Double Damsels in East Kent

With another day of glorious sunshine I made an after work visit to a site south of Reculver to look for the female Scarce Emerald Damselfly I had found yesterday. A few other dragonfly enthusiasts had looked at my photos and confirmed that it was indeed a Scarce, a rare damselfly in these parts. On arrival I met up with Dave Barnes who was also on site and we wandered on down to the area noting a few Black tailed Skimmer, 1 Emperor Dragonfly and lots of Common Blue Damselflies. I was soon head down looking in the grasses where good number of Emerald Damselfly were seen and not long after with a bit of luck, I found the female SCARCE EMERALD DAMSELFLY at rest. Dave was soon with me watching this East Kent mega and we took a number of shots of it.

Female Scarce Emerald Damselfly

Having read a bit more about this species last night, it was good to see some of the other features I was unaware of yesterday. With yet more luck or skill as I like to call it, the male SOUTHERN EMERALD DAMSELFLY appeared from the grass in front of me and sat no more than a metre away from the Scarce Emerald Damselfly. With the sun shining I was able to get a number of pleasing images and Dave was a very happy man indeed.

Male Southern Emerald Damselfly

The local farmer turned up and Dave had a word with him and whilst he was happy for us to be on the site, he wishes that the site remains private otherwise the few that do visit will not be able to continue to monitor this superb site. Its been a magical few days finding 2 rare Kent damselflies but yet more of an education into how to identify them and their subtle features, and also very nice to get a few images as well. Maybe a visit in the next few days if the weather allows and maybe I should leave the camera at home, I just can't keep up with all the photos!