Hunting Dragons and Damsels!

I had not intended to go out today but at 9.30am I made my way over to Shuart where as the sun was just warming up I thought I would have a look for dragonflies and damselflies. I have yet to see a Reculver Hairy Dragonfly so with this in mind I had a look around the sheltered spots where it was warming up nicely. I was joined by Derek Smith who had earlier seen a couple of Hairy dragonflies so I thought with his knowledge we would find a few. Butterflies were just taking to the wing and we managed to see Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, Comma, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Green veined White, Large White, Speckled Wood and Orange Tip. As I walked around a few Blue tailed Damselflies took to the wing and whilst having a look at one I noticed a red Damselfly. I quickly got on to it and could not believe that it was a Large Red Damselfly, a very rare Damselfly at Reculver with only a couple of records in the past. I took a number of shots and luckily Derek Smith was only a few metres away and was able to add this species to his Reculver list. As far as I know this is the first photographed Large Red Damselfly to be taken at Reculver.

Large Red Damselfly

We left it in piece but it looks likely that there maybe a small colony in the area nearby as this one looked freshly emerged. We continued looking finding a few Common Blue Damselflies but never did find a Hairy Dragonfly, a mission for another day. I did have nice views though of a Humminbird Hawk Moth. I made my way back to the car and moved off to Reculver where I met Phil Parker for a chat. A quick look of the area revealed good numbers of Common Blue Damselflies but I will need to come back and keep searching for any Variable or Azure Damselflies, scarce species in the area. A pair of Marsh Harriers quartering the field ended a pleasant session and hopefully during the week the sun will shine at some point to allow me to continue my Hairy Dragonfly quest.

 Blue tailed Damselfly

Common blue Damselfly

Again tonight whilst uploading a few shots, a few of them uploaded looking very 'noisy'. I checked the originals and they look fine. A bit weird as others have uploaded fine but an issue I have encountered twice of late.