Weekend wildlife watching

On Friday, a Brown Hawker got briefly stuck in the conservatory early evening but very pleased to report it soon flew out. On Saturday 3rd August at 10am, at short notice, Gavin kindly took me over in the buggy to the newly constructed scrapes on Share Marsh. Because Bam Nuttall are constructing the scrapes during the day access is not allowed due to public safety and access is only allowed at the discretion of the SWT Broads Manager and any one allowed access (only possible evenings and weekends) must be accompanied by SWT Warden. Gavin and I joined Andrew W over to the new Share Mash scrape. Sadly dark cloud meant we were really up against it. 2 calling Green Sandpiper flew over and we saw 3 male Red- veined Darters, the pick of the bunch, together with several male Black- tailed Skimmers and Emperor Dragonflies, but no sign of their rarer family members. Thanks to Gavin and Matt for their help. There were 3 Painted Ladies in the garden, one posed nicely for the camera. On Sunday, a tweet from Craig early morning and having replied to his tweet, I was kindly invited over to Craig's Corton home to view the fine Pine Hawkmoth, a first for me and it was posed nicely on a stump of wood, afterwards it was returned to the fridge ready to be released in the evening. Craig also showed me a fine Black Arches which was great too. Many thanks to Craig. I returned home and went over to a local wood where I saw and counted 11 Broad- leaved Helleborines. Back home, a Voicemail from Gavin originally sent at 11am said better to go earlier than 1pm, however I as I received the Voicemail message late and turned up at CM at 1pm. At the Scrape, the sun was still shining and immediately we saw our first 1 then 2 male Vagrant Emperors, 1 male flew out and settled in the grass, but flew as we approached. Going back to the Scrape over the far side, I spotted a fine male Lesser Emperor, green eyes, black body and blue saddle. It flew around and then disappeared, I later saw it fly down again. Up to 6 male Vagrant Emperors seen, 1 male seen flying around the western arm of the scrape. On the eastern side, a mating couple of Common Emperors were also seen, the female ovipositing in Mare's tail and the male Emperor flying around too. Up to 6 male Red- veined Darters seen flying around too. Plus the occasional flight by the brown bodied but blue saddled Vagrant Emperor. Also a Brown Hawker seen too. Back to the local wood, after Jane's pinpoint directions I located the rare red/ purple form of Broad- leaved Helleborine plus a further 14 normal coloured Broad leaves totalling 15 for me in total. Jane had counted 33 though, sadly I noted several Broad- leaves had been trimmed. I will e-mail The Gunton Community woodland to see if this could be eliminated in future.