So... here I was, walking through the zoo in Poznan, minding my own business, when I spotted this little beasty having a (probably) well earned rest. I've always been jealous of those nice pics people post of such critters, and, as a result, I whipped out my camera and snapped as quickly as I could. As it turned out, the shot was rubbish. I tried again, and again, and again.
As it turned out I didn't have to rush cos this particular specimen was much too tired to be going anywhere.
My wife suggested trying to get a film of it in flight... only it didn't want to fly and showed no signs of going anywhere. Prodding it with a stick only made it hop into the air for a second or two before landing exactly where it had been. Doing this several times produced the same effect. What we produced, therefore, was not a nature documentary type film, as we'd hoped, but rather more like "Learn to torture insects" by Sz!
Anyhoo..... The title of this image was originally "Damselfly". It seems there's some confusion regarding these beasts. My original choice of title was based on information I read at Blackbrook Farm Zoological Park (which is in Stafforshire, England). The sign there said that what most folks believe to be dragonflies are, in fact, damselflies. Furthermore, they're so difficult to tell apart that mostly only entomologists know how to do it. Well, ok I thought, I've been wrong all these years and I'll start calling them damselflies. Fine. I posted the image along with many of my others at flickr and, straight away, two folks told me it's a dragonfly. I can live with that. Futher research shows that damselflies are skinny little things - based on the photos I've found they're ugly, thin, black bodied thingies - that sit with their wings held together above the body. Dragonflies, by contrast, are the pretty colourful chappies who lounge around the place with their wings laid out flat ... as was the case with this individual. Soooo... now we know.
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