Saturday 12 May 2018

Away Day at Thursley Common

With a number of Downy Emeralds starting to emerge at Thursley Common during the week, I hatched a plan to make a visit over the weekend to see if I could find and photograph them and hopefully collect an exuviae of the species to add to my collection. I think I have only two photos of a Downy Emerald, one in flight and the other quite high up in a tree so I was keen to address this issue. The weather this morning promised early sunshine and then clouding over but hardly any wind and having read a bit about them, it seemed that they would still be emerging if it clouded over. I was up at 4am and after getting ready I left home at 4.30am and ninety minutes later, I pulled up not surprisingly in an empty car park. I had a bit of drink and some breakfast and with the sun now shining through, I made my way to the Moat. I had an idea where they would be emerging and entering this area, I straight away could see an exuviae. A quick check confirmed it was indeed a Downy Emerald exuviae, the first I have seen and a bonus for my collection. I was happy with one but little did I know that I was to find c60 Downy Emerald exuviae over about 20 metres, amazing. I'm sure there were many more as well that went unnoticed. Not long after I had started checking I soon found the first of 5 newly emerged Downy Emerald and I was able to at last, spend some time studying them and their superb colouring. I have seen photos from others in the past showing some lovely rainbow colours not long after emergence on the head and thorax and it was great to take a number of photos showing these colours off well.
 





Downy Emerald (teneral male)
 
As I continued to search throughout the morning, I soon started to find Downy Emeralds emerging, 5 in total that I could see but no doubt others that I missed. I did manage to photograph most of an emergence which I shall post in due coarse but there chosen sights were quite tricky to photograph from. This has to be one of my best ever sessions, both from a photography point of view and the experience. With a number of pleasing images obtained and plenty of time studying this lovely dragonfly, I made my way back to the car around 11.45am... along with c20 exuviae which I had collected. No doubt I will photo these soon for another post. I also saw a number of Large Red Damselfly which rounded off an excellent trip. More to come from Thursley during the week.
 



Downy Emerald (teneral female)


4 comments:

  1. Wow, I love it, especially close up of the Downy Emerald, well done Marc.

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    1. Many thanks Bob. Yes I agree, the colours on the close up blow my mind. Stunning.

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  2. Absolutely fabulous images, Marc. This species is on my hit list, and has just moved to the top of the list!

    Best wishes - - - Richard

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    1. Many thanks Richard. Always nice to see something new. I've seen them always speeding along later in the season so to be able to see them as they emerge and see those colours was fantastic.

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