Purple Emperor
In the quest to see some butterflies which are locally rare, I’ve spent the last two consecutive mornings at the Butterfly Special venue of a fortnight ago. Yesterday was rather disappointing. It was heavily overcast when we arrived, and it stayed that way for almost all of the morning. There were plenty of Ringlets, a few white butterflies, Meadow Browns and at least one Speckled Wood, but otherwise there wasn’t much to see. A Magpie Moth was on the glass window of the Volunteer Hut, but the garden was rather quiet. However, as we waited on the bench at a major crossroads the sun broke through for about 10 minutes maximum. Everything changed - we had a good view of at least 2 Silver-Washed Fritillaries. We also saw what were probably several Purple Hairstreaks, but these remained in the canopy of the trees.
Magpie
Male Silver-Washed Fritillary
ditto
ditto
ditto
ditto
ditto
ditto
Underside - the silver wash!
By contrast Tuesday morning was very warm (23 degrees), at first with hardly a cloud in the sky. Looking at the forecast it appears that Tuesday would be the only suitable day of the week to see special butterflies. My co-identifier was late getting ready, so we were at least half an hour later arriving -10.30. The first car park was absolutely rammed with cars, so we went to the second car park, where there was only one space left. The wood was absolutely packed with people hanging around in gangs at suitable glades, almost like twitchers at a place where a rare bird has turned up.
White Admiral
White Admiral
Underside
Purple Hairstreak in flight
Purple Hairstreak
ditto
Silver-Washed Fritillary
ditto
Underside
We saw a few White Admirals, and quite a number of Silver-Washed Fritillaries, but because of the constant sunshine they were flitting around at speed, and only alighting momentarily before flying off again. This time they were even more Purple Hairstreaks flying at the top of Oak and Ash trees. Only one came a little lower down, but it was possible to snatch a few photos. We found some suitable White-letter Hairstreak habitat, but it was bereft of the butterflies. We headed back to the car park rather disconsolate, when we noticed some fluttering around some grass just before the car park barrier. At first it looked like another White Admiral, but then a flash of unexpected blue pinged on my eyeballs. It became clear it was a Purple Emperor. It settled down on the path, and spent 10 minutes with its tongue picking up salt from an old deposit among the gravel. At times it just looked like a black and white butterfly with some small orange rings on its hind wing, but when it brought its wings level to the ground there was a remarkable brief flash of blue. We were able to watch it uninterrupted until a dog walker arrived. Luckily, she was also a butterfly aficionado, and informed us another Individual had also been on the ground several yards behind us. She stayed behind us admiring the butterfly we had found, and kept her dog under firm control until the butterfly returned to the canopy.
Purple Emperor in Flight
Nearly Falling Over on the Grass Verge
Wings wide - no blue
a Little Blue
Underside
Opening Wide - note the orange eyes
Blue showing - note the yellow tongue
a lot of blue
Less Blue - no tongue
Seeing Off a Red Admiral
A Final Flash of Blue
There had been no easement in either car park, so instead of eating our lunch in an over-hot car, or in the open being mobbed by unpleasant flies, we decided to make for home. The Purple Emperor certainly made the long drive more worthwhile, but it would have been good to spend more time attempting to photograph the rather elusive hairstreaks.
Last year's encounter with a Purple Emperor on the same date, but up a tree, may be viewed here
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