As of 2015 I had observed every regularly occurring English damselfly but one, the exception being Scarce Emerald. So my top Odonata priority this season has been to complete the full set, and mid-August is the time to do it. One well-known site for the final species is RSPB Bowers Marsh on the Thames estuary in Essex, and with no birding lifers to take precedence this week that was where I headed yesterday.

My task was simplified because Adam visited here a week earlier having gained directions from an online contact as to the exact location to find these insects. Arriving late on a lightly overcast morning I met another naturalist, Mike Barnett from Basingstoke, in the car park (TQ755867) and he was on the same mission as myself. Setting off together and after a quick phone call to Adam to verify the correct place to look, we arrived at a small and shallow, reed-filled pool that is prime habitat for our target.

It didn’t take long to find three male Emerald sp damselflies mooching about and perching on stems, usually with wings half open. Two local patch watchers then joined in and assured us these were indeed Scarce Emerald. In the pictures below I have arranged three individuals in what I believe is ascending order of maturity, if that makes sense. The brown-toned left-hand insect is the least mature, while the right-hand one is I hope a fully mature male though I’m not entirely sure of which type.

Scarce Emerald (imm male)

Scarce Emerald (imm male)

Scarce or Common Emerald (male)

Having read up on the species again in Brooks and Lewington, I feel confident enough to publish them. That odo bible quotes four diagnostics, since Scarce Emerald is very similar to Common Emerald, and for the key one we are talking anal appendages. The inferior AA’s, or the inner bits of his bits to you and I, are broader and more curved in Scarce than Common, and this is quite apparent in the left-hand picture.

Turned off completely? Well it gets less goolie-ish from now on. Brooks and Lewington lists more “subtle differences” that I believe are apparent in my none too sharp pictures:

• squarer shape of the pterostigma (black wing tags)
• less extensive blue colouration on abdominal segment 2, that is absent in the left-hand immature male but shows well in the right-hand image
• brighter blue colour of the eyes, and aren’t they just!?

A return visit to this site next year could well be in order to remove all doubt. I am used to encountering a lot of colour variation in Emerald damselflies at different stages of their life cycle, and today was no exception. We found no female Scarce Emerald at Bowers Marsh, unfortunately.

Another part of Bowers Marsh

So now I have observed the complete sets of regularly occurring English dragonflies and damselflies, but still require both sightings and images of some females and immatures. Things will be largely about photography again next season, and believe me I have spent a certain amount of time attempting to improve on past results this summer, mostly without success. Three afternoons watching Brilliant Emerald dragonflies at Warren Heath, Hants was one un-blogged example.

But insect observation cannot be rushed, like zapping in and out on an adrenalin rush to twitch a rare bird. This is where I feel bored birders dabbling with insects in June and July sometimes get it wrong, with respect. A chair, my camera and solitude in wild places is the appeal of odonata for me, and continuous improvement in recording visually the experiences they offer remains the quest.

“Accidental small sandpipers” to quote one field guide I use* is a genus that I attach some priority to at this stage of my birding life. Since various of these species occur almost annually in Great Britain, most seasoned birders may have seen each of them perhaps a few times. But given my modest British bird list of now 321 mostly within 150 miles of home, each passage period I aspire to gain one or two more of this group as lifers. Today was such an occasion.

Last week a Baird’s Sandpiper turned up at the populist playground of Minsmere in Suffolk but didn’t stay long enough for me to get there. Western Sandpiper has also been reported a bit further afield recently. Then two days ago a Least Sandpiper was found at Seaton Marshes in east Devon, that at a little over 150 miles was just within my preferred twitching range. I assume the last-named is the rarest of the three species since RBA accords it mega status. When this bird was reported again early Thursday morning on a work-free day, off I set.

For the outward journey I took the scenic route via Ringwood, Dorchester and Bridport to indulge my liking for the Dorset countryside. But as so often the beauty of that county’s scenery was spoiled by the volume of traffic on roads that are not designed to carry it. As a result almost an hour was added to my satnav’s estimated journey time, till at just before 1pm I drew up in a large and welcoming car park at Colyton cemetery (SY251916). From there a path leads down to Black Hole Marsh, one of four areas managed as local nature reserves in the lower Axe valley. Collectively these are known as Seaton Marshes.

Black Hole Marsh and Island Hide

The bird was being observed from the Island Hide (pictured above). Not having recovered from the journey I asked other people to point it out as soon as I went inside, but at that range it could have been anything. At first a big lens photographer in a prime spot and the head next to him kept blocking my every attempt at picking off the diagnostics. But eventually those obstructions parted in opposite directions and I gained a full frontal view of the Least Sandpiper looking just like the pictures in it’s RBA gallery (see here).

I stayed in the Island Hide for the next hour during which this bird remained faithful to the water’s edge near the start of the boardwalk that leads out to the hide. For much of the time the rare visitor, a summer plumaged adult was associating with a Dunlin by which it was quite dwarfed, while Common and Wood Sandpiper were also in the vicinity. I believe this site has a reputation for attracting good passage waders. But the comparison species I would really liked to have seen here would have been Little Stint.

As its name suggests Least Sandpiper is the smallest of the stint species. It has a squat body, rather short greenish legs and long toes. The dark bill is down-curved, tapering to a fine point. To quote the Helm guide to confusion species the key diagnostics that separate this bird from Little Stint are the leg colour and a very short primary projection. This was mostly fairly plain to decipher during my time in the hide, as other birders came and went and I got into the best viewing position. But to my mind the stand-out feature was the subtly attractive breast pattern that had stood out in the RBA photographs, as it did now in my scope.

Least Sandpiper (adult summer)

Least Sandpiper (adult summer)

All the while I hoped the Least Sand would relocate closer so that I might capture some half decent images. Eventually it was flushed by other birds and landed on a grassy area beside the board walk. Most people inside then moved out to attempt to photograph the rarity through slats in the wooden screen structure. At this point I was joined by Oxonbirder Dave Lowe who was “on the way” (as we say locally) home from a business meeting in Tiverton. He pointed out the Least Sand again quite close to the screen and I happened to be in a good spot to get two lucky shots (above) as the bird crossed the grass back to the water’s edge. It being some time since I have returned from a British birding twitch with publishable pictures, I’m quite pleased with those two. What a little beauty!

Mission accomplished, Dave and myself both left after 3pm to make our way homeward. Not wanting to brave the Dorset lanes again then Poole’s outskirts in the rush hour, I chose the fast M5 / M4 motorway route which in the event was largely congestion free. With the warm glow of having acquired such a rare and attractive lifer, and the bonus of reasonable pictures, all was well in my world at least for one more day.

* Six (that is 50%) of the group I refer to here are now on my British list. The others are Semipalmated Sandpiper, White-rumped Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, Short-billed Dowitcher and Pectoral Sandpiper. Still to be added are Long-toed Stint, Western Sandpiper, Red-necked Stint, Baird’s Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper and Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. If the taxonomy here is inaccurate, the pocket field guide referred to at the beginning of this post is Bruun, Delin and Svensson’s excellent Hamlyn Guide that I keep in the car as a small, light alternative to Collins. This publication is also very dear to me having been carried in the field throughout my early birding years. The borrowed term “accidental small sandpipers” is merely a convenient way of denoting the above group of scarce or rare passage waders.