Purple Emperor

It has been a madcap couple of weeks on the butterfly front, so this afternoon I decided to do a tour of the local patch - Houghton Forest , where I expected things to be a bit steadier. I started at Whiteways meadow and had immediate success with a Gatekeeper ab excessa, albeit with most of the rear half missing.

With the sun coming through the thick clouds the place was buzzing, unfortunately none of the larger butterflies were up for nectaring nor perching for a photo. I decided to give the inner rides a look and it wasn't long before I had a White Admiral - but on the gravel of the ride rather than posing on a branch.

Then I was buzzed my a much larger butterfly which landed about twenty yards away. I left it for a couple of minutes before I approached - a nice clean Purple Emperor probing for salts in the damp gravel.  In the end I managed to get within three feet of the butterfly as it fed, unconcerned by my presence.

Not a bad return for about 400 yds of walking, seventeen species in all and a photogenic Purple Emperor.