On sunny days in July, August and early October you are likely to find common darter dragonflies basking on sun-warmed surfaces around the large pond behind Mountjoy 2, between the science site and the Botanic Garden. Dragonflies' large eyes provide almost wrap-around 360 degree vision and the hundreds of separate lenses in each eye makes they very senisitive to anything moving across their field of vision, but if you approach slowly you can usually get a close look at them. During egg laying the male grips the female behind her head with the tip of his tail and they fly in tandem low over the pond edge, with the female dipping her tail in the water to deposit eggs on waterweeds.
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