A walk down to the lake at Felbrigg this afternoon produced good numbers of Black-tailed Skimmers, with one allowing close enough approach to get some decent pictures.
A number of groups of Crossbills were flying around and a few Common Blue Damselflies were around the vegetation clumps along the wall.
My first local Purple Hairstreak was a surprise find in the grass also along the wall but unfortunately it flew off up into the trees before I could get a picture. Feeling quite disconsolate that I had missed a good photo opportunity I headed back towards the car checking for any more Black-tailed Skimmers on the way but my attention was grabbed when instead I flushed up a male darter sp. off one of the mole hills. It fortunately settled again a few feet in front of me, and as I looked at it through my bins, I was immediately struck by the amount of red in the wings and I quickly perked up with thoughts of Red-veined Darter filling my mind!
Having never seen one before, and wondering about the variation in Ruddy Darter, I knew that it was imperitive that I got a good photo to aid my id. Fortunately it allowed relatively close approach and allowed study through bins when I was able to confirm that it really did have red veins in the wings and also lacked the waisted abdomen of Ruddy Darter, and I managed to get a photo before it flew off again.
Back at home I checked my literature and photos on the net, and was pretty confident that it was indeed my first ever Red-veined Darter, and this was quickly confirmed after posting the photo on a website, so I was really pleased with my find.
