Poppyland Nature: Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies

Tuesday 4 September 2012

Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies

Whilst waiting for the sun to come out at Winterton yesterday, I was wandering around the area by the pools looking at a few Common & Ruddy Darters, some Common Emeralds, and a Small Red-eyed Damselfly. I then noticed a 'blue-tailed damselfly' in the reeds on the pond north of the concrete blocks but was immediately struck by the fact that the blue tail band appeared to be very near the end of the abdomen, a feature of Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Having recently been down to the New Forest where I dipped on Scarce Blue-tailed, I just thought it was wishful thinking and that I was seeing things, but the more I looked at it the more I was struck by the position of the blue tail-band. I struggled to get a few record shots as it was too far away for anything decent and just getting the camera to focus on it through the reeds was a nightmare in itself.

With the sun then coming out I noticed a few more bluetails appear out of the reeds and looking at them they all appeared the same which just added to my puzzlement. With the sudden appearance of the Southern Emerald Damselflies in the sunshine, the bluetails were kind of forgotten whilst I concentrated on getting some pics of the Southern Emeralds.

I mentioned my suspicions to some others who came to have a look but the 'bluetails' were by now mostly out of sight in the reeds, save for a pair in tandem. Eventually this pair flew up into the vegetation around the pool and finally I was able to get a good look and some decent pics, and with a quick check of the book became more convinced that they were Scarce Blue-tails as unlikely as it seemed.

I mentioned it to some others on my way back to the car, and then when reviewing the pics at home and looking at photos I was even more convinced as to their identity. I placed some pics on the web and despite an initial negative view, they were indeed confirmed as Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies this morning. So a new species for me and a self-find into the bargain, and quite ironic that after dipping them in Hampshire that I should find some here in Norfolk!

Presumably given their coastal location, they were of continental origin rather than a movement from within the UK, and apart from a report of one about 4 years ago, these were the only others ever to grace the County so I put the news out to let others have the chance of seeing them, and understand that one was still present today. Hopefully with some nice sunny and warm weather forecast for the end of the week they'll carry on performing for everyone, and undoubtedly I'll head back down there too to see if better views, and photos, can be had.

Below are a couple of the initial record shots that I took, followed by a couple of shots of the pair in tandem. On the male the blue tailband can be seen to be on segment 9 of the abdomen, with a slight extension up onto S8, whereas on normal blue-tailed S8 is wholly blue and S9 is black. Also the female shows a lack of anti-humeral stripes on the thorax, and a lack of a tailband too. The close-up shot showing the blue tailband on the male shows well the shape and location of the band and the two dark spots within it.

My Patch

My patch covers roughly a 10 mile stretch along the north Norfolk coast, from Beeston in the west along to Trimingham in the east, plus a small area inland including Felbrigg Park, Roughton and Northrepps, although the vast majority of my time is spent concentrating on the area from West Runton along to Overstrand.
The main habitats of the area are the coastal bushes and scrub which attract migrants in spring and autumn, a few clifftop woods and fields, the park & lake at Felbrigg, rocky and sandy beaches, and the cliffs and sea which both present great potential for observing coastal passage.

My Photos

The bird photos on here are all digiscoped using a Panasonic Lumix TZ3 compact camera and a Kowa TSN 824 scope. I use a 50x wide angle lens on the scope with no zoom on the camera which seems to go against all the 'expert' advice you read on forums etc, but it works for me and I'm pleased with the results. Additionally I also just hold the camera in place by hand rather than use any adapters to fix it in place, and apart from altering exposure levels, I just go with the automatic levels on the camera so it is really just a case of point and shoot.
The Butterfly and Dragonfly pictures are taken with the camera alone using its macro setting and again mostly using no zoom, which naturally requires a lot of careful stalking of the subject to get close enough to get the quality of picture that I desire.

Poppyland

In 1883 the London based playwright, poet and theatre critic, Clement Scott, visited Cromer as a travel writer for the Daily Telegraph taking advantage of the newly opened railway to the town. On arrival he walked east along the coast to seek accommodation and fell in love with the idyllic villages of Overstrand and Sidestrand and the solitude they presented away from the nearby town. With fields of poppies carpeting the clifftops, he christened the area 'Poppyland' and subsequently wrote a series of articles about his visit in the Telegraph. These were later published as the Poppyland Papers, and his writings made the area probably the best known holiday destination in the country with many victorians visiting the area to enjoy its delights, and the most wealthy of them having houses built in the area, with Overstrand soon becoming known as 'The village of millionaires'. The term Poppyland has stuck ever since, and although it originally just referred to the Overstrand and Sidestrand area, the extension of the railway line to Sheringham and Mundesley, known as the Poppy Line, led to that whole stretch of coast becoming known as Poppyland.

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Tuesday 4 September 2012

Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies