Dung roaming

The Purple Emperor needs no introduction here, so much has been written about our largest British butterfly. Suffice to say that such is its celebrity that it has its own folklore and even fan-club, who worship at an online shrine to the beast, The Purple Empire blogsite.

A male Purple Emperor's wing catches the light

Same individual, slightly different angle

Last Sunday morning saw me with time on my hands so I made the journey to Bentley Wood in neighbouring Wiltshire, one of the most reliable sites for this species. Emperors occasionally make morning forays to ground level to probe for salts and moisture, and in view of the heat-wave I reasoned that an early start might be required to witness this spectacle. By 0700 I was already in the wood checking out the rides and treetops.

The stunning underside of a Purple Emperor

Note the long tongue which was constantly probing for salts

Almost immediately a shimmer of purple caught my eye, but it was only the upper-wing of the Emperor's courtier, the Purple Hairstreak. I say 'only' but while it can not compete with the Emperor on size, this is still a pretty spectacular insect in its own right, especially when seen at eye level. The early start had not paid off, however, in terms of finding an Emperor on the deck. By about 0900 I had seen just the one blatting around the canopy of a clearing either side of the main ride.

When an admirer cast a shadow over the Emperor it flattened the light but required a high ISO rating to capture the purple sheen on both wings

I had not seen the orange rings and details on the hindwing this well before

Bentley Wood is a popular place with Emperor-seekers and speaking to a few of the later arrivals, it seemed that with the hard surfaces of the rides being baked in the heat, ground-level sightings had been hard to come by in the preceding days. Fortunately, animal droppings provide a convenient source of moisture and while by the standards of most beauty spots in southern England Bentley Wood was remarkably free of dog mess, there was plenty of fresh horse dung around.

An impressive beast

Deeper into Bently Wood this Purple Emperor has forsaken dog mess for horse dung. Classy.

A few familiar faces with big lenses arrived from Weymouth around this time and after a bit more patient but unrewarding waiting around, one of them, John Wall, returned to the car park for a bottle of water. Minutes later we could see him frantically beckoning us in his direction where, we could only assume, a Purple Emperor was at his feet.

A watchful male Purple Emperor in mid-canopy

A fresh Purple Hairstreak at eye level

It transpired that a dog walker had alerted him to the presence of 'a large butterfly' on the path which has subsequently moved into a patch of vegetation where her canine charges appeared to have just parked their breakfasts. A small group of admirers was soon gathered around the insect, delighted to see the purple sheen of refracted light identifying it as a male. It was an assault to the senses: for the eyes, a splash of uncommonly beautiful colour; for the ears, a cacophony of whirring motor drives; and for the nose, well, let's just say the butterfly's chosen source of nourishment could not have been more foul.

Male Purple Hairstreak

A rare view of the open upperwing

I suppressed the gag reflex and concentrated on finding the right exposure to capture the Emperor at its best - not easy as it was sitting in strongly dappled light with vegetation casting shadows over all or part of its body.  For such a large butterfly holding its wings at angles it was also necessary to experiment with wider apertures, thus reducing the shutter speed and pushing the auto-ISO rating higher. All in all a delicate balance of factors which I am not sure I managed to pull off as well as I might, but I was happy with the results, and delighted to have enjoyed such a close encounter.

Female Purple Hairstreak

Another female - note the less extensive but more iridescent purple patch compared to the male

Amid widespread concern about the fate of our insect populations it was a comfort to be able to sit in the shade at Bentley Wood and watch the rides hum with good numbers of Whites, Skippers, Meadow Browns, Ringlets, Gatekeepers and Silver-Washed Fritillaries.

A fresh Ringlet basking in the early morning sunshine

A mating pair of Ringlet - the one on the left being of the rare aberration arete

A meander further along the rides produced a couple of further sightings of more discerning Purple Emperors feeding on horse manure. By noon they had retreated to the more familiar treetops and I had returned to my own familiar habitat in Dorset.

Male Silver-washed Fritillary

Female Silver-washed Fritillary underwing

Female Silver-washed Fritillary

White Admiral in the east car park at Bentley Wood

Purple reign

Yes I realise the terrible pun in the headline would be more fitting for the Purple Emperor than the humble Purple Hairstreak - but I haven't had the opportunity to look for the former so far this summer, whereas a spare Sunday morning a few weekends ago provided just enough time to look for the latter at Butterfly Conservation's superb reserve at Alners Gorse. Like the majestic Emperor, the Purple Hairstreak reveals its colourful sheen when light refracts from the wings at certain angles. I had never really managed to photograph this feature well so that was one objective of the visit. It was easily achieved as tens of this characterful insect were seen, many down at eye level in the relative cool of the morning. As usual my time was a bit limited but a White-letter Hairstreak feeding low down on brambles as I made to leave was a huge bonus.

Male Purple Hairstreak at Alners Gorse

This is the same individual at a slightly different angle - note how the extent of the purple varies with the angle of the light

Another angle on the same individual

Another male complete with short tails

All the Purple Hairstreaks I saw with wings open appeared to be males

Purple Hairstreak underwing shows an eye-spot near the short tail

Buds of Buckthorn appeared as cat-nip to the Purple Hairstreaks

They were present on one small tree in double figures

An attractive species - compare to....

...White-letter Hairstreak, which never sits with the wings open

Comma also on the wing at Alners Gorse...

...and plenty of Ringlet

A fresh Southern Hawker also present...

...and one of our most impressive British species, the Silver-washed Fritillary

A pristine male Silver-washed Fritillary

A slightly worn female Silver-washed Fritillary...

...and here a mating pair

Purple Hairstreak at Alners Gorse - a superb reserve, hats off to BC for making it so

Last throes of summer

Despite living in Dorset for eight summers now, there were still two species of breeding butterfly I had yet to see in the county before my ninth began: the Brown Hairstreak and the Silver-spotted Skipper. Both emerge rather late in the year so July and August offered plenty of scope for hunting them down.

Brown Hairstreak, Alners Gorse

The Brown Hairstreak eventually moved higher into an oak

The Brown Hairstreak is an elusive species, spending much of its time in the canopy, descending only occasionally to nectar on brambles, thistles and the like. The eggs are laid on Blackthorn, which grows in abundance at Butterfly Conservation's Alners Gorse reserve in North Dorset.

A flash of the Purple Hairstreak's upperwing

And the underwing

Jol Mitchell and I had been considering a trip there with our respective first borns for a while, and the annual visit to Dorset of my old friend Nigel Kersey (formerly a firebrand campaigner with CPRE, now a respectable apparatchik at DCLG) in mid-July provided the perfect opportunity to make the effort.

Silver-spotted Skipper - a plump-bodied female

This is the male - note the dark sex brand on the upperwing

We arrived mid-morning to find the skies disappointingly overcast but it was just about warm enough for Meadow Browns, Silver-washed Fritillaries and Purple Hairstreaks to be on the wing. We were about to give up on seeing any of the rarer Hairstreaks when what at first glance appeared to be a Gatekeeper on acid danced past at eye level. Despite not having seen one for over a decade, I called it tentatively as a Brown Hairstreak in flight, and fortunately it landed nearby to allow confirmation.

Another view of Silver-spotted Skipper

 A good view of the underwing from which the species gets its name

All enjoyed brilliant views, especially through Jol's new Swarovski scope, and even the teenagers were persuaded to stop looking at their smartphones to admire it for a few seconds. A few weeks later and I was able to catch up with my other late summer target, the Silver-spotted Skipper, at its prime Dorset site on Fontmell Down on another family jaunt. This was a bit easier, not least as one of Dorset's expert ecologists, Bryan Edwards, was leaving just as we arrived and told us exactly where to look near the top of the combe. A spectacular species in a spectacular setting.

Some other highlights from Fontmell Down below:

2nd brood male Adonis Blue

Adonis Blue underside

Brimstone

Male Chalkhill Blue - not doing terribly well in Dorset

Chalkhill Blue underside

Large White

Common Blue underside

Son George catches the bug with a meadow Brown

Ravens gronked over Fontmell Down

Small Heath

Spotted Flycatcher at Fontmell Down

Spotted Flycatcher