Obliging Vagrant Emperor Dragonfly at Share Marsh scrape, Carlton Marshes

On Wednesday 7th August, Carlton Marshes was again opened up a plethora of Odonata enthusiasts who were keen to see the trio of rare Dragonflies that have set up shop on the newly constructed scrape at Carlton Marshes. We met at 5pm, and as I already had privileged access twice before I thought it best to walk and let others who hadn't seen the rare Odonata first crack at seeing them, especially as the cloud was coming in. As we got to the Scrape, we had 5 minutes, I had a brief flight view of a Vagrant Emperor plus several pairs of Black- tailed Skimmer and then that was it, it clouded over again! Typical! However, we were not to be disappointed because the ever sharp observer Andrew E spotted a male Vagrant Emperor on the ground we walked around had distant obscured views until it flew to upturned clod of grass and excellent views were had here until it flew again to another clod of earth, where it perched up beautifully and we all had great views and pics from here. A big thank you to Gavin, Cheryl, Andrew E, Chris Mutineer and the SWT team for this wonderful privileged access this newly created area is already producing big dividends nice to see around 40 people taking advantage including so many local birder/ naturalist friends.