First Red Veined Experience!

Sympetrum fonscolombii

Red veined Darter

Until this year I had never seen a Red veined Darter in England and it was one of those dragonflies on the wanted list. I received an email in early July alerting me to a dragonfly to try to id at a site a few minutes from home. To my amazement, on looking at the photo I could see it was a male Red veined Darter. The weather forecast did not look good for the next few days but with a few brighter spells in between showers I made a few visits to Highstead, just south of Reculver to a small gravel pit. To make things worse my camera was in being fixed so I had been kindly lent a Canon 10d for a few weeks, not the quality of my usual camera but it was better than nothing. I spent some time looking for the Darter without much luck, just a quick glimpse of what might have been the Darter flying past quickly. The rain started to fall and I had all but given up luck when I decided to make one more walk through the long grasses. I soon saw a small red Darter take to the wing in front of me and land a few metres away. Through the grass I could make out the Darter and scanning the lower blue eyes, yellow pterostigma and obvious red veins I was happy to confirm my first Red veined Darter in England.

Male Red veined Darter

I took a few shots but as can be seen the rain was falling and catching the wings nicely. Nonetheless some shots were better than none. I returned for a few more visits in the next few weeks and took a few more shots, some of them quite pleasing despite the borrowed camera. Thankfully I did get my camera back and made some more visits later in the month but I will save these photos for another day!

Male Red veined Darter

Marc Heath