Downy Emerald (Cordulia aenea) Emerging

With the Bank Holiday Monday weather looking quite good early on in the day and light winds, I made the hasty decision to make the 90 minute drive to Thursley Common in Surrey. Leaving Kent at 4am in the dark, I arrived just after 5:30am to an almost empty car park. A quick drink and bite to eat and after getting all the gear ready, I set off for a walk around the Moat Lake near the car park. A visit here last year was rewarded with good views of emerging Downy Emeralds and a chance to get my hands on my first exuviae of this species. I was soon checking the emergent vegetation and with the sun now shining, I was quite optimistic that I would find something. In a favoured area, it took me a while to find the first of 9 Downy Emerald exuviae but I couldn't find any adults at first. I continued on checking likely areas until at last, I caught sight of a teneral Downy Emerald flying up from the vegetation towards the trees. Fortunately for me, it landed on some Heather in the sunshine and I was able to spend some time taking a number of photos which I shall post in due coarse. With the weather slowly warming up, it soon flew higher into the trees to mature up. I continued searching finding just one more Downy Emerald which I grabbed a few photos of before taking a break to drink and eat. I suspect my visit was a week too early to see better numbers emerging but I wasn't going to be beaten. I carried on walking around the lake checking areas when all of a sudden, my luck changed. I was checking a clump of grass when I noticed a Downy Emerald nymph looking like it was about to emerge. This was a great relief and for once, this was in an area that I could get into a good position to take photos. The bad news was that it was near a path where often the dogs run into the water. This was too good a chance to miss so I settled in on my belly and waited... and waited. A few passers by walked by and many asked if I was alright. It must of looked like I had fainted face down but I was able to reassure them wit a number stopping by to have a look at my prize about to emerge. Other than having to intercept a few dogs running past me into the water, I had a lovely relaxing time and after what seemed an age, I could see the Downy Emerald starting to emerge. The clouds were starting to build now and during the next 90 minutes, I found myself photographing in lovely sunshine and then cloudy conditions. A tricky problem with the settings being continually changed but eventually, I ended with some superb views and a few pleasing shots for my effort... and a sore back and neck. Walkers continued to walk by with a few stopping to look at the dragonfly emerging and they all seemed very impressed with what they saw. With the emergence successful and time now running out as I needed to leave at 11am to return back home, I packed up and walked very happily back to the car. Although not the numbers I wanted to see on this visit, I was really pleased to see a couple of teneral Downy Emeralds and get a few photos and also capture a full emergence of this species. Hopefully all being well and weather permitting, I will return again soon to hopefully look for the nationally scarce Brilliant Emerald emerging.

 

Downy Emerald (Cordulia aenea) Emerging