I have quite a number of dragonflies emerging from my pond this year and will post more about them in another post. I found this one dragonfly quite a way from the pond, about 3 metres. Not sure whether at had emerged and flown there (unlikely) or it had crawled there as a nymph and emerged there. I couldn't see any signs of its exuvia (outer case of nymph.). It was attached to a plant with his wings closed as though it hadn't yet managed to fly. Its wings were bent at the end as though it hadn't been able to fully expand them.
This was 2 days ago and I have been watching but it still has not opened its wings. I have just tried to open them and found that it only has three wings instead of the usual four. It did start to move when I separated them so will keep an eye it to see if it manages to fly off. It must be in need of food by now after all the effort it has been through to emerge.
