Scarce (but not Southern) Emeralds at Cliffe

Spent about three hours at Cliffe Pools this afternoon, looking for the few Southern Emerald damselflies reported recently. This is a very rare species in the UK, with the first record as recently as 2002 on one of my old patches – Winterton Dunes. A ‘twitchable’ colony was at Sandwich Bay in 2004.

Unfortunately, neither I nor the other Lestes hunters could find any, though up to three had been seen this morning. The Scarce Emeralds were considerably compensation though – I’ve never seen so many before, with approaching 100 on a short stretch of club rush lined ditch.

And now onto a new branch of natural history for the blog… I’m reliably informed that this is a Lesser Marsh Grasshopper. Thanks H!