With Purple Emperor Season now upon us, I decided to pay a visit to my usual location at Bernwood Forest. Being in the middle of a heatwave with extreme heat warnings, I'd need to get up extra early to be in with a chance of seeing these large butterflies before they retired to the tree tops.
Accordingly, I arrived at my location at just after 8 o'clock, with the car temperature already showing 23 degrees. There were already quite a few cars in the carpark, though I assumed these were mostly dog walkers though I did bump into several butterfly enthusiasts as well.
Earlier experiences of searching for Purple Emperors have sometimes proved difficult, involving a lot of neck craning to spot butterflies flying high above the sallows, but today I easily found at least three butterflies resting on the ground along the main track.
The first one was mostly keeping its wings shut, though did fly into a fir where it rested for a while. One butterfly flew around me before landing on me, (attracted by the insect repellent?!) while another rested on the ground, giving me some lovely shots of its purple sheen.
Other butterflies seen included a dozen or more silver washed fritillaries. one white admiral which preferred to remain behind the trees at the side of the path, marbled whites, small and large skippers, meadow browns, red admirals and commas.
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