Glos Odonata and brief encounter of the Purple kind.

Had a good night in the Badger in Eastington on Friday night with excellent company including top birding mates Martin McGill, Jeremy Squire, Neil Smart and Steve Dark. Jeremy, Martin and I carried on the jovial frivolity today and set off to the Forest of Dean in search of two local Odonata rarities; Red-veined Darter and Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly. We found both after a great deal of searching. To be honest they did the searching and I gamely tagged along! Paul Tay, a local Odonata expert was also on hand to come up with the goods. Birds seen while searching for our four-winged, six-legged friends ncluded 16 Crossbills, Siskins, Lesser Redpolls, Tree Pipit and Wood Warbler.

Red-veined Darter a Glos rarity seen photographed today in the Forest of Dean

The same Red-veined Darter today.

Emperor Dragonfly, Forest of Dean.

Large Red Damselfly, Forest of Dean

Martin and Paul certainly take Odonata ID, recording and photography very seriuosly

Black Darter (juvenile), Forest of Dean.

Flushed with success from the forest we headed over to Coombe Hill Nature Reserve, where we added a couple more species of Dragonfly to the days's species list. We also managed to see some interesting birds; a juvenile Purple Heron being the highlight. Two hunting Hobbies, 120 Lapwings, six Snipes, a Black-tailed Godwit, two Curlews, 15 Grey Herons, 345 Swifts, Yellowhammer and Chiffchaff were all good too.

The final list of Odonata recorded today was;

Emerald Damselfly; Large Red Damselfly; Common Blue Damselfly; Blue-tailed Damselfly; Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly; Common Hawker; Southern Hawker; Brown Hawker; Emperor Dragonfly; Four-spotted Chaser; Broad-bodied Chaser; Common Darter; Ruddy Darter; Black Darter and Red-veined Darter.

Great wildlife and great company.