A walk around a blade of grass

It’s Day 13 of #30DaysWild, the scheme run by the Wildlife Trusts to get people to have wild experiences in June. I’ve been out for a walk to my local country park. It’s a beautiful evening and the water lilies are just coming into flower on the lake:

There’s also a Common Spotted Orchid, Dactylorhiza fuchsii, or two in glorious flower on the grass slope:

As I move through the wild flowers and grasses I can see tiny Damselflies perching on blades of grass. They are so small, so delicate, it’s as if they aren’t there:

These look like Blue Tailed Damselflies, Ischnura elegans, to me:

Then I see another Damselfly. It’s a much more subtle colouration. I suspect that it’s a female. It’s hidden behind the stem it’s perched on.

I’d really like a better look at it, so I move around, walking around the grass that it’s on. As I do so, the Damselfly moves as well. It doesn’t fly off, it just shuffles round the stem so it’s always facing away from me. I crawl round slowly, clockwise and so does the Damselfly. We’re caught in a little moment of our own. I stay where I am and move my camera around slowly, trying to catch it:

I’m partly there. I chase it round a little more with my camera and manage to catch a view of it:

Then I’m suddenly aware that I’m in a field totally absorbed in walking around a blade of grass. That, it seems to me, is the essence of #30DaysWild.