Dragonfly Weekend

I spent the weekend trying to pick up various dragonflies. Around about this time of year we tend to visit either the New Forest or the Surrey heaths with a view to seeing some of the specialities. However this weekend things changed somewhat and Colin and I spent Saturday on the Lincolnshire coast. There has been a bit of an influx of Vagrant Emperors into northern Europe, with a lot being found in the Low Countries and there have been a number of reports on the English east coast. Most seem to have been in Lincolnshire with some elsewhere, and in reasonable numbers as well.
Having checked a few reports, the most recent weer at Rica so we went there first. We were here about 15 years ago for a Lesser Sand-plover, and it seems to have changed a bit being far more vegetated. More by luck we actually found the right car park, and meeting up with another hopeful it was only a short walk to the right spot, a decent sized pool.
Although warm and sunny, conditions deteriorated quickly and the cloud built up, as did the wind. This kept a lot of the insects down and it was hard to find much. There were a few Painted Ladies (another big influx is under way), Common Blues and Meadow Browns but we missed wall Browns and Graylings. Emperors, Four Spotted and Broad Bodied Chasers were flying over the pools, with Azure, Common and Blue Tailed damselflies tucked into the long grass.
There was also a very impressive selection of Early Marsh, Southern Marsh and Pyramidal orchids and I also found Sand Leek and a few other plants I have yet to identify.
Birds were rather limited. A few Shelduck were flying around and there were some Blackcaps and Whitethroats singing in the bushes, plus a bonus, but very invisible Grasshopper Warbler.
We intended to explore the dune complex north of the car park, but reports of Vagrant emperors a few miles to the north at Donna Nook put paid to that. Unfortunately we were 20 minutes late by the time we arrived and walked out onto the salt marsh to join the small crowd.
We spent a good hour along with many others trying to search the low marsh vegetation and the somewhat higher and drier sand bank. The big problem was the wind which was keeping everything down and our only chance was to stumble onto something and hope to flush it. Having seen the photos next day I realised how futile it was and eventually we had to call it a day.

Sunday was pretty warm and muggy so I thought it would be worth going to Amwell. where I met up with Bill snd most of the Sunday regulars. I was told that the Little Ringed Plovers and the Oystercatchers had failed in their nesting attempt, but it was good to see several Common Tern chicks on one of the islands as the 'tern' rafts are now dominated by the gulls.
As everyone was leaving to walk down to Hollycross Bill picked up one of the Ravens fling low over the woods-he's seen up to 5 birds recently.
The wasn't much at Tumbling Bay apart from a few Red Eyed and blue damselflies so we continued to Hollycross. Bill picked up what he thought could have been a Scarce Chaser and it often came onto the board walk to perch, allowing fair views but was very skittish. I had my doubts about the identification, but  checking some phone i/d guides (which I later found to be misleading) it seemed to be a fair fit  though I wasn't happy about the eye colour. When I got home and checked my photos it was obvious that it had been a Black Tailed Skimmer all along.

A few Four Spotted Chasers were present and there was still a rather late Hairy Dragonfly.
Returning to Tumbling Bay things had improved considerably. There were a few Painted Ladies and it only took a minute or so before I found a Norfolk Hawker, and moments later Trevor found another one. They were very active and rarely came close to us, so we weren't able to get any photos. Luckily there weren't any Emperors around as they tend to dominate, so we were at least treated to prolonged views.

Common Clubtail

It was a pretty warm and sunny weekend, and I thought it would be worth making a start on dragonflies this year. I haven't seen all that many so far this year, with a few Azure Blues and Large Red damselflies here and there (including a couple around my pond in late May which appear to have been freshly emerged) plus a single Broad Bodied Chaser. Surrey would have been the default at this time of year, but Colin wasn't keen on getting sunburnt. So having seen a few tweets about Common Clubtails around the Severn and Wye, and seeing the Forest of Dean in my site guide I suggested we head west on Saturday.
These particular dragonflies have always been problematic, being found on very few rivers, where there is a mass emergence in late spring. Adults then disperse widely and only return to the river to breed. We tried the Thames at Goring several times, and saw one once. A site further up the Thames was never successful, and my only other sighting was a very brief flight in poor weather conditions at Remenham on one of several visits.
We had visited RSPB Nagshead once before, some years back and it was rather good, since it had a number of breeding birds that are rather hard to come by in the south-east, such as Wood Warbler. I expected this to be our destination, but Colin surprised me saying we were going to Monmouth first. Apparently he had come across a blog post from last year where someone had found a number of Clubtails on the north bank of the Wye, east of Monmouth, specifically a few fields up river from St Peter's church.  
We had a good journey, arriving mid morning, and discovered another enthusiast resting on a seat in the church yard. Had found the same information and had failed to find any despite searching the river bank for several hundred yards. Not good news, but we decided that since we were here we might as well have a walk, since there were some nice views.
The riverside vegetation was full of Banded Demoiselles, but not a lot else. I tried getting down to the waters edge at a couple of places to check for exuviae, but it was pretty difficult with steep ten foot banks to negotiate. Only two butterflies seen, a rather worn Peacock and a not well seen presumed Green Veined White.
We reached the recommended field and noticed the enthusiast had caught us up hoping for one last attempt. Shortly after a yellow dragonfly flew up from the grass in front of us and flew away from the river. I knew instantly it was a Clubtail and I managed to follow it in the bins and saw it land near a patch of nettles. We rushed over and got very good sustained views and some decent photos. It then flew off and into a Hawthorn, where we were able to get even closer views, and were able to show it to some passing walkers. Having taken images with the 100-400 lens, I was able then to switch to the 60mm macro. I then switched to the phone and got the best images of the lot from a couple of inches.

We then went to Nagshead, arriving mid day. Probably a bit late really as things tend to quieten down, but we were optimistic and went down to the eastern pond and then the hide. The big pond had a female Mandarin with a brood of ducklings, plus a few Four Spotted Chasers, some Azure and Large Red Damselflies. We missed a sow Boar and Piglets by a few minutes in one of the meadows, but was pleased to see a male Pied Flycatcher around one of the nest boxes.
A stroll around the shorter of the trails produced numerous vocal Nuthatches, a fine male Redstart and  a female Pied Flycatcher. No Wood Warblers unfortunately. There seems to be very few this year, and I have heard the same from Devon and the New Forest. Apart from a Brimstone or two, the only butterflies were singles of Speckled Wood and Red Admiral.