On Saturday 3rd September, a very warm sunny day, I noticed a Darter dragonfly perched on a flower head in the garden pond, in Clayhall, Ilford, Essex. Like all Darters it flew off and returned many times enabling me to get the camera and photograph it. I assumed it to be a Ruddy darter until I looked at the image on the computer screen and noticed the red pterostigma on the wings and the red veins I identified it as a Red-veined darter Sympetrum fonscolombii.
In Benton T., Dobson J., (2007) The Dragonflies of Essex. Pub. Essex Field Club / Lopinga books It is described as a Continental species with large migrations into UK on several occasions within the last two decades with with corresponding sightings in Essex.