Scarce Blue-tailed Damsel - aurantaica!!

I suppose it's the 'collector' in me..... Having seen and photographed all of the County breeding odonata, there are still one or two colour forms that have eluded me! An annual event has been to seek out Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly on Titterstone Clee and it's always been a success but I've never managed to photograph the very earliest female form! This year was harder work than normal, the quarry looked as though it had been in a war - off road bikes / quad bikes? Who knows but the Damsel habitat was in a mess!

Two hour of trudging along tyre tracks and apart from cracking views of emergent Common Hawkers  (coming separately) plus female Common Darter I had only seen Common Blue, Blue-tailed and Azure Damselflies.....

Then in a flash of orange, the day was transformed! You can't really miss one of these? For such a rare and sometimes 'difficult' Damsel, you just know with this form, exactly what you've got 5 metres away! Ischnura pumilio aurantiaca to be precise and the photo collection is now complete!

The Common Hawkers weren't bad either - offering close up temptation......