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Black Darter at Nature Alive, Coalville, 2002
Charnwood Lodge Nature Reserve is truly one of the jewels in the crown of the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust. One can stand amongst Heather and Bilberry and in certain parts of the reserve see no sign whatsoever of human influence on the landscape; there cannot be many sites in the County that can boast a similar accolade? Access to this reserve is certainly reason enough alone to join the L&RWT. I had visited the Charnwood Lodge a number of times during 2002 to monitor and record the dragonfly species present. Though I had carried out the same exercise in previous years I couldn't help but make a September visit, with the late summer moorland dragonfly species at the forefront of my mind. A certain shallow, acidic pond, 'P1', appears to have been plucked from the Lake District uplands and dropped into the Charnwwod Forest. It really should be alive with Common Hawkers and Black Darters, but this is Leicestershire and typically my visit on 1st September 2002 resulted in the usual array of County odanata to be expected at such a site. But then you never do find such quarries when you go out searching for them, do you? Eighteen months ago I lent some Ruddy Darter slides to the National Forest Company to use in one of their displays. The absence of these slides only came to light when I began searching through my collection in preparation for the impending Leicestershire & Rutland Dragonfly Group meeting. Cursing the NFC I set off to nature Alive on the sunny afternoon of Sunday 8th September 2002 in the hope of replacing the missing slides with some new Ruddy Darter material. With immediate success I found and photographed a couple of very obliging Ruddy Darters, headed for the next pond, then bingo! A casual glance at a dragonfly perched on a timber fence rail put me eye-to-eye with a jet-black male Black Darter. It was only two feet from my nose and afraid to move and disturb it I took a single shot, at which point the motor of my camera began to buzz as the film rewound. Bloody typical! As I squatted with the mobile phone in one hand and fumbled with a new film and the camera in the other, a group of people walked past and flushed the darter. I lost it, but it didn't really seem to fly very far. Having said that another 1½ hours searching, by Graham Finch and myself, was fruitless. Needless to say, I was very relieved when Fuji returned the photograph below. To my knowledge this is the only image in existence depicting a Black Darter in Leicestershire and I suppose I really have the NFC to thank for its production. I also owe the Company an apology. I telephoned them the very next day and my original Ruddy Darter slides dropped through my letterbox the day after! Identification of a male Black Darter is very straightforward. Essentially all-black, the small size, pinched abdomen, and black pterostigma of this species is unique amongst British odonata. It is interesting to note that the distribution maps in the summer 1998 edition of 'Leicestershire Recorder', the most up-to-date information currently published, show a distinct north-westerly bias for Black Darter. The most recent of the five accepted records was in September 1995 at May Meadow Large Pool, Barlestone. The nearest site that I know for Black Darter is near Baslow, in Derbyshire, some 30 miles to the north west of our County boundary. Not particularly far as the darter flies! The north-westerly limits of Leicestershire would therefore seem to be the best place to look for more individuals of this notoriously migratory species. It is also interesting to note that of the five previous County records, four have been post 1990. Perhaps this species has been overlooked in the past and rapidly increasing observer coverage in the County may bring to light more records of this endearing little dragonfly?
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