Today I visited Norfolks only site for the Downy Emerald Dragonfly with not much expectation as access to most of the site is restricted, and I wasn't sure if they'd still be flying or even viewable if they were.
I spent half an hour or so distantly scanning the pool through bins and saw a number of Emperors and Four-spotted Chasers, plus a single Darter sp. Then just as I was about to give up thinking the task of actually seeing one from my very limited vantagepoint was going to be impossible, I noiced a smallish dark dragonfly buzz an Emperor before zipping off. This obviously aroused my interest further and after about another 10 minutes of scanning I picked it up again along the edge of the pool and as it flew towards me, its green eyes were very obvious.
I quickly dashed back to the car and grabbed my scope, and after a few more minutes I locked onto it again hovering over the pool, and to my delight confirmed that it was indeed an Emerald with its metallic dark green body shining in the sunlight, and as noted earlier, its green eyes were very conspicuous.
Over the next hour I watched it patrolling back and forth over the same stretch of water, frequently hovering and clashing with other dragonflies, including possibly another Downy Emerald. I didn't see it land but it occasionally disappeared out of site into a bay for a while and may well have been going up onto the pool side trees.
Although it was always fairly distant, good scope views were possible, and once you'd got your eye in, you could pick it out with bins amongst the other dragons on the lake, so I was very pleased to have added a new species especially as I had initially little hope of seeing one.
