The Brown Hawker is an impressively acrobatic dragonfly that can hover or fly backwards and even catch its prey in mid-air.

One of the largest and fastest of our dragons, it flies with long glides and bursts of fast wingbeats and is an aggressive defender of its regular hunting territory, often seen patrolling the water or 'hawking' through woodland rides.

This blue and yellow-speckled beauty can be found near well-vegetated canals, marshes, reedbeds, lakes and flooded gravel pits from June to September.

It breeds in slow-moving or still water such as the Montgomery Canal and its larvae eat aquatic insects, tadpoles and small fish. The Brown Hawker lives here year-round, but migrants from continental Europe can increase the population in season.