July Butterflies

[Pete Eeles]

I was lucky enough to visit Alice Holt Forest with Matthew Oates to look for Purple Emperors yesterday.

We started off at one area (I can't remember the name!!) where, after an hour of looking we saw our first male, high in the canopy. Matthew put some belachan out but to no avail.

Moving further down we were lucky when a pristine male settled on the path in front of Matthew - it stayed for several minutes, basking in the sunshine. Then more appeared in the canopy and, to our amazement, two settled on the path only a metre away from eachother. Then another settled at a muddy pool. This was too good to be true!

They were everywhere, all males. After 11am they started sallow-searching, and were still settling on the ground - I even had one on the tip of my finger for the briefest of moments.

There were so many that we were becoming blase and stopped pointing them out. A pristine male came down to a second lot of belachan and fed for a good few minutes.


Later on in the day we moved onto Goose Green, where there was a cherry picker waiting. There were many males in the canopy (and so many ringlets in the grass I lost count). A male PE settled on the arm of the cherry picker!

It was a long day (I left home at 5.30 and arrived back at 7pm, a round trip of about nearly 300 miles) but so, so worth it - I can safely put it down as one of the greatest days of my life. I wish I could be back there today.

Thanks to everyone who made it such a great day, and it was lovely to meet Lynn and Tony (I think it was Tony, I'm so sorry if your names not Tony but you'll have to excuse me, my mind was in the clouds yesterday!)

Other species I saw were SW Frit, Ringlet, Meadow Brown, Small Skipper (male), Large White, Marbled White, White Admiral and Red Admiral

Excellent report Annie - thanks for enthusing the rest of us - and congrats on seeing Mr. Iris (that's the butterfly, not Mr. Oates! Then again ...).

And we should all keep an eye on this: http://www.thepurpleempire.com/whatsnew.html where Annie's true identity is revealed

Cheers,

- Pete

[Trev Sawyer]

Well, as the Purple Emperors are starting to emerge at Fermyn Woods...
I decided to make the most of today's weather and try my luck:
Woke up at 4-15am for some reason and there didn't seem much point in going back to sleep, so I was on parade by 6.30am.
Bumped into Charles Nicol and a few others during the morning, but apart from one butterfly with a nasty bird peck out of both underwings, we had to wait until about 11am for any really photogenic PE's. When our particular chance arrived, His Majesty didn't seem keen to open his wings either - just very brief flashes when he was facing in the wrong direction . After much cussing and verbal cajoling, I finally managed a keeper... funny how they all look OK on the camera, but when you load them onto the computer, the vast majority are just not quite right. Thank GOD for digital cameras - It would have cost me a fortune to get that number of shots developed

NB: Both main rides were apparently blessed with the odd Purple Emperor, so there must be a few on the wing there now.



Trev

[Dave McCormick]

Lots of meadow browns today, around 15+ in this grassy flower area I passed by. This one is on a flower head. It looked a bit smaller than usual. I mistook it for a small heath, but then noticed it was a meadow brown. Is it smaller than usual?, can probably tell by what plant its on, but I am not sure

[IAC]

Hi all,
I would love to say that I have seen the first ever Scottish Purple Emperor........but thats just not gonna happen, a highly fantastic photograph Sussex Kipper, summer is here
I will have to settle for 2 male, Small "crumbs" Skippers. They are though, as highly prized a sighting here, as any Purple Emperor in the south. Great day for butterflies up here, its quite literally Butterfly World. Visited a small disused Quarry site, lots of Ringlet 100+, almost record numbers now, 50+ Meadow Brown, only 1 GVW, 1 beautiful Red Admiral , 16+ Common Blue, lots of females in brown and blue form. And as I said, 2 Small Skipper males...still looking for DG Frits...they have to be somewhere.
Cheers, IAC.

[Pete Eeles]

Hi all,
I would love to say that I have seen the first ever Scottish Purple Emperor........but thats just not gonna happen, a highly fantastic photograph Sussex Kipper, summer is here
I will have to settle for 2 male, Small "crumbs" Skippers. They are though, as highly prized a sighting here, as any Purple Emperor in the south. Great day for butterflies up here, its quite literally Butterfly World. Visited a small disused Quarry site, lots of Ringlet 100+, almost record numbers now, 50+ Meadow Brown, only 1 GVW, 1 beautiful Red Admiral , 16+ Common Blue, lots of females in brown and blue form. And as I said, 2 Small Skipper males...still looking for DG Frits...they have to be somewhere.
Cheers, IAC.

Great stuff IAC.

Your comments remind me of something that David Simcox said to me when I was interviewing him. My question was "What's your favourite butterfly", which I thought was a dumb question, since he's "lived and breathed" Large Blue since 1977. His answer was "whichever butterfly I'm looking at". That response definitely struck a chord with me. What a great answer! So - wherever you are - and however impoverished things may seem - every butterfly is special, and the best photo is yet to be taken

Cheers,

- Pete

[Neil Hulme]

Hi all,
Following another good day at Southwater yesterday (3rd July), when sightings included 13 Purple Emperor and a mint condition valezina Silver-washed Fritillary:

Southwater Woods still producing well today, despite more subdued weather. Males very active at Marlpost car park, Dogbarking MT, Madgelands MT, lane adjacent to 'Sleepy Warren', Crookhorn Lane, 'Butterfly Corner' (Tom Ottley photographed head-height, perched male). At least 3 males spent the morning 'sallow searching' along the slope down to the stream in Madgelands (total for woods 16). The highlight was a pair 'in cop' at the Madgelands assembly area. A female was pursued up the adjacent North Ride at 10:15 and copulation was immediately initiated as she alighted in the upper reaches of the ash. At 11:08 a determined effort to usurp the copulating male was made by one of the other 3 butterflies 'on station'. A violent beating of wings continued for a full two minutes, before the pretender accepted defeat. Although other males often alighted for a closer look, no other interventions were observed. They were still joined at 13:10, at which point I had to leave to lead a school party at Cissbury Ring. Valezina was again spotted early in the morning, but continues to be camera-shy. (Neil Hulme and Tom Ottley)

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[Neil Hulme]

Lovely flash of Purple Trev! Not managed a good topside male myself yet - but Fermyn next week! Annie - sounds like you had a fantastic day out with Matthew, Lynn and others. It's the memories of that sort of day that make the winter bearable!
Neil

[eccles]

I'm a bit late reporting this one. July 1st saw my first gatekeeper of the year at Willsbridge Valley. I have a better shot than this but I might need it for the competition.

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[Annie]

And we should all keep an eye on this: http://www.thepurpleempire.com/whatsnew.html where Annie's true identity is revealed

I'm Spartacus

it's funny how you start to see PE's everywhere, if only in your head. I had to drive to a local town this morning, and their "welcome to..." town sign is in the shape of a sail - but all I could think about as I approached it was that it looked like a classic "shark's fin" PE settled on the ground...

[Neil Hulme]

Hi all,
Today at Southwater Woods a total of 14 Purple Emperor continued to entertain and delight the visitors. The number of males over the Marlpost car park has increased to 4 and they were active here until 18:00, by which time the treetops had become a swirling mass of Purple Hairstreaks. Alice Parfitt and I watched one chase a Wood Pigeon, adding to the list of Purple Emperor 'targets' for 2008 (Great Spotted Woodpecker, Chaffinch and Long-tailed Tit). But the stars of today's show were the females. At 14:15, after a spell of ovipositing, a fairly worn and battered female landed to probe for moisture near the Madgelands stream. Having lazed around in the sallows at 'Butterfly Corner' for some time, a second female went into 'sap-searching' mode, before locating a 'run' deep within the shade of a hazel. She gorged herself between 15:25 and 15:30, flicking her huge wings to deter a Comma from sharing her feast.

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Neil

[Piers]

I would just like to point out that Matthew's health and safety notes may need a little updating - on depositing the paste he wrote "vile" on a little card and placed it in front of the suppurating ooze.

Indeed, I saw one of these cards blowing around on the ride in the Straits Inclosure yesterday - kindly take your litter home with you Mr Oates!!

Arriving (very) early at the Straits Inc. I watched a male PE venture forth from his territory after a period of basking in the early sunlight beating his wings slowly and rhythmically. I had watched this (I assume the same) male the previous day patrolling this same territory; making slow gliding flights from one tree to the next, forming a triangle from his primary perch.

After having suitably warmed, I observed this male fly swiftly up the ride and make for another tree where he was joined presently by a second male. A third male was already present at this tree. The three PE's jostled a little in short 'jousting' flights, but with little real effort to see the other male off. I made the assumption that since at least one of these males had an established territory elsewhere, this gathering was not made in any effort to establish a territory, hence the males apparent toleration each others company.

A female appeared briefly at one point and was quickly pursued by one of the males, she was having none of it however, and shot into a sallow and then up and over the canopy. The male returned to his perch to bask.

After around forty five minutes 'my' male (at least I assume that it was the same individual) returned to his territory further down the ride, and again patrolled it in his regular geometric series of flights, alighting between to either bask or simply sit perched with wings closed.

I returned to the tree where the congregation had taken place and from what I could see after a period of observation, the other males had dispersed also.

Returning to the Straits Inc. later in the morning after a break for coffee, 'my' male was still in his territory, tolerating another male in reasonably close vicinity to appear and descend to the ground for a feed; an act that lasted a good thirty minutes. 'My' male continued to patrol his territory.

Another very interesting PE day...

Felix.

[Shirley Roulston]

Nothing much interesting in Nefyn if the butterflies haven't been blown away they certainly might have drowned. A few Small Tortoiseshell's about and loads of Meadow Browns.

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[Jack Harrison]

Dave wrote:

can probably tell by what plant its on..

That's Self Heal, Prunella vulgaris.

Jack

[Chris]

Great day at Arnside Knott today, despite the thunder-storms! In fact, the DGF took pity on me and continued to fly through much of the downpour. I'm not the most persistent of counters so I can't give numbers, but there were dozens of DGF and the odd HBF, Small Pearl bordered still flying, Brown Argus, Meadow Brown, Ringlet and Grayling. No whites and no vanessids, surprisingly and no sign of Purple Hairstreak and Scotch Argus yet (as you might expect).

I tried out staking out a thistle today and waiting, rather than chasing around mindlessly. I had quite a few visitors...

[dave brown]

Still at least 14 Heath Fritillaries on the wing at East Blean Wood near Canterbury on Saturday (5/07) afternoon. Also many Meadow Browns, but we saw no sign of White Admirals.

[Susie]

A much better morning at Southwater Woods today, although still dodging the showers.

Silver washed fritillary
White Admiral
Red Admiral
Large White
Marbled White
Green Veined White
Meadow Brown
Ringlet
Speckled Wood
Various Skippers

[eccles]

Monday (7th) saw my first marbled whites of the year on the local patch. They've been out elsewhere for a couple of weeks so I was getting a bit anxious that the small colony nearby had taken a dive.
Yesterday (8th) I revisited Lower Woods near Wickwar hoping to find white admiral. I got two fleeting glimpses of what was most likely the same individual, and that was it for the day. SW fritillaries were well represented though, and I got probably my best ever day's photography of this superb butterfly. Although they were nectaring off bramble, way back in the scrub, they would frequently fly forward to feed off thistles and other wildflowers that were much closer to the footpath.

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