Brown Hawker (Aeshna grandis)

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The Brown Hawker

This is a late season Hawker Dragonfly emerging in mid to late July and can be seen, usually in a fairly tatty condition, right through to late September and even into early October.

The male and female are both brown in colour as their name suggests with brown suffused wings. There is no mistaking this very striking species.

The males have blue patches near to the base of the abdomen and the eyes are brown but with a blue suffusion. The female has all brown eyes and a thicker abdomen that tapers towards its tip.

In my opinion this is undoubtedly one of the most challenging dragonfly species to approach and capture good images of. It seems to spend nearly all its time on the wing, very rarely settling. Even when it does it is a very difficult subject to get near to and get photographs in any great detail.

They settle in dense vegetation and often close to the ground which may hamper a stealthful approach. This Hawker is very easily disturbed and will readily fly off before you get near to taking a shot.

Occasionally a Brown Hawker will stop on an accessible perch, if so make the most of every opportunity as in my experience it is rare occurrence indeed.

Photographic Overview - The Brown Hawker

All of my images are taken in handheld mode without the use of any camera support and this overview is written with that in mind.

As I have previously stated the Brown Hawker can be difficult to appraoch. Finding a perched specimen is some what rare in my experience. Try watching one hawking over a meadow, occasionally it will go to ground especially to eat larger prey.

When making your approach be careful as the vegetation will be very dense. Try keeping some foliage between you and the perching subject and at the last minute peer round or through it to take your image. If you manage to get close enough then taking good images is relatively easy and there are no real compostion problems.

A windy sunny day can be fruitful especially in fallow meadows close to a body of still water, in such conditions they appear to be more approachable because they are seeking shlelter. Make the most of these rare photograhic opportunities as in my experience they do not arise very often.

If you want to know more about this species, then follow this link - To Narrative

If you want to see the best of these images, then follow this link - To Slide Show

These images were obtained by stealth and patience alone, no other non photographic techniques were used. I hope you have enjoyed browsing my website and that you'll return again soon.

Page Updated 08/10

All of these photographs were taken by and remain the property of Chris Brooks

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