Reculver and Highstead

For the first time in almost a month I went birding this morning at Reculver. I left home at 5.30am and made the 5 minute drive into the area where on the way 1 Little Owl flew up from the road. I parked up near the towers and with the sun just rising I walked on down the seawall to Coldharbour where I spent some time looking around the pool. Other than the usual commoner birds the highlight this morning were 6 Little Tern which were fishing off Coldharbour for a while before moving seemingly off east. I attempted a few distant shots but most of them were looking into the sun so they did not come out at all well. There were 2 Little Owl in the caravan park, 1 Peregrine, 1 Willow Warbler, 16 Swift, 28 Sandwich Tern, 33 Common Tern, 1 Whimbrel, 3 Grey Heron, 6 Little Egret, 14 Ringed Plover, 1 Greenshank, 3 Common Sandpiper, 1 Eider, 10 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Fulmar west, 1 Hobby and 2 Swallow. As I walked back to the car the forecast clouds started to move in but before I returned home I called in at Highstead to see if I could find the 2 Small Red eyed Damselfly that Chris Tedder had found a few day earlier. On arrival it actually started spitting with rain but there were odd breaks in the cloud but the sun never really did make it out. I had a walk along the footpath and general area noting 13 Emerald Damselfly, 1 Emperor Dragonfly seen catching and then eating a Common Darter, lots of Common Darter as well as Common Blue and Blue tailed Damselflies and 5 Black tailed Skimmer. I had a good look in the area Chris had told me to look in but at first with no luck but as I walked back checking the bushes and long grass I at last found the first of 2 Small Red eyed Damselfly resting up out of the wind. These Damselflies are still nationally quite rare and can only be found in the south east of Britain but I believe they are slowly spreading north. With not a great deal of light I set about getting a few photos and had a good look at the identification features, namely the 'X' shape on segment 10 which can partly be seen in the photos. On one occasion when it landed, it seemed to tightrope on some spiders silk making for a nice shot as it tried to balance.

Small Red eyed Damselfly

With a few shots taken I made my way back to the car and home which as I arrived the sun duly come out! Weather permitting I shall hopefully be on another Dragonfly mission tomorrow with a visit to Bedgebury to see Brilliant Emerald. This would be another new species for me to go with my ever growing collection in 2013. Hopefully I will see some and maybe a photo if I am lucky but they can be one of the most difficult species to photograph! Again the photos seem nothing like what I edited in Photoshop with noise and colour issues. I just wish they would upload as I would want them to, sort it out Blogger!!

Small Red eyed Damselfly