Southern Hawker: Despite its name, the Southern hawker is not as common a sighting around Wigan and Leigh. So when one turns up flying around my garden I was keen to grab the camera and head out.
Its the third time I've seen it flying over my modest pond and flying around the garden but the first time I had my camera ready.
Southern hawkers can easily be confused with is Northern counterpart, and often require a closer inspection of a photograph for identification. As with most other Hawkers, the Common takes to the sky from mid summer onwards, and can be observed as late as October.
There's a small flash locally called Polly's Pond at the end of the street which is the likely place that this stunning flying jewel came from. I doubt it came out of my small pond, but hopefully it might have used it at some point. Maybe they will deposit their eggs in it one day?
