Macro shoot River Dee may 28th

Today I am heading to the river Dee at Aldford near Chester to photograph the Common Clubtail Dragonflies which have just started emerging.
The weather is mixed cloud ,sun and rain showers along with a slight breeze so as I will be shooting handheld as normal with natural light I am taking my old canon 5dmk2 with the 100mmL macro lens.  the 5dsr would be no good in this situation as the huge number of pixels needs a much faster shutterspeed to get sharp images.

Parking by the church I have walked over a couple of fields and down towards  the river, the path runs next to this beautiful bridge.

Almost immediately I have spotted a male Banded Demoiselle, and its perched superbly with really nice light.  
                                                           f5.6   1/80 th    iso 400

And here is a female ,  a lovely brownish colour  but I have not managed to get a better composition.

                  Looking down the field next to the river, it is a fabulous insect rich environment.

 Looking for the small Clubtail  dragonflys is hit and miss, usually the first sighting is when they fly off when disturbed.      Which is exactly what has just happened,  I followed and managed this image.

I have got it on my finger and after a quick image I have taken my mpe macro lens out for a close up

                         This is the best I have managed before it flew off.   still on my finger !

I continue down the field edge searching for another Clubtail and after spooking one have almost straight away found another , its looking like a good emergence over the last couple days.

                                                                  f6.3  1/80 th   iso 100

Further down I have been trying to shoot the female Bandeds but they are quite skittish , this is the best i have managed.

A pair in cop.

Yet another Clubtail make an appearance .f6.3  1/250th  iso 200 

                                         A male Banded Demoiselle in classic Obelisk pose
There is light rain in the air and that is helping keep them less active   and the light is really soft  perfect for shooting this species which have quite a reflective metallic sheen to the body.

I have walked right to the end of the third field,  that is usually the best area so will make my way back now to see what other species I can find.

                                                        Female common blue I think

          There has just been a rain shower, and this Red eyed damsel still has drops on its wings.
Its taken me ages to get a shot of this species, very active even in these overcast conditions.

Looks like more rain is coming, its getting quite dark compared to earlier.  Better light for photographing the damsels but harder to get sharper images.

                         A quick shot of a Nomada Bee, not great but its another species shot.

                   A Mayfly, hard to get sharp images at the moment in theses dull conditions.

         Here is one of my favorite sawfly species,  beautiful coloured species Rhogogastor Viridis

During a very light rain shower i have found this male Banded Demoiselle beautifully perched low down on a grass stem , shooting at f2.8 to reduce dof so the stems in the background are blurred out has worked perfectly.   this is my favourite image of the day.

The rain is getting heavier now so time to walk back to the car after a great couple of hours .