A Good Year for the Norfolk Hawker in Kent

It was a good year in 2015 for the Norfolk Hawker at Westbere Lakes, where the species continues to thrive and grow in number year after year with 30+ seen. Living and working not far from the site, I made numerous visits to see and photograph this striking species and monitor their numbers throughout the season. I think the obvious statement is that this species seems to be on the move in east Kent with a few individuals also seen a few miles away in East Blean Woods and Reculver. I also saw one individual hawking over the school field where I teach. That certainly made the lesson more interesting! I am quietly confident that there must be a few other sites that we are yet to find in east Kent but hopefully with more people looking and becoming more interested in odonata, they will be found. I must have taken a thousand or so shots throughout their season and still have many to look through. They do often show well and can often be found hawking up and down the ditches at Westbere where good flight views and photographic opportunities can be had, as well as landing close by on the reeds where they look out and patrol from. I would have liked to have found a complete exuviae of this species but the probable one I found, was missing the head section. Maybe next year I will get lucky and hopefully this species will have an even better year flying at Westbere. Here are a few of the many photos I took this year of this stunning green eyed dragonfly.

Norfolk Hawker