Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies.

 Until last year, the Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly was almost unheard of in Sussex, with just short lived colonies at Cooden and farmland at Sompting this century.

After seeing my first ever Scarce Blue-tailed in Bulgaria in 2025, I returned home to find that amazingly a small number of colonies had appeared quite close to home. This year, also just after returning from Bulgaria, another new strong colony had been found by Geoff, a local odonata expert.

The colonies from 2025 were also still holding damselflies. However, I was keen to go to the new site at Hailsham as it was the easiest for me to get to. On my first visit I was pleased to meet up with Geoff and Simon, the Sussex odonata recorder. It was also good to see a Red-veined Darter and Southern Migrant Hawker there too. Amazing considering there was hardly any water left in the pond following the long dry spell we have had.

Both Scarce Blue-tailed and the much more common Blue-tailed Damselfly were both present, and both species were seen mating. Strangely, every pair of the commoner Blue-tailed Damselfly both male and female held their wings back along their body, but every pair of the Scarce Blue-tailed the male held their wings slightly apart whilst mating.

Male Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies mating.

Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Male Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Blue-tailed Damselflies mating.

Blue-tailed Damselflies mating.

Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies mating.

As I was leaving the site, I was chatting to Geoff and we spotted a lovely Painted Lady nectaring on the Verbena. There have been so many Painted Lady's this year and I have hardly taken any photos of them. This one however, was looking pretty good, so a couple of quick shots were taken of it.

Painted Lady feeding on Verbena.

I also had a small trip with Phil checking out a private estate that he does some photography on. A male Southern Migrant Hawker was seen patrolling a dried up pond, and a very attractive Blue-tailed Damselfly was seen. This one had a violet coloured abdomen and was of the colour form violacea.

Male Southern Migrant Hawker.

Female Blue-tailed Damselfly (form violacea).

In the garden at home I also had a visit from a female Southern Migrant Hawker. Most years I seem to get one or two immatures of this species flying around the garden, but it was a surprise getting a mature female.

Female Souther Migrant Hawker.