Essex Revisited.

I'm going into time travel mode here and going back to a trip that a friend and I made to Hockley Wood in Essex with a view to finding some Heath Fritillaries. In this we were successful though only by the skin of our teeth as one individual was found just before we left and so a nasty dip was duly dodged. That is not the reason however for my Dr Who impression, no that was provided by a Migrant Hawker dragonfly that I photographed at the time.

The reason for our visit, a Heath Fritillary.



Migrant Hawkers are one of the latest species to take wing with individuals first appearing in mid July but only becoming common in August. As ours was seen on the 26th of June it was with some surprise that we noted this one. As I don't get many opportunities to photograph hawkers I jumped at the chance to get a picture of this and also a Southern Hawker and there the matter was closed.

The subject of further debate.

Or was it? When I came to review my pictures last Friday (the TV was dire) I noticed a couple of details that didn't quite fit Migrant and so I did a little bit of research. First off I put the pictures on several forums hoping for expert advice, my enthusiasm far exceeds my knowledge. Then while I waited for any response I began to trawl the net reading everything I could find and looking at every picture. The result of all this fuss and kerfuffle? Another new species for the day to go with the frit, a Southern Migrant Hawker.

A crop of S1 and S2 showing the face like pattern and the hat like marking.

This species is slowly colonising Britain at the moment with most of the small population being centred on Essex including (though I didn't know this at the time) Hockley Wood. While the date was early for Migrant even in a year when many species were a little early it does fall right at the start of SMH's flight season. The individual in the photo was a very immature male and had probably only emerged that morning which meant that its markings had not yet fully developed. Both species have a face like marking on the second segment of the abdomen, the "nose" on Migrant is rather thin and resembles a golf tee while SMH's is a thicker inverted triangle. The first segment on Migrant is plain whereas SMH has a marking which to my eyes at least looks like a hat. Another feature of Migrant which SMH does not show is a pair of thick stripes on the sides of the thorax. sadly I have no comparison photos of Migrant to show but there are many on the web.

We're on safer ground here, a Southern Hawker.

Several people offered their advice and knowledge during this process and they included a fellow from the British Dragonfly Society who serves as their migrant dragonfly officer. As a result of their input I feel I can confidently claim my first SMH though I'll probably want to see one of the more mature males as they're an attractive species.