This morning I received a call from Graham Armstrong. I expected Graham to say he had seen an interesting Bird species at his local South Haven patch at the Northern most tip of the Studland Peninsula. I was half right, as Graham said he had seen five Southern Migrant Hawkers in the dried up pool there. I believe this is a new Dragonfly species for the Studland National Nature Reserve. Needless to say I headed down later that morning with the camera. I wasn't disappointed.
As soon as I arrived at the dried up South Haven pool, I saw my first Southern Migrant Hawker. The bright blue colouration, brighter that a Migrant Hawker and the bright blue eyes quickly confirmed the identification. It landed in a bush next to some Sedges and posed for a few photos. However, it didn't give me the time to increase the aperture and so the wings aren't pin-sharp. This individual was disturbed by a second Southern Migrant Hawker and the two flew around in the first of several territorial disputes. It took a while of waiting, but finally what I think was the first individual landed again in the same area and this time it posed for longer.
The South Haven pool was totally dried out. When I saw the first local Southern Migrant Hawkers at Lytchett Bay in July 2018, they were hanging around some rapidly drying up small pools. What I think was happening was the Female Southern Migrant Hawkers were preparing to lay their eggs in the dried up pools, knowing that the pools will refill over the Winter. This would allow the larvae to hatch into the water, with little other competition. I'm now more convinced this is probably typical for their lifecycle.
I found a total of ten Southern Migrant Hawkers including individuals visible from the boardwalk. All of the South Haven pool is now dried out and I expect there would be more present, if I had explored the larger dried out Southern end of the pool. Given the numbers present, it's likely that these Southern Migrant Hawkers had hatched this Summer and this is at least the second season they have been present at South Haven.