficult. I often go out wanting a particular picture of the male or female of a species and spend ages chasing them with no end result. That is frustrating.
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Great photos! Well done!
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Thank you very much š
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So very beautiful š
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