Just ten years ago, the willow emerald damselfly had only been reliably recorded in the UK on two occasions – in 1979 and 1992. Then, a single individual was found in Suffolk in 2007. Two years later, there was a sudden boom of 400 recorded in Suffok and Essex. Since then, it has spread south and east, but in spite of the expansion, it remains a rare sight. I drove all the way up to Paxton Pits last year, where I saw a few, but sadly they were impossible to photograph, as their preferred spots were on trees hanging over the lakes.
This year I hit the jackpot! There was a comment on a specialist Facebook page about a handful only twenty-five minutes from home. It took two visits and hours of searching before I found just one. Sadly, this too was on greenery hanging over a lake and with lots of very boggy ground between me and my subject, this was also a non-starter. Not wanting to give up, I spent some time on Google and found another location about 75 minutes from home. Eight individuals had been recorded there the previous year, so I charged up my camera battery and made the trip the following day.
The reserve wasn’t as I had imagined. I’m guessing it had suffered from neglect due to the pandemic and as I wandered along the footpaths, I got the impression of everything being overgrown. In fact, the large lake shown on the map by the car park had been completely buried by reeds and I only found about 10% of it cleared as I made my way out about three hours later. I had no idea where to look and it began to feel like an impossible task, when a random side turning led me to my first damselfly. The light wasn’t ideal, but I spent the best part of 30 minutes with him before deciding to wander up a narrow path. There, I found a few more and I reckon in that visit, I spotted eight or nine individuals. Just nine days later, I was back again and in total, I took so many photographs that I thought I should spread them between two blog posts.
