Today I visited one of my favourite dragonfly haunts,
Warrandyte State Park around Mount Lofty in Wonga Park.
I began at the car park at the end of Lower Homestead Road, following the river downstream.
Last time I was here in late December I had to dodge many Enammelled Spiders,
but at this time of year the place was covered with Leaf Curling Spiders.
These are also pretty spiders but virtually impossible to photograph as they
hide most of the time in a curled up leaf in the centre of their web.
I began seeing more than the occasional dragonfly or damselfly as I neared the rapids.
A new species for me were the Common Shutwing, Cordulephya pygmaea.
I took many photos, over 200 of one that sat and returned to one spot.
These are small dragonflies but very swift in flight, at first I thought it was some sort of fly or wasp.
There was also at least one large species of dragonfly but they were always on the wing.
I managed to catch one from a distance while she was depositing eggs.
I also saw several Gold-fronted River Damsels, Pseudagrion aureofrons,
but unable to even get a moderately good image of one.
They hunted flying swiftly, very close to the water surface, back and forth over 20m or so.
Because of their speed and low flight they were seen mainly over clam water but still near the rapids.
On the way back over the hill saw a nice reddish-brown colored snake stretched across the path.
It was about 1m long and I spent some time trying to get photos of it without getting too close
(the advantage of having a decent zoom).
I left it alone when it became agitated, flaring its neck out.
I believe its a Copperhead, Austrelaps superbus.
