With a better forecast for today I was out of the house at 5.45am where I once again drove down to Reculver and walked down the seawall and inland to Chambers Wall. Although there were only glimpses of sun, it was quite mild and there was hardly any wind. As well as the usual commoner birds seen I saw 1 Red legged Partridge, 14 Swift, 9 Reed Warbler, 2 Common Tern, 5 Little Egret, 5 Sedge Warbler, 1 Turtle Dove, a year tick, 2 House Martin, 2 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Grasshopper Warbler reeling at Chambers Wall, 3 Tufted Duck, 1 Lesser Whitethroat and 4 Skylark. As I returned to the car there were a few breaks in the cloud so I thought I would visit a site south of Reculver for the first time this year to see if any dragonflies were on the wing. On arrival I soon found a few Common Blue Damselflies contemplating flying along with good numbers of Blue tailed Damselflies and a few Azure Damselflies. I then decided on a walk through the long grass to see if anything was in there and almost immediately I heard the sound of dragonfly wings as a shape took to the air and landed nearby. I soon followed and was pleased to see 1 of 4 Black tailed Skimmer seen today, my first of the year and I expect newly emerged. With the sun in and out I was able to get a few shots of this species from close range before in turn they took to the air and out of sight. I would imagine with more time there were probably a few more emerging but I left with a few shots in the bag of a species which can be tricky to get near in a few weeks time when they are sunbathing on the pathways. Weather permitting, I shall make a visit to Sissinghurst tomorrow to see if I can see some Downy Emeralds and an outside chance of some flight shots. I'm not expecting much as this species is pretty hard to capture in flight but I will give it a try, if they are flying!
Immature Female Black tailed Skimmer
Immature Male Black tailed Skimmer
Immature Male Black tailed Skimmer
Immature Male Black tailed Skimmer
Immature Male Black tailed Skimmer
Nice one Marc,
ReplyDeleteYours has slightly less yellow where the antihumeral stripes would be, maybe a young female.......but i'm no expert!
As for Sisinghurst, the Downy territory I found was on the main lake, by a large old tree trunk that has been cut up by the waters edge, happy hunting :-)
Really close up, after, one of them is even closer, , Marc, you are the king.
ReplyDelete