Purple Emperor

I can hardly believe that it's the last day of June! The month seems to have slipped away, and looking back I realise that I have spent very little time out and about locally. A wonderful week birding and butterflying in Bulgaria and a weekend visiting friends in Suffolk, combined with a lot of bad weather meant that last Sunday was the first time that I had a chance to get out. A friend and I decided to drive down to Bernwood, near Thame, in the hope of seeing Black Hairstreak Satyrium pruni, a butterfly I still haven't photographed successfully. To be honest my hopes were not high as I had a suspicion that it was probably a bit late in the season for these elusive little butterflies, and so it proved. We carefully scanned the Blackthorns where I had seen them the previous year, but without luck. That's the problem with butterflies with limited flight periods such as Black Hairstreak - get the timing wrong and you have missed them for another year! Despite our disappointment we had a feeling that Purple Emperors might be on the wing as it was the sort of hot, humid day that encourages these enigmatic butterflies to descend from their lofty tree top world to display their beauty to us mere mortals. Actually they come down to drink or feed on animal droppings and decaying carcasses, which rather tarnishes their glamour! We spotted a few White Admirals roving restlessly from tree to tree and a couple of Silver-washed Fritillaries bombing purposefully down the rides, but there was no sign of any Emperors. Feeling hot and a bit downcast, we arrived back at the car-park and immediately spotted a beautiful male, it's wings closed, sipping from the edge of a puddle. Eventually it flew lazily up to the lower branches of an Oak tree, where it settled for a while before dropping down again and sunning itself on the bonnet of a car! What a stunning butterfly. I took a few pictures before being distracted by a Silver-washed Fritillary that chose to settle on a nearby Bramble bush for a while. Eventually the Emperor flew off and we decided to drive to nearby Whitecross Woods in the hope of seeing Black Hairstreak or maybe Wood White, but it was strangely quiet and with the heat rapidly becoming unbearable we decided to call it a day and head home.

Purple Emperor Apatura iris at Bernwood (26/06/2011)

Purple Emperor Apatura iris at Bernwood (26/06/2011)

Silver-washed Fritillary at Bernwood (26/06/2011)