Well, I finally got my first Scarce Chaser of the year, but I had to go over the border into Warwickshire to find him. Interestingly, I’ve since seen a Facebook post written by the Warwickshire County Recorder, noting that the Scarce Chaser emergence there has begun a week later than last year – so it looks as though I’m not the only person in the area who’s been searching for them in vain over the past fortnight.
This is an immature male, in the colouring that explains the species name Libellula fulva – fulvus in Latin meaning tawny, or dun-coloured. As he matures he’ll acquire the powdery blue coating known as pruinescence over his abdomen (I think of it as turning pruny); at the same time his thorax will turn brown, his eyes will go a vivid sky blue and his face will turn black. All in all it’s a pretty dramatic transformation. He was the only individual I managed to find this afternoon, along the Barton stretch of the River Avon, and while I was vary glad to spot him, I’d have been even happier with a slightly less crumpled specimen: if you look at this image closely you should be able to see that his face (technically called the frons) has a large and deep dent, like a badly bashed-in car bonnet. I don’t know what would cause damage like this, nor how serious it might be in terms of function, but if he lives to fly another day or three and I bump into him again, I’ll certainly recognise the poor little chap.
This evening R and I went to the RSC main theatre in Stratford, for the first time in absolutely for ever, to see the Richard Eyre’s production of The Tempest, with Kenneth Branagh playing Prospero. The last time I saw this play performed was in Leeds, 50 years ago (good grief), with Paul Schofield in the lead, and after enduring two irritating, bewildering, and ultimately depressing hours, I vowed never to put myself through The Tempest again. Now though, I’m very glad that a rare chance to see Kenneth Branagh on stage was tempting enough to make me drop my personal embargo, because this production was great fun, emphasising just how bonkers a play it is, and R and I enjoyed ourselves almost as much as the cast seemed to be doing. It doesn’t look as if the critics have had their say yet, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they decide that the whole thing was a bit too lighthearted – but if the filmed performance turns up in a cinema near you or on streaming, I recommend it.
R: L2, C9; D20.
