Tuesday 24th July – Fermyn Woods.
With glorious sunshine forecast for a few days I had booked a day off work in order to take advantage of it.
I had not made any particular plans on where to go but reading the reports of Purple Emperor numbers growing at Fermyn over the weekend, this was far too much of a temptation to resist.
Fermyn is only 60 miles or so from my house and I arrived there just before 08.00am to find a few cars already parked by the gliding club.
Passing a few pleasantries with a fellow enthusiast (more of whom later
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
) who had arrived just before me, I set off down the ride.
Last year when I came here, I had seen my first Purple Emperors down at the southern end of the Lady/Souther/Titchmarsh Wood complex so I figured that I would head straight to there and then take a leisurely bimble back through the rides.
Sure enough, I saw my first PE at 09.05am down at the south end doing the usual thing of sitting on top of a pile of ‘pooh’ taking in minerals. I took a few photos but I already had loads of ‘PE on pooh’ photos from last year and really wanted to try for some shots of Emperors on ‘green’
Leaving this individual to carry on obtaining his nourishment, I started back up through the woods seeing a few more including two having a bit of a dogfight by a stand of pines.
This gave me my first ‘PE on green’ opportunity albeit at long range as one of them broke off and settled about 15 feet up in one of the pines.
Further along in Souther Wood I came across an Emperor on the ground at about the same time as another ‘PE hunter’, and this was soon joined by another male as well as the chap I had spoken to earlier in the car park who turned out to be none other than fellow UKB member ‘Tuts’.
![Fermyn 24.07.2012 046resize.jpg (483.63 KiB) Viewed 2451 times Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012](./files/thumb_10101_388f59c130c78fdf6cd2ed47431eba8c)
- Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012
![Fermyn 24.07.2012 056resize.jpg (410.25 KiB) Viewed 2451 times Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012](./files/thumb_10101_5fcad7c009bea52a15dce12ef14da316)
- Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012
These two PEs stayed on the ground here for quite some time during which Tuts saved them from potential disaster from a passing vehicle by gently lifting them on to his fingers to move them out of the way.
This gave a photo opportunity that just begged to be taken
![Fermyn 24.07.2012 064resize.jpg (312.66 KiB) Viewed 2451 times 'The Purple Emperor Bookends'](./files/thumb_10101_e5c972d13285f89894eb20ee8446fe0a)
- 'The Purple Emperor Bookends'
After this they continued to remain here, occasionally taking off and circling around the growing number of watchers and they were still there when Mark (Tuts) and myself continued on through the rides.
During the morning I think we saw 16 individuals including a dozen or so on the ground, a few of which would occasionally take off and settle on nearby shrubs fairly low down
![Fermyn 24.07.2012 067resize.jpg (429.39 KiB) Viewed 2451 times Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012](./files/thumb_10101_89478a9b01de6651cc30907113f10d86)
- Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012
![Fermyn 24.07.2012 072resize.jpg (376.78 KiB) Viewed 2451 times Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012](./files/thumb_10101_8ac710c13eedef59455fe1af0efc466b)
- Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012
![Fermyn 24.07.2012 073resize.jpg (385.79 KiB) Viewed 2451 times Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012](./files/thumb_10101_74a3c891160d1efcfb130e4c7b224933)
- Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012
![Fermyn 24.07.2012 098resize.jpg (381.41 KiB) Viewed 2451 times Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012](./files/thumb_10101_fd45f83df3cd78761869ff68015e542b)
- Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012
![Fermyn 24.07.2012 107resize.jpg (511.01 KiB) Viewed 2451 times Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012](./files/thumb_10101_6c654fb40317df425b665cb09d6c469b)
- Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012
By midday it was getting very hot and butterfly activity had definitely quietened down with those that were still about being very mobile.
We walked back through Fermyn to the cars for a bit of lunch seeing our only female of the day diving into some Sallow.
The afternoon was much quieter than the morning and we only saw a few, which, I believe due to their locations, were some of the same individuals we had seen during the morning. Those that we did see low down were very flighty, only settling for seconds before rising again
Walking right through to the south side again at around 4.30pm we found a male on the ground taking minerals by a puddle and this one stayed around for a while but kept his wings clamped tightly shut in the heat.
![Fermyn 24.07.2012 143resize.jpg (468.9 KiB) Viewed 2451 times Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012](./files/thumb_10101_e9d41a7f3971c4400ba1e7fb01fbf3ac)
- Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012
Mark made the observation that the habitat at this end, where you are actually coming out of the woods, was unlike any he was used to seeing Purple Emperors in, being much more open and more like a hedgerow.
![Fermyn 24.07.2012 144resize.jpg (474.96 KiB) Viewed 2451 times Last grounded Emperor seen just beyond puddle.](./files/thumb_10101_428cbbbe2ec328e80a9951c433b5e1a2)
- Last grounded Emperor seen just beyond puddle.
We then walked slowly back towards the cars seeing just one more flying rapidly along the ride in Lady Wood.
Other butterflies seen during the day were;
A few White Admirals
Silver-washed Fritillaries – more of these than last year.
Purple Hairstreaks – High up flitting about as usual.
White-letter Hairstreak – 1 individual in the ride from the gliding club in almost exactly the
same position where there was one last year.
Meadow Browns, Ringlets and a large number of very active Large Skippers.
Large, Small and Green-veined whites in encouraging numbers.
A great day, which whilst apparently quieter than the previous one, was highly enjoyable with enough Purple Emperor action to keep me happy
Bye for now,
Neil F.