After my eldest son insisted, my wife brought in (from the road) a beaten up dragonfly for me to identify, this morning.

A lovely brown hawker, so it was.

And a male, to boot.  (I think the best way to differentiate between male and female brown hawkers is to look at the abdomen, and if there's a noticeable waist (a wasp like constriction), it's a male you're looking at... (and if there isn't a "waist".... yes.... it's a female).

Poor thing looked a bit knackered by the state of its frayed wings. I hope it had a chance to find a mate in the last month, or its brief adult life would have been a bit of a waste (or waist in this case of this male) to be frank.

I popped it on our sunflower stems, took a few photos... and waited for it to either fly away, or a bird to find it.

Probably the latter to be honest though.

Anyway... a lovely thing to see this morning. These bronze-winged dragonflies surrre are purty.