www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Cheers Wurzel. For a change I think the South East has had the worst of the weather this Summer.
PE. sites in the Midlands seem to be performing well, judging by posts I've seen.

I did however get some purple today!

You did well to head for home, stay well,
Trevor.

My first early morning Purple Hairstreak, a female, Abbots Wood today.

Yesterday's early morning visit to Abbots Wood turned out to be very worthwhile.
The Purple Hairstreak, above, was a total surprise. Having searched the ' hot spot '
for them and found nothing, I carried on to see what else was around. It was as I
was focussing attention on a White Admiral that the female PH was spotted basking
near the ground. One of those occasions where the brain is slow to comprehend
what the eyes are seeing!.
It was also good to find three summer brood Commas, and several fresh, female,
White Admirals, though the males were showing signs of wear and tear.

Trevor.

A couple of for that female PH. I only seem to get males posing like that for me

A very nice Purple Hairstreak, Trevor! Worth a couple of as bugboy says...They're a bit thin on the ground this year so far too.

Cheers,

Dave

Cheers Paul. If you manage a male PH with wings wide open, showing full purple,
you'll get more than the two mrgreens you awarded me !.

Thanks Dave. After finding the PH I scanned the usual Oaks for signs of action,
and there were only a few fleeting glimpses. They too seem to be late this year.

Yesterday afternoon I drove over to Horseshoe Plantation to look for, particularly,
female Dark Green Fritillaries. There was plenty of Knapweed and Scabious in flower,
and many Dark Greens nectaring, the difficulty was finding any that would stay still enough.
Whenever a female was located she was invariably pestered by a male and would always
dive down in the grass to give him the brush off, emerging again as soon as her would be
suitor had lost interest. Many of those seen were either fresh or in good condition.

I was pleased to find a solitary Small Tortoiseshell, bringing my East Sussex total to twelve
for this year so far.

Trevor.

Great Purple Hairstreak from me!

That's a cracking Purple Hairstreak Trevor - I don't think I've seen finer, it practically pops out of the screen at you Hopefully His Nibbs will start coming out to play over the next few days

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

Beautiful female DGF, Trevor. She has that 'veneer' that you see when they are fresh.

Your quest for the big purple one may not be progressing as well as you'd anticipated, but your small purple one, i.e. the Hairstreak is absolutely superb and I'm sure provides a little compensation.

Many thanks Katrina, Wurzel & David for your kind comments on the Purple Hairstreak.

And here is another one from today.

The female Purple Hairstreak we saw today actually landed on a visitors clothing,
and he brought it to show us on his finger. Anxious to find a safe place for it he
transferred it to a Hogweed flower. Although capable of lively flight this PH
was quite happy to walk on to peoples fingers including Pauline's and mine.

Good to see Dave ( millerd ) and Pauline today.
Trevor.

Well more Great photos!

Another cracking Purp Trevor But was His Nibbs playing ball?

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

I sense there was more purple on that day

Lovely Purple Hairstreak on the hogweed against the black background Trevor, an unusual shot

Cheers,

Neil.

Many thanks folks. That Purple Hairstreak provided plenty of photo opps. for everyone present.

Chiddingfold and the Emperor.

Finding His Majesty this year has been tricky and hard work.
Despite many late June/early July visits none were seen, indeed I can confidently
say that up to Friday July 9th none of the hopefuls at Chiddingfold had seen a Purple Emperor.
My enquiries of others and people asking me confirmed the PE's absence up to the 9th.

My next visit was on Weds 14th, and the ' action ' started early, when I spotted what looked like
a brief chase of two White Admirals, but when they split it was clear that the one we watched
fly into an Oak was a PE. and possibly a female.
Later that morning I was searching the Tugley Wood track, when in the distance I could see Dave Miller
walking towards me and waving his arm. He had found a grounded male PE and was on his way to tip me off.
Unfortunately this butterfly had found the most disgusting fayre possible, really stomach churning stuff.
On the plus side he did provide much entertainment by posing nicely, twice, on nearby ferns between ' sittings '.
Thanks for the tip off Dave.

Here are the shots from Weds 14th.

Very nice, Trevor. Definitely the most obliging Emperor of the week - pity about his choice of nourishment, but it did keep him occupied for quite a while!

Cheers,

Dave

Cheers Dave. I think we can call him ' Emperor of the week ', I certainly didn't see better!.

On Thursday 15th July we had another Purple Emperor grounding, at 11.43 according to
the time on the camera. This one looked fine at the time, but had acquired many scratches
in his short life. There was also more tree top action on the 15th than the previous day.

Friday the 16th was pretty poor for groundings, the only one I saw touched down by the side
of the ride on some Horse dung, only to sample it and take off after a few seconds. We were
treated to some further tantalising fly pasts by the same butterfly, including one where he
disturbed another PE from a nearby sallow.

Trevor.

Loving these reportages, Trevor. I'm quite content in my south Welsh abode during spring but at this time of year I really wish I had just a short journey to see some of these beauties.

Maybe I'll put in an effort later next week. Looks like things are good for a wee while yet.

Thanks David. In the South East it has not been one better PE years.

Yesterday morning I popped over to Abbots Wood for Purple Hairstreaks.
Having searched my favourite area for them, and found nothing, I sat on a
convenient log in order to scan several Oaks. After an hour I saw one drop
down low. Sure enough the butterfly had settled slightly above head height,
and was clearly visible.
A half hour session with this butterfly was enough to photograph it from many angles,
Unfortunately in all that time it never opened up and was engrossed in presumably
sap or honeydew from a new Oak shoot.

Trevor.

I'd still, have taken the scratched up old Emperor Trevor I saw 3 or 4 at Bentley but was in the wrong place at the wrong time for Groudings Oh well maybe next year...for now yours will do

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel