Flashes of blue and green, a fast, zig-zagging circular flight as the dragonfly patrols its chosen territory.
A week ago, this year’s first appearance of an emperor dragonfly on the Compton Park pond. It seemed to be settled. Last year once the first one arrived there were emperors present for some time. There were often two or three jousting over space, and frequent mating.
But this most recent one seems just to have hung around for one day. I’ve been back a few times and seen no sign of one, though there has been an occasional brown hawker and several common darters.