While away in Portugal I was surprised to see that 6+ Vagrant Emperor Dragonflies had been seen at Carlton Marshes in Suffolk, where I had waited over 13 hours for views of the American Bittern last spring. Vagrant Emperor is a long distance migrant Dragonfly from the sub-Sahara and formerly a major rarity in the UK, the last 12 months has been incredible for British sightings and following a strong autumnal showing there were multiple records following an very warm, southerly airflow in mid February. Vagrant Emperors can complete a life cycle in a matter of months and the congregation at Carlton were almost certainly UK born. Following disappointment not getting my timing right to connect with Long-tailed Blue butterflies when they completed a life cycle on this side of the channel in 2015 I decided I could not miss the opportunity of seeing these Vagrants.
It was a wise move and Ben joined me on another hot and sunny day with dragons. The volunteers in the visitor centre were not able to help us much with how we might see the Vagrant Emperors but said that if we bumped into one of the wardens and asked them then they would take us to the site as it had no public access. My optimism started to wobble but we headed out onto the marsh and the first larger Dragonfly we looked at.....
A Southern Migrant Hawker!! We were pretty confident of our ID but it is still a very rare Dragonfly and turns out to be only the second reserve record following the first last summer. Not long after we found Gavin, the warden in an all terrain buggy. He let us in the back and so began an amazing afternoon of Dragonflying with Gavin as our ace guide. He took us out to some new shallow scrapes on the marsh and it was not long before he showed us one of his Vagrant Emperors, then another and another.
They were really bright and smart - custard faces, cinnamon bodies with an electric blue saddle. They were very active and territorial, really hard to photograph but I managed some records. After a while a different blue saddled Emperor whizzed past - a different rarey, a Lesser Emperor and a few Red-veined Darters added to the exotic and dream like quality of the afternoon. In think I'd be safe in saying that Ben and I are the only people to have seen these four migratory colonists in the UK in one day and it did just keep getting better. We spent 3 hrs around the pools and the last hour of this was particularly focused on tracking a pair of Vagrant Emperors ovipositing in tandem. While doing this the Lesser Emperor returned several times to amuse us and eventually the pair settled in the open and allowed close observation through the scope. We left with huge grins on our faces having enjoyed a remarkable afternoon. My greatest thanks to Gavin Durrant for the gift of his time, knowledge and enthusiasm.
Vagrants
Lesser meets Vagrant
Lessers
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