{"id":9410,"date":"2026-07-11T17:22:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T17:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/?p=9410"},"modified":"2026-07-11T17:32:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T17:32:47","slug":"a-hot-dragonfly-afternoon-at-kew-gardens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/11\/a-hot-dragonfly-afternoon-at-kew-gardens\/","title":{"rendered":"A Hot Dragonfly Afternoon at Kew Gardens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The heat dome over Europe has made water bodies like Kew’s lake all the more special. In the 30 C heat of the afternoon, the dragonflies sparkle, shimmer, and flash across the water, hardly perching, diving at each other in lightning-rapid defences of territory. This male Ruddy Darter perched long enough between aerial sallies to be pictured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Common Blue Damselflies skittered about, perching for a few seconds at a time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Higher over the water, Emperor Dragonflies patrolled ceaselessly. Smaller species like Black-tailed Skimmers and Broad-bodied Chasers flashed low over the water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pairs of Small Red-eyed Damselflies settled on the Duckweed near the margin of the lake, the females repeatedly laying eggs while the males clasped their necks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An extremely tame fox panted in the heat, hoping for dainty morsels of food from nearby picnickers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The heat dome over Europe has made water bodies like Kew’s lake all the more special. In the 30 C heat of the afternoon, the dragonflies sparkle, shimmer, and flash across the water, hardly perching, diving at each other in lightning-rapid defences of territory. This male Ruddy Darter perched long enough between aerial sallies to … Continue reading A Hot Dragonfly Afternoon at Kew Gardens<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[424,322,215,428,198,385,1325,1874],"class_list":["post-9410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natural-history","tag-black-tailed-skimmer","tag-broad-bodied-chaser","tag-common-blue-damselfly","tag-emperor-dragonfly","tag-kew-gardens","tag-red-fox","tag-ruddy-darter","tag-small-red-eyed-damselfly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9410"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9422,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9410\/revisions\/9422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}