Butterfly Business

None of the last three days out have been worthy of a blog but perhaps a round robin of the notable bits is worthwhile.

Monday was a voyage of discovery; flirting with the periphery of the "Purple Empire" can be a frustrating business without precise details of where to look. Successful searches of the woodlands of Sussex in the quest for a Purple Emperor need inside knowledge. However, I have to say that the butterfly fraternity are much freer with information than the birding crowd. We set out to investigate Marlpost (Southwater) Woods and Madgelands, of course in search of butterflies, but also to locate such exotically named places as "The Madgelands Master Tree", "Butterfly Corner", "Dogbarking Master Tree", and in another place "The Triangle". Information that will be much needed in the future to ensure that we get those perfect shots of "His Majesty"

Well, following a day in the woods we are much wiser, unfortunately only a glimpse of a possible Emperor but a tick in the guise of a White Admiral. Silver-washed Fritillaries were also numerous and it was nice to note my first Small Skipper of the year. With the high temperatures most of the subjects were hyper-active and achieving any sort of capture was hard.

We finished the day at Houghton where yet again Marbled Whites were present in good numbers, it was nice to see some females this time and to get an obliging couple to pose.

Female with brown edge to forewing and brown in the hindwing.

 

Tuesday we were full of expectation again, this time trying for a White-letter Hairstreak in Brighton's Preston Park. As we sat below the "Preston Twins", two magnificent 400 year old English Elms, we could see plenty of WLH in the canopy. Some descended to within 10ft of the ground but that was as good as it got, we waited for six hours for a single specimen to drop to ground level, of course it never did.

At least someone has had the foresight to plant a replacement - I wonder if anyone will be sat under it in 400 years time admiring the White-letter Hairstreaks?

Hollow but still growing strong

 

Gnarled - but well looked after.

Today  I dropped into Anchor Bottom to find a Dark Green Fritillary, the thistles are still coming out and I searched diligently but to no avail. Sod's Law occurred yet again, as I decided to quit and was walking back to the road, there on the hedge a fresh specimen. As always -  it had gone before I could get the camera out and I chased it through the field as it made a high speed track towards the top end of the valley. I waited a considerable time but no other specimens were forthcoming.

On the way back I noticed some Greater Knapweed, Centaurea scabiosa in the roadside verge and in the morning sun it looked well worthy of being recorded.   It is not always about Birds and Butterflies - just most of the time.

 

Next stop - Houghton Forest. I walked up and down the ride several times and had a glimpse of what might have been an Emperor but it was gone in an instant in a high speed passage along the ride, The pools of sticky mud are attracting some excellent specimens of both Red Admiral and fresh Commas. White Admirals and Silver-Washed Fritillaries are about but alas no PEs. I had a long chat with Neil - "Master of the Purple Empire", if anyone could find one it would be him.  Alas the great maestro couldn't conjure one up for me.

On the way back to the car I "rescued" a hapless specimen of the Peppered Moth, Biston betularia, which I duly recorded and then placed in the safety of a tree.