Norfolk Hawkers at Westbere

Sunday 14th July 2013. Another hot day and with the wife at work I decided to have a stroll down to Westbere to have a look for Scarce Chasers. I didn't see them at the start of summer in their splendid firey-orange/brown immature colours, but the adult males are still quite smart. The first dragonfly I saw as I strolled along the path beside the lake, heading south to the river, was a rather nice Brown Hawker, twisting and looping after insects. A little further on I saw a medium-sized hawker briefly out the corner of my eye, and it appeared light brown with pale green eyes. It was gone in a flash along a dyke behind some tall reeds, and despite hanging around a while I couldn't relocate it. With such a brief view I was reluctant to put any news out, but I needn't have worried because a bit further on patrolling the dyke on the other side of the path was an adult Norfolk Hawker, giving excellent views.

Shortly after I saw Mike Gould walking up the path towards me, so I walked over to tell him I had the hawker in view, and he had just had a glimpse of one himself. At this point I should have worked out there were 2 Norfolk Hawkers, but he and his partner joined me watching the second insect which was showing really well, and we spent a while taking a few photos and enjoying it flying back and forth slowly along the dyke. A little later Marc Heath joined us and confirmed there was a second Norfolk Hawker he had been watching while I was with Mike, presumably the first insect I saw.

Other dragonflies seen on my walk were 2 Brown Hawkers, an Emperor, I'm pretty sure there was a Hairy Dragonfly go past while I was watching the Norfolk Hawkers, several Scarce Chasers, loads of Black-tailed Skimmers, Banded Demoiselles, Red-eyed Damselflies, Common Blue, Azure and Blue-tailed Damselflies.