Black-tailed skimmers

I recently had the pleasure of going on a dragonfly walk with Dr Gordon Port, an entomologist from Newcastle University, organised by the Natural History Society of Northumbria.  A few days beforehand we did a reconnaissance walk around Bowes Valley Nature Reserve in Gateshead and saw plenty of dragonflies, including black-tailed skimmers.  This is a species I haven't previously seen in the North East.  It likes to rest on exposed soil or gravel and there aren't that many suitable sites locally.  This also makes for fairly scruffy photos because of the background and I couldn't find one facing the camera.  We found it easy to see the black tail in flight, to distinguish it from a broad-bodied chaser which also has blue pruinescent colouring.  This is a mature male.

This is an immature male.

Then last week I went to a site very close to home, Weetslade Colliery Country Park.  It is a reclaimed colliery spoil heap and I was pleased to find tens of hectares of wild flowers less than 1km from my garden as the bee flies.  Sadly the Northumberland Wildlife trust has fenced off all the wetland areas behind "No Access" signs but some of the dragonflies had sneaked over the fence to bask on the path.  And there was a black-tailed skimmer!  Again it was on mud and wouldn't face the camera.

I reported it to the British Dragonfly Society via iRecord and found it was only the fourth record in 10 years in the vice-county (VC67).  According to Harry Eales in Dragonflies & Damselflies of Northumberland & Durham (available on line here) the first ever black-tailed skimmer record in VC67 was in 2009 and it remains "very scarce" so I was very pleased to find this one so close to home.

Whilst at Weetslade I also saw common darters and emerald damselflies on the path so who knows what else lies in the forbidden area?  I wasn't looking for birds and didn't really have the right lens but I did notice a male reed bunting

and a young sedge warbler.

Having discovered what a promising place it is I'll have to make more regular visits.