If you search for "Chasing the Dragon" on the internet, you will find it's a name for smoking heroin. However, the Purbeck version is a much more pleasant variation. For the past few days, I've seen a Broad-bodied Chaser hanging around my garden and being typically elusive. It took me ten years before I saw my first Broad-bodied Chaser for the Garden List and I had one or two sightings annually for the next five years. Then they appeared to die out as I had no sightings in the nine years until I saw one during the first Spring lockdown. Since then, they have been almost annual, but still just one or two sightings a year. In several of the years, I've seen them, the views have been so short, that I've had to record them as a Chaser sp. However, as Broad-bodied Chaser is the only Chaser I've recorded in the garden, then it is a fair bet only one species occurs. Finally today, I've had one perch up for several minutes by my front garden pond. I had to take some photos and I'm pleased with the results.
I always think of Dragonflies as having hard external bodies. However, when you watch them at a few metres, you can see the abdomen broadening and contracting. The next two photos were taken within a few frames, so about a half second apart in time and from the same position. Note, the differences in the width of the abdomen (which is the same length in both photos).
This is only the second occasion that I've managed to photograph a Broad-bodied Chaser in the garden.
