Sunday 26th June 2011 - or, 10 and a half hours in search of Him.
I was up at silly o’clock and at Southwater Woods by 08.30. Apart from a little bit of clear blue over the Surrey hills there was no sign of the clear blue sky forecast, only mist and cloud. But it had to get better.
Seeing Neil Kipper’s car parked at the usual spot was a good sign.
I walked the rides which were damp and muddy and I only saw an out of bed early Meadow Brown and a deer. About 9am I met up with Susie. We saw a White Admiral and a few more browns and then walked to the meadows where we bumped into Neil. The sky was beginning to brighten and another White Admiral, Meadow Browns, Ringlets, the odd Marbled White, 1 Small Copper and 1 Small Skipper were just coming to life. We spent a while admiring the fresh female Meadow Browns before Susie had to dash off for family matters.
Neil said that there was a BC walk planned for later that morning, which I hadn't known about but which I tagged along with.
The walk started at 10.30 and we walked the rides seeing 10+ Silver Washed Fritillary, 10+ White Admiral, 1 Red Admiral, a few Meadow Browns, Ringlets, several Comma, 1 Holly Blue, 3 Purple Hairstreak, Large Skipper and Small Skipper.
By 12ish the sky had finally cleared and blue prevailed. Neil had billed the walk for Silver Washed and White Admiral with no deliberately no mention of Iris – but we saw HIM! We had a brief glimpse of Him at height above the Madgland master trees but He bombed down the ride not to return.
We walked round to the meadows which by now were alive with hundreds and hundreds of Meadow Browns, 25+ Ringlets, 50+ Marbled Whites, 2 Small Copper, Large Skipper, Small Skipper and 1 Small Tortoiseshell. I also found several of these charming little red damselflies, flying with some blue ones:
I also found a mating pair of Marbled Whites and a mating pair of Meadow Browns. Look at this though – I thought it may be the sperm but Neil thought it was more likely the meconium ejected after emergence from a fresh female which had started mating before ejecting it all.
And then they separated:
To top it off, at the end of the walk there were 2 sparring male Purple Emperors above the car park area which we all watched for a while.
I met and chatted to quite a few Sussex members during the walk, a lovely bunch they are too.
Later I had planned to go to Botany Bay and Oaken Wood, where it turned out Neil was also headed. By the time we got there it was seriously roasting and Neil thought it likely due to the cool morning any emerging Emperors might make themselves known this afternoon. But it wasn’t to be. We met several people who had seen one or two, or heard of one on the ground an hour or so before we got there but despite 4 hours of traversing the main rides between Botany and Oaken and thorough searching, we didn’t see one. Neil had his special sauce with him and that didn’t work either. Just a little too early it seems for the few that are out.
However, we did see: 1 fresh second brood Wood White, 4 Green Veined White, 8 White Admiral, 15+ Silver Washed Fritillary, 1 Dark Green Fritillary, 2 Red Admiral, 2 Comma, 10+ Meadow Brown, 10+ Ringlet, 6 Marbled White, 1 male and 2 female Common Blue, 20+ Large Skipper and 4 Small Skipper.
Neil even had his magic bike (as seen on the telly) which was handy for speeding off to check the baits.
Numbers at both Southwater and Oaken seemed quite low of everything and Oaken particularly seemed pretty quiet.
I got back to my car at 19.00, hot, tired and weary but happy to have seen Him this morning.
Thanks first to Susie and then Neil for another fantastic Sussex day out. Special mention also to all the lovely Sussex BC members I met this morning, a really lovely bunch.
The closest view I've ever had of one.
