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Cheers Paul. One encounter with an Emperor I forgot to mention was a brief trousering
on Wednesday. It came in from behind me and buzzed me around my head, close enough to
hear it's wings ' clicking '. It then appeared on my left leg! Obviously my jeans were
far too clean and it was soon off.

Thanks Wurzel. Pleased to read of your Emperor encounter. I think you were long overdue
an audience with H.I.M. As well as the Emperor, both WA and SWF seem to be doing well this year.

On a very brief visit to Abbots Wood early this morning ( I needed to be somewhere else ),
I found my first Purple Hairstreak of the year. a male, Indeed it was my best ever view
of a male with wings open.
On my return to the car a fresh female White Admiral drew my attention.
Not a bad haul for a 15 min. visit.

Trevor.

Driving home on Saturday afternoon I became aware of a large number of Red Admirals
flying along and across the country lanes. This morning there were literally 100's flying
at Abbots Wood, they easily outnumbered the Meadow Browns, and all were fresh.
In all my life I have never seen Red Admirals in such abundance. As I saw them in West
and East Sussex, 50 miles apart, it would be interesting to know if they ' swarm ' in
other parts of the UK.

This post is devoted to the Red Admirals of this morning............

I was just about to post something similar, Trevor! Despite cloud, wind and depressed temperatures, I counted 43 Red Admirals during a short walk locally. Most looked very fresh.

Cheers,

Dave

Lots of freshly minted ones at Bookham this morning too And purple Hairstreaks that kept getting in the way of everything else I was trying to photograph

Thanks Dave. I saw the Res Admirals early this morning when it was largely sunny,
and fairly calm ( more like a gale this afternoon ). What a spectacle!
They reminded me of those Painted Lady years.

Purple Hairstreaks in the way, is a nice problem to have Paul.
From what I've read so far Red Admirals are being seen in quantities elsewhere.

Cracking Purple Hairstreak Trevor Shots like that are harder to get than His Nibbs I reckon

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Cheers Wurzel. Talking of Hairstreaks, soon be time for our annual meet up.

Some of the other species seen at Abbots wood in recent days.
The first Gatekeepers have appeared, as have the Summer brood Commas.
Three very large, fresh Large Whites were also present, along with White Admirals,
and several male Silver Washed Fritillaries, still only found one female so far.

Trevor.

Love the Silver-washed Trevor
"Talking of Hairstreaks, soon be time for our annual meet up" - yep - the Whitters are out, someone's seen some Chalkhills and so the Brostreaks won't be far off - maybe another week and they'll be out at Alners I'm looking forward to them more than ever this year as I'm on for a Five Hairstreak year

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Cheers Wurzel, Another Hairstreak in the bag this morning.

Up close and personal!

This morning I popped over to Abbots Wood, butterflies of many species were abundant.
Always hoping for a Purple Hairstreak, a search of low growing foliage produced nothing.
So a good plan was to sit on one of the large boulders and scan the nearby Oaks, hoping
one will come within camera range. Eventually one did, a male, and a partial open wing
shot was obtained. On the same tree another came down in an even better position for
a closed wing shot.
Then I could not believe my eyes. A third Purple Hairstreak flew down from the Oak and
landed on a bramble right in front of me, and better still stayed on the bramble for about
20mins, Every time it moved I thought that was it, but no, it was just changing perch
within the bramble patch! Interestingly it was not after nectar, possibly moisture.

What a great early morning.
Trevor.

Very nice shots of the Hairstreaks Trevor - I am certainly struggling this season with all the species that require you just to wait around, ie all the ones that spend a lot of time in the trees! Shouldn't complain tho' cos at least I've seen them and can enjoy the shots taken by others

Cracking Purps Trevor, especially the partially open winged male
"and better still stayed on the bramble for about 20mins," Sometimes they can be the most amenable of butterflies, often when you least expect it which makes up for all the others times that they're right pains plus the neck pain that they cause

Have a goodun

Wurzel

You are quite right, Pauline, plenty of patience, and a lot of waiting is required for
the Purple Hairstreak, and worse I sometimes go home with nothing to show for it!

Cheers Wurzel. More cracking Purps this morning, lots of action early on.

This morning I arrived at Abbots Wood a little after 7.30,only to find Kirsty Gibbs
already reporting three PH down since 7am. During the morning we had several
just low enough in the Oaks for a few shots.
The same bramble patch as yesterday produced the real prizes today, firstly,a
male came down and settled briefly with it's wings wide open, showing good purple,
and after a long wait another fresh specimen came down on the bramble and allowed
us a close up view of that lovely silvery grey underside.

A great morning in good company.
Trevor.

Those Purple Hairstreaks are a real treat, Trevor. Many are due. It is currently a very longwinded process to get to either of my best PH sites because of the "improvement" work at J10 of the M25 (75 minutes to travel what should take 30...). Those are terrific shots - a fresh male showing purple like that could almost be confused for some kind of blue!

Cheers,

Dave

Great shots Trevor. They're coming down at plenty of sites this year. Capturing the iridescence on a male Purple Hairstreak has got to be the most difficult things to do. My camera quite often doesn't manage it even when I can see it through the viewfinder!

Cheers Dave. Hopefully you'll get to enjoy the Purple Hairstreak bonanza,
they seem to be popping up everywhere at the moment.

The same is true of the Adonis, Paul, the camera doesn't pick up that
electric blue flash that the eye sees. Must do better!

On a warm muggy morning I set off to Abbots Wood just before 7.
Even at this hour there was plenty of activity, but only two Purple Hairstreaks
were found, both males. The first escaped without a shot, but the second was
more obliging and gradually opened up on the bracken.
The Gate Keepers are becoming more numerous, but no females yet.
I was particularly pleased to find only my second female Silver Washed Fritillary so far.
Two White Admirals were seen, both showing signs of wear.

Earlier on this week I saw my third Small Tortoiseshell of the year locally. This was my first
East Sussex specimen since early Spring when they were fresh out of hibernation.

More lush Purps Trevor I'm going to try my hand early tomorrow having 'only' gotten a freshly emerged one at Alners Getting the 'purple' on that male is worthy of a few of these... Though for you I expect the Small Tort was the highlight of your last visit

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks Wurzel. Yes the Small Tort was a highlight, a butterfly I used to take for granted.

It's amazing what can be found in some tall ripening grass on a day with no sunshine.

trevor wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 7:43 pm It's amazing what can be found in some tall ripening grass on a day with no sunshine.

It's a rare day at this time of year when you won't find a butterfly somewhere! I think it would have to rain constantly from dawn till dusk and be unseasonally cold.

That's a nice dusky summer brood Small Copper too!

Cheers,

Dave