A day off on Saturday, so an opportunity to get off Sheppey & I decided to head off & try to see some new species of odonata. Or dragonflies & damselflies to you & I. Heading south from Elmley, the lifting bridge was up over the Swale, so rather than sit in a queue of stationary traffic for 15 minutes, I decided to try for the dainty damselflies that are currently being seen very close to the Sheppey bridges. After about 45 minutes wandering around amongst the long grass seeing nothing but blue-tailed damselflies, one of the other people looking for these delicate insects found one. As a UK species, dainty damsels were restricted to just a few sites in Essex along the Thames. Following the 1953 storm surge that breached the seawall, their breeding areas were inundated by salt water & that was that. Until last year, when John & Jill Brook (authors of Dragonflies of Kent) found the insects at a number of sites along the Swale. The Sheppey bridge site is the only public access site, but how long before others are found? So, one down and off to Cliffe to try to bag the 2nd. Last year, southern emerald damselflies were seen along the edge of the RSPB reserve, but I didn't get over to see them, so I was determined this year not to miss out. These were much easier than the daintys! In the end, I must have seen getting on for 10 - once you get your eye in, they are easy to distinguish from the other two emerald species found in the ditches at Cliffe. Look on the Cliffe Pools blog, to see some excellent photos of these. Southern emeralds are a European species that have been recorded in the UK since 2002 (in Norfolk) and, like the small red-eyed damselfly, seem set to consolidate their position in the country. So, mission accomplished!
In my absence, Elmley's spoonbill flock increased to 8! Other highlights on Saturday included 20 spotted redshank, 230 grey plover, 1 common sandpiper & a few green sandpipers, 1 bar-tailed & 130 black-tailed godwits and a couple of hobbys. I could only find 1 spoonbill today, but all the other waders were still about (although I didn't see as many grey plover or spotted redshank), along with 300 curlew,a greenshank, 1 Med gull, 2 buzzard and at least 3 humming-bird hawk moths around Kingshill Farm.