Friday 6 October 2017

St Mary's - Vagrant Emperor

There wasn't a mega bird on offer today, I'd decided to stay on St. Marys and nothing of note had turned up! But there's always something of interest on these islands and my odonata pulse started racing when Will Scott put out "Vagrant Emperor" on the radio! Two had been seen the previous day but one will do nicely and I made my way towards Telegraph... fingers crossed...

As I entered the enclosed field, Will was walking the set aside with another birder and yes, one of the Vagrants was still there! Even better, it only flew a short distance and dropped down low but in a spot it could be easily viewed... and photographed!!

Despite the overall brown coloration, that amazing bright blue saddle was shining out like a beacon!


 It's a male, the blue saddle is bisected with a black line in females.


And it was going nowhere in a hurry with mid teens temperature allowing some amazing close up views!


Amazing to realise, just like the incredible journeys that birds make, this large insect has flown all the way from Africa (South West Asia is another possibility). It's an out and out mega - on a par with some of the birds already seen!