Friday 12th. July 2013

Tonight's  post was supposed to be all about the Purple Emperor butterfly , which one of the Keith's and I went to find at Dene Park , just a stones throw from Warren's Pittswood patch . The species has been seen in Sussex and also in Northamptonshire , very close to where the other Keith and myself went for the Black Hairstreak a couple of weekends ago . We arrived about 1045 confident that the cloud would clear before midday . It didn't . It was after 1300 before the first patches of blue were seen , then it quickly cleared . Whilst the cloud covered the sky , no butterflies were seen , but we went round the usual haunts of the Emperor , noticing en route that most of the Bramble along the rides and in the glades had been cut back to the ground , probably over the Winter , leaving very little flowering plants for butterflies to nectar on . Finding any interest proved difficult , but a few specimens were found ,

like this Green Oak Tortrix Moth , which proved difficult to photograph in the dull light and breeze ,

an unusually coloured spider , possibly a Harvestman sp. with just 6 legs instead of 8 ,

and the cast skin of a 6 legged insect , no not the spider Warren , all totally intact . By the time we sorted them out and chatted to passing dog owners , that clearance was starting to appear , and so were the butterflies . White Admirals were the most numerous seen on site , and it would appear that

they had only recently emerged , being in very good condition . Mostly males , they made short visits to remaining Bramble flowers , deep within an area of head high Bracken . Sometimes they came

down onto the ground to visit packages left by dogs and their owners on the side of the rides , but I managed to get an underwing shot just before this specimen reached it's objective , sparing the

reader . Back on the Bramble flowers , I was lucky enough to get the topwing and underwing of two

specimens on adjacent flowers . Often , a single specimen gave the same photographic opportunity .
Other species seen included , Red Admiral , Comma , Large Skipper , Speckled Wood , Meadow Brown and a possible Silver-washed Fritillary , but it was moving so fast that a positive identification was not possible . Oh yes , and not a single sighting of Purple Emperor , but a good reason for a return trip soon . In between sightings , I had a go at 'get the hoverfly in the viewfinder' , which proved hard work for the AF with woodland behind all the time , but later as the sun went round , was

able to get the hoverfly against the sky and give the AF a chance . Not sure what species the first one

was , but the second was Volucella pellucens , the one with the white cummerbund .