A Few Personal Finds

A few minutes from where I live is a superb private site tucked away to the south of Reculver which has yielded 20 species of dragonfly and damselfly for me this year, not bad for a small site. I made numerous visits this year to see and photograph the various species on the wing but on one visit in early July I cycled to the site after work and looked in a small area that had recently dried out where numerous Emerald Damselflies were on the wing. Whilst checking through them I noticed a chunky individual fly up from the grass and land again. After scrutinising it for a while I come to the conclusion that it was a female Scarce Emerald Damselfly, a very rare damselfly in these parts with the nearest known colony over 40 miles away at Cliffe Marhes RSPB. This individual was in superb fresh condition and while it may have wandered from a colony somewhere nearby, I couldn't help but think that perhaps it had emerged from this site. After checking various books when I got home and photos on the internet, it was very pleasing to know that my initial id was correct with this species. Thankfully she showed well for the camera and in a few visits I was able to grab a number of very pleasing images showing all the features needed to confirm this species. I continued to search this site but never found anymore Scarce Emerald Damselflies. Perhaps it was a wandering individual or perhaps a small colony is nearby somewhere, I shall look forward to looking next year. What I did know was that I was chuffed to bits that I had found a very scarce damselfly near home and better was still to come on my next trip here........... but that's another post for another day!

Female Scarce Emerald Damselfly