Red veined Darters in Kent

Red veined Darter

Sympetrum fonscolombii

With the season slowly starting to draw to a finish in Kent, my daughter returned home one day from school a few weeks ago having took a photo on her phone of a dragonfly on a path near to where we live. To my amazement, it was a Red veined Darter. With this in mind, I decided to visit a site nearby where they occur and the next morning I was on site in the sunshine where I managed to find 4 newly emerged Red veined Darter. during the following week I returned a few times to capture some of my best photos of this species before they leave and hopefully migrate back south.

 I decided one in one last challenge that I would try to get a few early morning shots of one so the night before, I watched one go down to roost and planned to return the next morning for hopefully some 'dewy' shots. On arrival the next morning, it was indeed quite dewy and after a brief search I managed to find 1 Red veined Darter and spent the next hour capturing some very pleasing images of this very scarce Kent dragonfly.

Red veined Darter (immature male)

 I shall endevour to post a few more times throughout the quiet winter period and share some of my photos of the season which has been photographically very good indeed.

Marc Heath