Country diary: This is surely my last dragonfly of the year

Glentrool, Dumfries and Galloway: One by one summer's lights are going out, so I'm thankful to see this black darter skulking in the shadowsBlack darter dragonflies get darker as they age. This one has an almost blue sheen. Through binoculars I can make out three smudges of a dull yellow to the tip and base of the abdomen, two stripes slanting across the thorax and one bloom of blond down. But these are only details to its crushed-velvet blackness, and wings made of wrought iron and glass.Black is the right word for this one. Darter not so much. Its flight is too reluctant, too cold-muscled. I first saw it by the path, slipping slowly between the seedheads of ribwort plantain, almost invisible in the shadows. At rest, it is easy to pass over as a fragment of a stem, broken and bent by the rain showers that have washed the light from the afternoon. This is a day that has alternated between heather glowing pink and purple in the sun, and a glen capped in thick grey. Shirt sleeves and waterproofs. September here can feel like summer and winter all wrapped up together. Continue reading...