His Majesty , the Purple Emperor Fermyn wood july 23 2012

Today was to be my first ever visit to the Home of the Purple Emperors , Fermyn wood in Northamptonshire , part of the Royal Forest of Rockingham , yes a 180 mile drive for me from the wirral , but i have always wanted to visit :)
 i had been keeping my eye on the Purple Empire blog for up to date sightings, so i would go on the best day.  as it turned out the weather was very warm and sunny over the previous week and the weekend especially so!   that was good for emergence and quite a few Emperors had been seen on the saturday/sunday so my trip on the monday was looking great.  i gained much needed knowledge of where to park and where to look from Matthew Oates , he is renowned in the butterfly world,  and he said he would be going also :)
After a long drive i arrived just after 9.30 , already it was quite warm and the car parking area near the entrance to Lady wood was packed with cars, such is the allure of the Purple Emperor, people visit from all over the country to these famous woods to see the enigmatic Emperors.

i started walking down the main track through Fermyn wood heading to the best areas around Lady and Souther woods with another butterfly enthusiast who had seen a few on the sunday . it was at this point that Matthew drove past , said hello, then carried on driving!  "thanks for the lift" i thought at the time! lol.

Beautiful countryside here, walking past the cornfields and eventually into the edge of Lady wood i noticed Matthews car stopped under a large sallow tree and as i got close he was staring up at an Empress , in fact it was a rare aberration  Apatura iris ab lugenda.   it had rested on his car number plate and then on the ground before settling up in the tree, where it apparently stayed for 42 minutes!  this is the best image i could get with a 70-300 lens.

                                                Here are Matthews images of Her Majesty

A few other people congregated to see her , and mentioned they had seen a few grounded Emperors just down the track. so off i went having already seen my first Emperor of the year in just a short time in the wood:)  i got to this point , just couple hundred yds down the track and saw a Grounded Emperor! Yay! that didn't take long.

 Resting on the ground with wings open!  a classic shot to start the day. the angle of sunlight on the wing scales determines how strong the purple/blue sheen shows.  not that strong in this image!

only the males have the purple colouration ,they come down to the ground to feed on minerals in the mornings , especially soon after emergence,  before settling in the tree tops in the afternoons. so early morning is the best time to see them, after about 1 pm i have heard they are rarely seen!  this one soon flew up into a tree, where i managed this image.

walking down this track above  ,in just a very short distance i spotted two Emperors flying and eventually Grounding!  this was amazing , so many seen already. a couple of people coming the other way said they had seen quite a few also . it was at this point an Emperor landed on the camo trousers of one of the photographers!    i managed to get this image :)   the colours really look beautiful!

then another one dropped to the ground very close to us, showing his beautiful colouration , before closing his wings.

then the first one landed in a perfect position, i had to lie down on the ground to shoot these side on images,  stunning!

Further on down the track, more Emperors are flying past me, its getting to the point of  "no need to chase one, another will be along very soon! "  haha.   i just cant believe how many i have seen , they are in fact very illusive butterflies so looks like this is going to be a very special day!     continuing around the wood, my number of sightings climbed up past 16 .  strangely i have not seen any White Admirals or Silver Washed Fritillaries , but not a problem  lol   all sections of the track seem to have Emperors grounding to feed on minerals, & on poo!

Entering Souther wood the tracks were more open but still plenty of butterflies showing!

Walking around the top end of souther wood i haven't seen any Emperors for ages , then suddenly one flew past me and i noticed a Purple Hairstreak fly past and land on the ground in front of me, how lucky is that!   i have never seen one one the ground, let alone feeding!

By now it was just after 12.30 so i made my way back to Lady wood . my total was now 22 Emperors! Amazing, way more than i could have hoped for!   i met  Matthew again as i got back to the main path, he was going to search for them in their favoured spots from previous years and hopefully see a few fighting above the tree tops:)    he did mention the fact that most people had already gone, as the wood was very quiet now,   we soon found a couple flying past  so it looked like all those who left were too hasty:D  Walking down the small paths towards a deer hide there was a big pool of water , and Matthew virtually trod on an EMPRESS ! she must have been drinking   OMG!  i wont repeat his words that rang out thorough the forest ,but he did say later  "thank god it wasn't a Sunday" so funny :)

                                       and perched on the tower....................................

they are everywhere today!!!!  walking back along this track we spotted another female flying through the trees  and then a pair of males in aerial combat!  so exciting :)  you can see one in this pic :)

We walked down another small track but no sightings , so headed back towards the main track again.

Back on the main track again we soon found more Males flying, and a very obliging grounded individual :)     This one climbed on my finger and started to feed !    here i am shooting it, shot by Matthew.  I brace my shooting arm on knee to help keep steady:)

                                                        what a wonderful experience!

      then after seeing a few White Admirals along these smaller paths but unable to shoot them i finally managed a shot on the main track :)  they are smaller than the Emperors but still very beautiful

                                   its now late afternoon and they are still coming down!
                                        i got the light angle right showing strong colour :)

Just before this corner a rather obliging Emperor allowed himself to be photographed in numerous places, on the ground, on a passing cyclists nose,on my shoulder,in the bushes and finally on
                                                                  Matthews HAT !!!!!

                                                                     a passing cyclist :)

                       the shot everyone wanted to see :)  Matthew with an Emperor feeding on hat !

                                              and an obligatory finger shot to finish with :)

   What an amazing day,after seeing another 3 flying past me on the way back to the car, my final total was 3 females and 38 males.
as it happens the following day nowhere near the same number where seen grounding ,it has been suggested that because so many where seen flying and grounding all day today, even as late as 7 o'clock !  that might have been the reason. anyhow, i was there on probably the best day of the Emperor season   ,  so happy!

                           all images shot with canon 5d2, 70-300 is and 100mm L macro

A Review of Butterfly adventures 2011 June 20 - 3rd July

The end of June & July was the start of an amazing period of butterfly sightings, travelling hundreds of miles from Cheshire up to the lake district and down to warwickshire and Worcestershire in search of species i had never seen.
Starting off with my first ever trip to Arnside knott in cumbria on 20/6/11  my first ever sighting of a dark green fritillary :)

                a magnificent species!     i then shot my first Northern brown Argus ,a tiny butterfly!   lol

Next on the species list to be found on this incredible day was the Grayling , i have seen them plenty of times but never managed a shot.  they where all over the steep shale slopes basking in the sun!   lol

 

Another new species - the Small pearl bordered fritillary was next on this eventful day :)

 

I then travelled up to the lakes and into Borrowdale searching for dragonflies, and shot this beautiful Dark green fritillary!

The following weekend i was back at Arnside to hopefully see the High brown fritillary.

here is a newly emerged specimen!

and as a comparison a Dark green fritillary

and a Small pearl bordered fritillary

What a wonderful place to visit on a summers day!!! 

The next weekend trip was July 3rd , the Warwickshire butterfly conservation Trip to Oversley wood to hopefully see the elusive Purple Emperors !

I got there early after a 2 hour drive!    and after just 10 minutes i saw my first ever White admiral, then my first Marbled white and small skipper !   Amazing!

They are stunning!

and a small skipper/marbled shot :)

I then met up with the group on the hunt for the Emperors, very soon afterwards we found Silver washed fritillarys

    This is when Gill arrived, late as usual !   just in time to shoot

  a newly emerged Purple hairstreak ! a very rare sight

The Purple Emperors did not show themselves, so all the group split up and went separate ways around the forest!

almost immediately i found one on the path in front of me! Wow!   it flew around a bit then landed so i could get the shots i wanted!

 

After this amazing morning, i spent the whole afternoon with Gill watching Purple Emperors flying around the tree tops in the congregation area pines ! which may seem strange, but was actually one of my best memories of 2011! 

 and watching newly emerged Red Admirals in the woods!

 what an super end to a simply fantastic day!

all images taken with canon 5d2, 100mm L macro lens.

Apatura Iris Pillars at Svernake Forest Oct 23rd

Gillian was invited down to Savernake forest to see the Apatura iris caterpillars in the wild by Matthew Oates who has been monitoring the Purple Emperor butterfly population  for quite a few years,  Gill kindly invited me to join her and i could not miss this chance of seeing such a rare creature!  might never get to see one again!!!
 The bad part was, i had to get down to Gills house by 8AM!!!  which meant getting up at 5.30!!  its nearly 1hr 45 min's drive ,but early on a Sunday morning was an easy journey down the m6.     On Saturday night she said that she was not feeling too good and might not be well enough to go, but hopefully would be ok!
On arriving at Gills , she opened the door and was really pleased to see me :)    Not on deaths door as i had imagined!  but looking more alive than i did after my long journey!    lol.
We then drove down to wiltshire to savernake which was another 1 hr 50 mins drive to meet Matthew at 10.15.  on arrival he showed us distribution maps of where he has seen the pillars in the forest, over the last 3 years the numbers have drastically declined, with bad storms just after the butterflies emergence having disastrous consequences on their numbers!

Here is a forest image. the main drive through the forest is over 4 miles long!!!!!!!!

We where taken through the forest to the first location, where Matthew showed us the first pillar!  i am amazed  he manages to find them in such a huge forest, they are alot smaller than i had imagined, about 12mm in length and have so much character, amazing little things!    we spent ages trying to photographing this first one, it was quite windy so was fairly difficult!  
Here is my first image of these fascinating pillars!

Matthew then took us to the next location where two pillars where in residence on adjoining sallow bushes.

This is when the trouble started!  after taking a few shots of the first pillar, which was too high to shoot , i took a series of shots of the second one which was only about 4 ft of the ground .  here is a shot Matthew took of me shooting with mpe , i have ringed the caterpillar so u can see its size!

and the resulting image 

Now because i hold the stem as i shoot to keep everything steady, i was kneeling down while pulling the branch down to a good shooting position,  then the  UNTHINKABLE happened, the branch snapped OFF in my fingers!!  OMG!
  Gills face was a picture of horror!   I just FROZE ! , and didn't move or say a word!    i heard Matthew behind me say " o dear, this is serious"  he then said it has happened once before and he would go back to the car to get a safety pin to re attach the leaf to the bush!    the caterpillars spin a silk pad to hold themselves in place, as can be seen in the above image.  so the pillar could not be made to walk onto another leaf!
While Matthew walked back to his car, Gill had a good laugh at my expense :(  
I was still in shock!!!   but i transferred my mpe set up onto her camera so she could take a few shots now the pillar was on the ground and easy to shoot!!!!!!!

Here is Gillian adjusting camera settings and then shooting the tiny pillar  [ ringed to show size ]

After this incident and the pillar was safely re-attached to the bush Matthew took us to see the congregation area by the  " Ailesbury Column "   where Gill passed Matthews tests on which where the best congregation trees and perches  used by the male purple emperor butterflies.  I was very impressed!

The congregation area,, where the male purple emperors look out for and intercept  passing females to mate with in late june/early july!  That is why they choose the highest trees to give a good vantage point !

 it is an amazing site to see!   believe me!

A sallow tree near the the monument had two pillars but they had gone missing a week previous and Matthew thinks they might have been munched!!!!!   most tits and finches  love eating eggs and caterpillars unfortunately!  not good :(

The next pillar we where shown decided to go walk about on the sallow branches, amazing speed it travelled at along four branches before finally settling down on a nice sallow leaf and started to spin a new web pad to attach itself too!
Here is Gill shooting the wandering catt! 

And waiting for it to FALL OFF!   lol

The final location needed the use of a ladder to see and shoot the pillar,  this was a really great moment to see Matthew climb up the ladder he carries with him to find and show us the tiny caterpillar.

and with me trying to shoot it!

Here is the resulting image, not the best but a little different from composition angle!   i do not usually like black backgrounds but think it works well on this shot!

Matthew then left us,  we had an amazing time watching these extraordinary caterpillars and learned so much information from him, and he has invited us to come back to see there progress as they hibernate on the branches and next spring grow into very large impressive caterpillars!  we cant wait!

An image of a dead oak tree and a few more pillar shots .

Here is Gillian's best image from the day :)   i must admit after just two attempts at using this extremely hard lens she is doing extremely well, i did not even need to help her this time!

And one of my close ups of the pillars head!

This day was one of the best trips of the year for various reasons , a day we will never forget !

ALL IMAGES SHOT WITH CANON 5D2, 100MM MACRO,MPE-65,CANON 500D