In June 18, I visited the Isle of Wight to see & photograph Southern Emerald Damselfly, my last English Dragonfly species. A couple of years later, I heard that there was an isolated colony of Dainty Damselflies on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. Dainty Damselflies were discovered in Essex in 1946, but that colony was lost in the 1953 Great Flood. They successfully recolonised the Isle of Sheppey around 2010, but it took the best part of a decade before I was aware of their return to the UK. Additionally, the Sheppey colony was on private land making access difficult.
In 2019, a new colony was discovered at Sandwich Bay. Fortunately, this colony was on a wildlife pond that the Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory had created on land leased from a local farmer. Once lockdown restrictions were over, the Bird Observatory decided to host a number of Dainty Damselfly viewing sessions. I wasn't able to book on one last year, but I was successful this year. It was a very early start to be there for 11:00, due to the ever unpredictable risks of major delays on the M25. Fortunately, there were no problems & I arrived with plenty of time to spare.
We were met by the warden Steffan, who gave us a talk before walking to the field with the wildlife pond. Steffan said the vast majority of the Blue Damselflies at the site were Dainty Damselflies, which was nice as it should provide plenty of opportunity for people to spread out & enjoy them, especially as there were only about a dozen or so people in the group.
Sadly, that didn't work out as well as I hoped. Another local Birder, Nigel Jarman, & I were lying down in one area & clearly photographing different individuals. They were clearly very active in the midday heat & sensitive to the slightest movement. Several other people in the group showed little fieldcraft walked far too close to the general area where we were spread out and repeatedly flushed our subjects. After biting my tongue I left that part of the pond in the hope of finding others at the back of the pond. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a less popular area with the Dainty Damselflies. Eventually, I found one that was settled, only for another member of the group to immediately appear, with another flushed Damselfly. Finally, I ended up with some reasonable photos from the session.
I was trying my old Canon 15 - 85 mm macro lens with the new R7 body for the first time and in hindsight, perhaps I should have spent some time before going to Kent to have a play with different camera settings.
Steffan said that the Bird Observatory has an appeal to raising money to purchase seven acres of fields around, and including, the wildlife pond. If they can purchase the land, then there are plans to create more and deeper ponds alongside the existing pond. There are concerns that as we are experiencing longer, drier & hotter summers, then there is a risk that the existing pond could dry out one year & the colony would be lost. If anybody, would like more information about the land purchase appeal or would like to contribute, there is a link to the Fund the Fields Appeal here.
