Hawkers, Darters and Skimmers

Club tailed dragonfly pen drawing

Dragonflies have always interested me.  I remember walking in Golcar in Huddersfield on a path beside a train track in the middle of summer whilst staying with my great Auntie Mona and watching the dragonflies demonstrating their remarkable aerobatic skills, hovering and chasing each other with such elegance, speed and control.  

They are amazing creatures often with elongated iridescent bodies, strong transparent wings and multifaceted eyes.  They are formidable hunters, chasing other insects at high speed through the air.   They move their wings in a figure of eight motion and are able to fly forwards, backwards and sideways.

The modern dragonflies have ancestors placed 300 million years ago in history, they were magnificent creatures with a wingspan of up to a meter!  

The title 'dragonfly' almost suggests a magical fantastical animal and many of the names given to the different species are dynamic such as skimmers, darters and hawkers.

A good place to view dragonflies in summer is Rodley Nature Reserve

Rodley Nature reserve have a brilliant pond system created to attract dragonflies and damselflies, perfect for a trip out with family.  They also provide free pond dipping and you can have the opportunity to scoop up the juvenile stage of the dragonflies, a nymph.  They look like little monsters! 

A dragonfly nymph

My fascination in these insects has shown itself in various aspects of my life and work.  On my wedding table we had napkin decorations made from wire and beads in the form of dragonflies.

Wedding table decoration

My logo for my business in a dragonfly.

Lino printed dragonfly wall hanging

An acrylic painting of an abstract composition of a dragonfly first executed as a mosaic 

...and my jewellery

One of the many pieces of jewellery I have made with the Club Tail dragonfly inset

I even have a flight of dragonfly gift boxes to package my work in, printed with my own stamp.

Gift boxes

So the next time you see one of these intriguing insects zipping past take a moment to watch it and just think of the prehistoric ancestor with the wings a meter wide!