In September last year, I wrote about the encounters I’d had with the Lesser emperor dragonfly (Anax parthenope), the fleeting glimpses of previous years and then the most recent ‘close but partly obscured by a bush’ sighting.
Though this dragonfly does now breed in southern Britain, there are no records of its breeding in south Wales; the Lesser emperors we see are either dragons from further south in Britain or, more likely, migrants. And, this year, probably as a result of the hot south-easterly winds blowing in our direction from the heatwave conditions in Europe, there have been quite a few local sightings of Lesser emperors much earlier in the year than usual.
My local WhatsApp group notifications had been beeping with reports of others finding this dragonfly so I had also been looking, in particular at three different locations along the River Ely where they had been seen in recent weeks or reported in previous years, but I kept coming up empty. Until, finally, a week ago, on 28 June, I was walking along a path not far from one of the lakes at Cosmeston when the flutter of a dragonfly’s wings caught the sunlight. I froze, as they are so easily spooked. And then I could hardly believe my eyes … a Lesser emperor … not zooming past at the speed of light, but perched on a bush in full view. And it actually stayed completely still while I moved ever so slowly and carefully around so as to get photos from each side and front on. This was my best ever view of a Lesser emperor!
