Dragonflies, damselflies and butterflies

Having waited impatiently for a week for the right weather to return to the idyllic spot on the River Lambourn we found on the last sett survey, it seems the gods of wildlife photography were smiling on me on this sunny, windless morning. Obligingly, these Beautiful Demoiselles damselflies were exactly where we saw them a week ago, a male, above, and a female, below. They are territorial and only found by running water.

Then, two Large White butterflies.

And several Speckled Woods.

The two photos above are the same but with different lighting, which I found pleasing.

I rather like that this individual is partly obscured by foliage.

Finally, this beauty, which after much peering at my reference books (there are quite a number of similarly blue and black patterned dragonflies), I am confident is a Migrant Hawker dragonfly, so-called because the breeding population is boosted by migrants from continental Europe in the autumn, which I suppose would not please those who took part in the ugly Farage riots.