Main content

Stick trick

With a little bit of natural history know-how you can use some dragonfly behaviour to get a really good view of them. You need a stick. Plant it in the muddy banks of a pool at a 45 degree angle and the dragonflies will hopefully use it as a hunting perch. Janet Sumner sits and waits. She has no luck with her stick. However there is a female dragonfly laying her eggs, dipping her ovipositor in the surface water, with a male guarding her as she does. A four spotted chaser perches on another stick. It gets its name from the spots on its wings. It uses its perches to defend its territory from rival males and as a vantage point to survey the pond for food.

Release date:

Duration:

2 minutes

Featured in...

More clips from Summer: Wetland