Took an evening stroll through Esher Common yesterday, one of my nearer local patches that I've all but neglected in recent years. On the face of it, this would seem like utter madness, as the Common is one of Surrey's best sites for dragonflies, including one of the most reliable for the rare Brilliant Emerald; four males of which were holding small territories underneath the overhanging trees in the south-west corner of Black Pond when I turned up...
Unlike other dragonflies, Brilliant Emeralds don't usually hunt over water, and require acidic ponds with a certain degree of tree cover to make suitable habitat. Their distribution in Britain is also slightly unusual, with small populations at a cluster of sites in the Surrey, Hampshire and Sussex, and a completely isolated colony 500 miles north in a few Scottish Highland peat bogs.
Their love of shaded areas doesn't make them the easiest photographic suspects- this one was nothing but a flash job...
The colony on Esher Common appear to be faring well, and has been doing so for some years now. The only immediate threat to this stunning dragonfly is over coppicing, a common but also important practice in heathland management. Like many things to do with conservation, it's all about finding that sustainable balance between the preferences of one species and another...
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