Jerry Hoare is a lover of all things Odenata.... those delicate looking but voracious predators that are Dragonflies and Damselflies.....
I will let Jerry take it from here....
"You may already know that the quite rare damselfly species, the Scarce Emerald (Lestes dryas), which has been seen at Rainham in the past, has not been seen here for two years. I spent several hours today with Rainham's Warden, Nicole Khan, and a couple of fellow volunteers out on Wennington Marsh searching for both the damselflies and any suitable habitat.
I'm pleased to say that we found both, although we only found 6 individuals in just one stretch of shallow drainage channel. We weren't able to cover the whole Marsh, so we are hopeful that there are more to be found. It would be great if we could have them back somewhere around the trail for us all to see, and I know that Nicole plans to manage some suitable areas for the species"
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A mating pair....
And here is one of the Common Emerald (Lestes sponsa) that he took earlier in the month:
Hopefully Jerry will be putting together a little id chart to help you seaprate these tricky species.
The most numerous species on the wing at the moment is the Small Red-eyed Damsel with countless pairs tandem laying eggs from almost any vantage point.
Plenty of Hawkers around now with Southern being the commonest... be great to refind Jerry's Blue Eye.....
Southern Hawker by Tom Bell
And we must not forget the birds either. Waders stayed pretty much the same today although it was good to see a juvenile Little Ringed Plover. The Bearded Tits showed very well again at the Dragonfly Pool and Bill Crooks got some crackers just after they had had a bath....
1-8-14
Howard Vaughan, Information Officer