28 Jul 24 - Enter The (Scarlet) Dragon

On 21 Jul 24, news broke of a Scarlet Darter at Silverlake in Dorset, with the suspicion that there was a second male present. This is a relatively new reserve of flooded sand pits that are still maturing. When people looked the next day, there were two confirmed males at the site and that rose to three males a few days later. This is quite incredible given the one I photographed at Longham on 9 Jul 17 was only the eighth UK record. Since then another had been seen at Longham in Jun 19 & one was seen at Minsmere in Jul 22. All of these records have been short stay individuals & I was lucky to see the final sighting of the first Longham individual. To get several male Scarlet Darters hanging around at the same location, is good evidence that they had already bred at the lake.

Scarlet Darter: Male. It's always good when I see the key species within minutes of arriving

Having seen one before, I left it for a few days before I visited Silverlake, in the hope that there would be females found by the time I tried. I arrived just before midday & saw Pete Moore who had arrived about thirty minutes before I did. Pete confirmed that there was one male hanging around about a metre from the water's edge and returning to an area with minimal vegetation. He had only just told me where to look, when he said, there's one. It posed for some initial photos, but was gone after a couple of minutes.

Scarlet Darter: Male

This male reappeared on an number of occasions over the next hour and posed for a couple of minutes at a time. The main identification features for male Scarlet Darter are: the flat, broad bright scarlet abdomen, pale pterostigma, orange colouration at base of hind wing, red wing veins and blue on the bottom of the eyes. Ruddy Darters are a potential confusion species, but their darker red colouration, black line on the top of the abdomen at the end and their pinched waist will quickly confirm their identification.

Scarlet Darter: Male

Scarlet Darter: Male

After an hour or so, a shout went up at the far side of the lake to say there was a pair of Scarlet Darters over there. A few of the peeps ran found to the far side of the lake in the hope of connecting, but they had disappeared before they got there. I wandered around at a more leisurely speed. I did see another male over there which showed every now & then. After about fifteen minutes, there was another shout & subsequent stampede for a pair of Scarlet Darters close where I saw the first individual. Some of the peeps that ran back around the lake, managed to get to see them. I decided to stay where I was. I saw the second male briefly tangled with a third male, before they each returned to area they were patrolling, but that was all I saw of the third male.

Scarlet Darter: Male

Eventually, I returned to the original location where I saw the first male again, but I failed to see any of the females. In total, there were four males present and at least one female.

Scarlet Darter: Male

This lake was larger than the Longham lake. It was oval shaped with a diameter of about one hundred and seventy metres. Like the smaller Longham lake it was a shallow lake with relatively light vegetation along some parts of the lake shore. There were no obvious signs of Fish in these lakes.

Scarlet Darter: Male

It had been a very hot & sunny day. I saw the last sighting about 14:15 and stayed for another thirty minutes without any further sightings. I suspect after several hours of patrolling in the heat, they headed off to the surrounding trees for a rest. It had been an excellent few hours at this superb site and there was a good selection of other species present. I will cover them in the next Blog Post.

30 Jun 19 - Sunburnt Darters

It was getting to the end of June & as usual, the Dorset Birding was very quiet. Many species have bred & are either moulting or attempting to raise a second brood. The first few Waders have started to appear, but that has just been a trickle so far. My thoughts were turning to Dragonflies and the expectation of trying to get some reasonable photos of Red-veined Darters. They have been seen in low numbers at Longham Lakes in recent years, but I've not been successful in seeing them there in the past. There had been a mid week post on twitter from local Birder, Ian Ballam, that he had seen & photographed some. The weekend looked promising, albeit exceptionally hot & sunny on the Saturday. I contacted Peter Moore on the Thursday evening to see if he was up for a visit, but he was thinking of travelling further afield for Brilliant Emerald on the Saturday. Fortunately, I've managed to photograph Brilliant Emeralds in the past. I made a flippant remark about I would still head there at the weekend & probably find something good. As well as Red-veined Darters, Lesser Emperors have also become established there in recent years. The next day I had a text from Peter saying "Scarlet Darter at Longham Lakes". Clearly, there was something good there, but it had already been found. This is only the second Dorset record, with the first being seen at Longham Lakes on 8 & 9 Jul 17.

Scarlet Darter: I was one of around 15 people who connected with the original individual before it disappeared (9 Jul 17)

In the end I decided to give the Saturday a miss. There is limited on road parking at Longham, unless you fancy a longer walk from the garden centre & I figured that it would be very popular given few people have seen a Scarlet Darter in the UK. The previous Longham Lakes record appears to have been one of the most twitchable individuals & it didn't linger long enough for more than a few locals to connect: as it was only seen on & off for a couple of hours mid morning. I was still keen to visit & the Sunday looked perhaps more promising. It had been in the low 30s the day before, but an overcast morning & more of a breeze was going to keep the site cooler. I grabbed the camera & left. After an afternoon of negative news on the Scarlet Darter, I had no problem in finding somewhere to park the car. After a ten minute walk, I reached the small pond where the Scarlet Darter had been seen the previous day. There had been no sightings, but it is a great looking site & I hung around to have a look. After all, if it was still around, but only liked to show in the mornings, then perhaps it was worth a wait. After about fifteen minutes, a guy I've not seen before said he had a bright red Darter flying over the pool. He said it had red eyes & he was 99.9% certain it was the Scarlet Darter. Being cynical, I didn't think it could be the Scarlet Darter, solely based upon the 99.9% certain statement. But I was also knew that two Red-veined Darters that had been seen on the pond during the previous day. I couldn't see it from where I was looking, so walked across to join him. It reappeared & perched up a few meters into the pond. Time to use the camera.

Red-veined Darter: It wasn't close

Red-veined Darter: A closer crop. I could see the dark edged pale pterostigma which I knew was a feature of Red-veined Darter. Also, it didn't look bright enough on the abdomen. I was trying to remember the other features for Scarlet Darter, but despite looking at the book over breakfast, I could only remember the overall brightness of the abdomen for Scarlet Darter

Having looked at the back of the camera photos, I checked my photo of the original Scarlet Darter & I could see that the pterostigma were dark. It had to be one of the Red-veined Darters. It probably wasn't what the handful of other peeps there wanted to hear, but that's life. It had flown, but returned to the same perch a couple of minutes later.

Red-veined Darter: This time it was side on. I thought that Red-veined Darters have a blue lower eye, but it is hard to see on this individual because of the wings. There is a hint that the lower eye could turn blue, but perhaps that happens over time. I was confused about the white band on the side of the frons. I couldn't remember reading about that it the past, but it was a few years since I looked at Red-veined Darter identification

The dark marks on the side of the abdomen was something that the previous Scarlet Darter hadn't shown. Checking the books, it is something that Red-veined Darters show. It was now happy to sit around & allowed views through the guy's telescope. Somebody had looked up the other features on their phone & confirmed it should have had a broad flat bright red abdomen with no black & no black on the red legs. In the end, we all agreed that it was a Red-veined Darter. It showed a couple of times, before disappearing for most of the next two hours. I hung around and chatted with various friends who were steadily arriving. Eventually, it was time to accept defeat that the Scarlet Darter wasn't round & head off with Olly Frampton & Peter Moore for the North Lake: which had been the stronghold for the Red-veined Darters during the week. Soon after arriving at the North Lake, we had found the second Red-veined Darter. I saw another two on the way back to the car. There had been about thirty seen during the week, but presumably the breeze wasn't helping.

Red-veined Darter: Note, the black marks on the abdomen & the dark bordered pale pterostigma

Red-veined Darter

Red-veined Darter: The dark legs & the facial pattern showing the blue-grey lower face & the white edges to the frons

Red-veined Darter

Red-veined Darter

Red-veined Darter 

Red-veined Darter: A close of the wing showing the red veins & the distinctive pterostigma

Clearly, it wasn't just me that was looking sunburnt that day.

9 July 17 - Scarlet Fever

Every summer we get a few days of sunshine with rising temperatures & Britain ends up in meltdown with everybody desperately heading to the coast or some nearby park to sunbathe. If I am going out, I try to get out early & then either find some sheltered woodland to look for Butterflies or try to avoid the worst of the sun. Not today. The plan was for an early visit to Studland, where Brands Bay produced a few Waders including a couple each of Whimbrel & Dunlin (neither unexpected for this day), an early Grey Plover & just under 125 Med Gulls (a good total for this date). I planned to go out later to trying to get some Butterfly photos somewhere sheltered from the sun.

That plan changed when I saw a photo on the local Birding email group of a presumed Red-veined Darter from one of the local Birders. Martin is just starting to get into Dragonflies & so perhaps it's not surprising that he had assumed that was what it was. However, the photo started ringing alarm bells for me as I could remember looking at the extremely rare Scarlet Darter in the books & it looked a very good fit from my memory. However, my memory wasn't so good on where I had placed the Dragonflies books I had moved yesterday, but eventually I found them & sure enough it looked a like a Scarlet Darter to me. Knowing Peter Moore was already on his way to look for it & feeling rough enough to take a hay fever tablet, then I thought I would give it some time for the tablet to kick in before heading off to Longham lakes. As the tablet started to work, Peter rang to say they were watching the presumed Scarlet Darter on a large pool at the Southern end of the South lake. It's not that far as the Dragonfly flies, but it was a slow journey this morning due to the heavy traffic. Once there, I found Peter had moved on and was trying to photograph a Lesser Emperor on the side of the lake. This year seems to have produced several individuals around the edge of the lake, perhaps suggesting the species is starting to get itself established at the site. Having spent several hours failing to see one the previous day, then I wasn't going to repeat that again, especially with a Scarlet Darter only a few minutes walk away. About ten minutes later, I arrived at the small lake to see about six others looking for it. They confirmed they had seen it a few minutes earlier, but it was coming & going, but occasionally settled on low vegetation at the lake edge. After a five minute wait, it reappeared & flew low over the large pool, before disappearing again. It was such a deep & obvious red in flight, that I was already pretty happy that I had seen the right individual. After another five minutes, it reappeared & fortunately, one of the guys further right from me had seen it land. He carefully walked about a few metres & called us over. It was good to see everybody was well behaved & hung back, rather that try & get in close to get a frame filling photo. Had this been a Hairstreak at one of the well known sites & more general wildlife photographers, then I'm sure somebody would have felt obliged to be more selfish. But good that everybody behaved. After a couple of minutes, it was up on the wing again & I found all my photos were out of focus. I was probably just a few inches too close from the 3.5 metre minimum focus on the 400mm lens. Fortunately, it was back in the same area about five minutes later & this time I was a few inches further back, (but probably should have still be a little further back). After a few more flight views, it briefly landed further down the track, before flying off.  Another brief flight view & we lost it. I stayed at that end of the large pool, before spending another hour at the other end. But there were no more sightings. The previous day it had been seen on vegetation on the main Southern lake which was just the other side of the causeway path, so presumably it disappeared back onto the main lake. Despite a lot of other locals, as well as, Dragonfly peeps from further afield arriving, there were no more sightings over the next four plus hours. Hopefully, it will be pinned down again in the next few days & people will start to get a better idea of its behaviour & favourite haunts.

Scarlet Darter: Male. There are few UK records with the first UK sighting being in 1995. There are records from Hampshire & the Isle of Wight, but this looks to be the first Dorset record

As for me, after spending about five hours in strong sunlight by the lakeside, with no sun cream, I'm likely to almost as red in the morning.

Will anybody heading there in the next few days, park on one of the local roads or the Haskin's Garden Centre. The fisherman's car park is only for permit holders.

30 Jun 15 - Turkey - Exploring Some Turkish Wetlands

After a twenty minute drive from the hotel in Eregli, we stopped at the nearby Lake Ivriz Baraji. This is actually a reservoir, that was built in 1984. The initial plan was to visit some local marshes, but these were largely dried up, so we ended up at the reservoir instead. It wasn't the best of locations that we visited. However, it was the only site we saw Greater Flamingos and Rose-coloured Starlings.

Black Kite: We stopped briefly for this Black Kite on the way to the lake, which surprisingly was the only one we saw in the trip

Black Kite: This is the nominate migrans subspecies which occurs from North West Africa & Europe to South-central Asia. They winters as far South as South Africa

Lake Ivriz Baraji

Lake Ivriz Baraji: It was a long, thin lake and the Greater Flamingos were at the far end. We had to get the telescopes out to see them properly

Another habitat photo from Lake Ivriz Baraji

It's pretty common to see Goats and Sheep being looked after by a local herder, as they graze in open countryside

Lesser Short-toed Lark: This is the minor subspecies which occurs from Morocco to North Egypt, South Turkey to West Saudi Arabia & West Iraq

Lesser Short-toed Lark

Lesser Short-toed Lark

Lesser Short-toed Lark

There were a couple of Rose-coloured Starlings where we parked the coach: They were the only individuals we saw

Long-legged Buzzard: We stopped for a quick look at this Long-legged Buzzard on its nest on a high crag next to the road

An uninspiring bit of Turkish architecture

After an hour or so at Lake Ivriz Baraji, we departed for the two and a half hour drive to the excellent Kayseri Sultan Sazligi wetlands. Unfortunately, a lot of the wetlands in this part of Turkey have drained in the last few decades.

A lot of the journey was across these dull-looking grasslands

By late morning we arrived at the excellent Kayseri Sultan Sazligi Wetlands. There was a long boardwalk through the reedbeds.

The boardwalk at the Kayseri Sultan Sazligi Wetlands

Bearded Tit: This is the russicus subspecies which occurs from Austria, the North Balkans & Turkey East through central Asia to North China

Moustached Warbler: This is the mimicus subspecies which occurs from West Turkey to South Russia, Iraq, Iran & Afghanistan

Moustached Warbler

Moustached Warbler: This must be a potential species to occur in the UK in the future. It used to be on the UK List, but it was removed many years ago. If I remember correct some of the first Cetti's Warblers were misidentified as Moustached Warblers and the evidence of earlier records wasn't sufficient to retain it on the British List

Reed Warbler: This is the fuscus subspecies, which is also known as Caspian Reed Warbler. This subspecies ranges from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Caspian & Kazakhstan. They winters as far South as South Africa

The boardwalk ended up at this good hide which overlooked a decent reed-fringed lake.

The Reedbed Hide

There was a Ferruginous Duck and a few White-headed Ducks at the far edge of the lake

Ferruginous Duck: This monotypic species occurs from West Europe & North West Africa to central Asia

White-headed Duck: Male. This monotypic species occurs from Southern Europe & North Africa to central Asia & North West China

White-headed Duck: Male

Water Rail: This is the nominate aquaticus subspecies which occurs throughout the Western Palearctic

Marsh Frog: This looks like the widespread Marsh Frog. There is a larger and similar-looking Anatolian Marsh Frog that occurs at Sugla Lake, but we were now too far East to be in range of that species

Marsh Frog

Marsh Frog: They appear to be a variable species

Scarlet Darter

I will cover the rest of the day in the next Blog Post.