The man gets his woman! :)

IPClark

Having spotted a couple of hovers flying once again around our Potentilla bush, I noticed they were playing a little bit of a darting about game. Presuming this to be a mating game, I got the camera ready.

The little guy was poised and ready... intently watching his female target as she alighted on one of the flowers. In one quick swoop, he was in there, wasting no time, he coupled up with her.



Looks like he has a bit of a war wound on the left of his eye too.




...and another shot of a Hover in flight. Different one as this is also a male yet has no eye damage (that I can see)

Lord Vetinari

Wonderful captures of the hovers- Syritta pipiens- often watch them around my Potentilla bush
Brian v.

IPClark

Cheers Brian.

Indeed, I have come to know the pipiens quite well as they're in much larger numbers than any of the other hovers but I never tire of photographing them. I am however exceptionally pleased to have photographed the mating procedure.

Haha, these potentilla bushes get into eveything

On a side note, I have finally found a decent source for Damsels and other bugs that doesn't require a 1 hour drive or something. The Mersey estuary business park has a man man wetlands area with hundreds of reeds, water lillies and tall grasses. I took my 3 year old son over there a couple of days ago to see the ducks and was amazed at the amount of damsels and other flies about plus the ladybirds there were HUGE. Great thing is that it's about 5 minutes away. Bonus

Will be heading over as soon as I get a chance