Saturday 25 May 2013

An Hour at Shuart

Having planned an away day for tomorrow weather permitting to Abbots Wood in East Sussex for Pearl Bordered Fritillary I had not intended to go out today but with the sun shining and the temperatures rising I thought I would drive over to Shuart to see if any butterflies of dragonflies were on the wing. My targets were Hairy Dragonfly and Azure Damselfly, both of which I have not seen at Reculver before so with this in mind I started searching likely areas soon finding Common Blue Damselflies and Blue tailed Damselflies. Plenty of butterflies were enjoying the sunshine with Green veined White, Orange Tip, Peacock and Holly Blue noted. As I wandered through some grass I noticed a Damselfly and started to grill it. I could not see the custom club shape at the top of segment 2 but instead noticed the U shape on segment 2. I was pretty sure this was an Azure Damselfly, probably an immature male and a look through books after getting home would seem to confirm this. Any thoughts from others appreciated.


Azure Damselfly

I carried on looking finding a further 1 Azure Damselfly and not long after a speedy Dragonfly flew past. I did not have time to see it well but felt it must have been a Hairy Dragonfly. I ended up back near the car in a sunny sheltered spot where I stood and watched 3 Hairy Dragonfly chasing each other and catching small insects but none ever settled for a photo. Only an hour out but very rewarding in the warm sunshine and lets hope I see Pearl bordered Fritillary tomorrow, this will be a new butterfly for me and a chance to try out my new camera which I will be getting tomorrow morning, a Canon 50d.

Azure Damselfly

4 comments:

  1. Marc ,
    No argument from me on your ID , imm. male Azure Damselfly it is .
    Only difference between us , you call it a 'U' on segment 2 , I call it a 'whisky tumbler' .
    Good luck tomorrow with the PBFs , weather looks good , hope you got the map OK .

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    1. Cheers Greenie, all received. Looking forward to it.

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  2. Got my first Azure Damsel this afternoon too Marc. Only got one quick opportunity to photograph it, so not too impressive - unlike your efforts ;-)

    Had a male Orange tip in the garden this afternoon, it sat perfectly on a forget me not, but in my rush to swap lenses I made a pigs ear of the camera settings, i'll post the result up tomorrow!

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  3. Pretty Azure Dragonflies, superb.

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