Nature rather than football

Hi Ian. Common darter, broad bodied chaser (male and female) migrant and southern hawkers and a four spotted chaser. Plus the emperor.
I struggle to identify them, I'm not expert and you get a lot of variation depending on how old the dragonfly is, plus colour differences according to sex.
I try to take photos with my smartphone and have a bit of slow mo footage I took a couple of years ago but I use Google a lot to identify ones I might only get brief glimpses of
I love them though, and they seem to like my pond

 

Could be worse mate

 

Don't forget the Brown Hawker, my favourite.

 

I have just spotted a snake (grass I hope) that has decided to adopt my compost bin for its home. Will try and get a photo

 

Toss saints

The giveaway will be the yellow marks by thr head. They are olive green with faint black zigzag.

 

Probably a grass snake TS, most likely in the compost bin to lay eggs. They are a protected species so be careful not to disturb them.

They vary in colour from green to brown.

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Here's one we had in the garden quite a few years ago.

But this is an Adder with distinctive black markings on back.

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Not the greatest photo but it was taken 10 years ago with an iPhone 5s.
One year they had 2 chicks but I was always too late to get a photo with all four together. I believe they are Great Spotted Woodpeckers.

 

Thanks Only a game. Definitely like the first one. The compost bin is my my black currants bushes. Was wearing g flips flops to pick, but now back to wellies. Will try and not disturb it too much. Don't really like snakes. But feels good to have different species in the garden

 

Ow wow that is fab

 

They used to scare the life out of me sometimes, when they flew in and landed on those wire cages that you put “fat balls” in to feed them. The cage was on the bars of a Juliet balcony and the speed they hit the cage was enough to knock the glass.
Couldn’t get any photos of them feeding as they seemed very sensitive to movement and as soon as I tried to move into a position to catch a good photo, they were gone.
That same garden (in Rollesbrook Gardens off of Hill Lane) is where I saw a random Hoopoe one time. Couldn’t get a decent shot because of the poor camera on the 5s iPhone.