I spent Thursday and Friday of last week at the UK's premier
Purple Emperor place
Fermyn Woods, Northamptonshire where so many other enthusiasts visit to coincide with the peak emergence, whether my own choice of date hit the peak remains to be seen, but I don't think its far off.
This is the first time I've stayed over and I made the right choice, the butterfly in question was seen in good numbers, more than enough to sate the appetite of the most hungry
iris hunter. Fermyn is a place where the hard baked gravelly rides brings the butterfly down to take in minerals among other assorted delicacies
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
and once the butterfly is content with what's on offer chances are your going to see some super
purple flashed by the males
![P1210772Purple Emperor2.jpg (446.09 KiB) Viewed 1456 times One of the many PE males seen flashing...!!!](./files/thumb_8479_711b71a7afcd7d1ffbcadc6975e8046e)
- One of the many PE males seen flashing...!!!
![P1210980Purple Emperor.jpg (294.75 KiB) Viewed 1456 times Side view of HIM...His Imperial Majesty!!!](./files/thumb_8479_d20076a60070084eb93f0bafb7d813eb)
- Side view of HIM...His Imperial Majesty!!!
Thursday was much the cooler of the two days with intermittent sunshine, and I had pre-arranged to meet fellow
UKB's Phil Bromley for an early 8am start, this mean't leaving home at 4.45am to hopefully miss the worst of the morning traffic in and around Birmingham & Coventry...huh...dream on
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
the M42 and M6 were bumper to bumper for a good 40 miles, but I still managed to arrive at Fermyn for the kick-off
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
...just!!! Phil had arrived from the opposite direction taking in a good 3 mile walk through excellent habitat, habitat that he showed me during the evening and I had a bonus male Brown Hawker there that I managed to photograph (the species is very scarce in south Wales).
![P1210846Male Brown Hawker.jpg (271.21 KiB) Viewed 1456 times Male Brown Hawker finally resting up...](./files/thumb_8479_77ba693a3b25c0aa217a58cde4e44730)
- Male Brown Hawker finally resting up...
The amount of
Comma's seen throughout Fermyn was exceptional, everyone we met seemed to think they had never seen more, I know I never have and I counted half a dozen down on minerals on one patch alongside two
Purple Emperor and what a contrast these species produced when photographed in 'synchronised sipping' mode
![P1210731Purple Emperor & Comma.jpg (440.76 KiB) Viewed 1456 times Who needs exotics???](./files/thumb_8479_b1df98c8473ac088ddd3b6ba99bd7e54)
- Who needs exotics???
![P1210902Purple Emperor.jpg (365.1 KiB) Viewed 1456 times Another superb PE showing off...](./files/thumb_8479_36804a45829da3c1b3167a7ad2fa9916)
- Another superb PE showing off...
One of the pleasures of Fermyn during the
PE season is meeting other enthusiasts and exchanging information on species, photography etc, on Thursday Phil and I spent some quality time with Iain Leach and his good friend and fellow photographer Mark Johnson, Iain is well known to
UK Butterflies for his superb images and needs no introduction, Mark is a full pro photographer and it was great to watch them at work (if you call it work
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
) many thanks for your time and company lads
![P1220008Purple Emperor.jpg (294.49 KiB) Viewed 1456 times PE on minerals](./files/thumb_8479_ffa7fecb5f3464bf78f306acfb6f0c91)
- PE on minerals
Friday dawned bright and clear with hardly a cloud in the sky, the woods alive with all that mother nature has to offer on such a wonderful mid-summer morning. Arriving from my B&B at 9am the Lyveden Gliding Club car park was already full and the roadside verges were quickly filling up
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
I headed through the main access ride to meet Phil and his old butterflying 'side-kick' Nick Ballard (it must be great to have a mate you can kick in the side when you miss that special shot
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
) and on turning a corner I bumped into the one and only Andy Dyball who was almost sat on a
PE begging to have it's photo taken...so I did
![P1210858Purple Emperor.JPG (288.89 KiB) Viewed 1456 times Begging for a picture...](./files/thumb_8479_56c7598ab67cb43ea2c93a375006b414)
- Begging for a picture...
There were many other Emperors also on the wing on this very hot day, not of the butterfly kind though may I hasten to add, these superb critters were our largest British dragonflies and one posed nicely during the morning for some images, while several passing enthusiasts also took the chance of getting a record shot
![P1210918Emperor Dragonfly.jpg (292.83 KiB) Viewed 1456 times The other Emperor of the woods...](./files/thumb_8479_3ae5483e6fbc1670bc42779cd52c6a49)
- The other Emperor of the woods...
Before the day ended Phil and myself said our farewells to Nick and headed back to our cars, but first the
White-letter Hairstreak Wych Elm we had seen during previous visits warranted a 'look-see' and sure enough we saw perhaps three females egg-laying, but by now the breeze had come up and the insects were also hyper-active, this combination proved very frustrating and study and photo's proved difficult, below is a couple of record only shots.
![P1220018Female White-letter Hairstreak.jpg (186.77 KiB) Viewed 1456 times Egg-laying White-letter Hairstreak](./files/thumb_8479_6df4f88dd51cf34a0ae88a72baf8a5f2)
- Egg-laying White-letter Hairstreak
This ended another great Fermyn Woods adventure, I'd like to thank Phil for his much enjoyed company once again and finally just add that among the other species seen were:-
White Admiral, Silver-washed Fritillary (with reports of a couple of
valezina) and
Purple Hairstreak.
Bill
"When in doubt - venture out"