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Tuesday 21 August 2012

Red-veined Darters emerge at Felbrigg

Having neglected Felbrigg for a while I decided to head over there today to see what was about in the park.
 
What appeared was going to be a pretty uneventful visit, aside from a Little Grebe on the lake, improved as I got to the south-east corner of the lake and flushed a few teneral Darters out of the grass. Fortunately one of them landed a little way ahead so I slowly approached it and upon getting near was immediately struck by the pale blue-grey lower half to its eyes, a feature that I was aware was indicative of Red-veined Darter.
 
As I was however unsure as to the eye colour of freshly emerged Common Darters, I thought that it maybe only wishful thinking, especially as I noted another nearby which again had the same coloured eyes. Anyway I thought the best course of action was to get a few snaps and then check the literature later.
 
A quick look at the books didn't imediately help and I nearly just let them go as just Common Darters, however logging on to the Dragonfly forum the next day I was greeted by photos of a freshly emerged Red-veined Darter from Hampshire which was a dead ringer for my own! So I quickly uploaded my own photos and had it confirmed that indeed they were Red-veined Darters too.
 
I guess in a way it was a bit annoying that I'd failed to find any here during the influx earlier this year given that they were obviously present, but it was nice to know that they had successfully bred, and it was of course very satisfying to have confirmed this. One can only speculate as to how many have emerged here during the last few days, especially with the blisteringly hot weather over the weekend, but naturally I'll be checking every darter very carefully during my next few visits to the park.
 
Aside from the eye colour, the photos below (of an immature male) show the yellow veins along the leading edge of the wing, and the black on the face extending down the sides of the frons like a drooping moustache, which is a feature not present in Common Darter.