More sun, more butterflies

As is becoming an annual theme, I tend to spend quite a bit of time in a handful of my local woods during June & July, as they come alive with a number of special butterfly species including Purple Emperor, White-Letter & Purple Hairstreak, White Admirals & Silver-Washed Fritillaries.

Bucknell Wood is by far my favourite and go-to place to visit and I've really got to know and understand the site well over the last few years.

Having seen my first Purple Emperor there on the 22/06, it wasn't until Saturday 30/06 that I had some prolonged time to properly explore. With the forecast looking like a stunning, sunny day, I packed up a load of food and water and headed over to spend the day there.



It turned out to be a heck of a good day. Probably the highlight were the fabulous views of several mostly fresh White-Letter Hairstreaks down nectaring on brambles during the late afternoon.







At least five Purple Emperor were about, with a couple of enjoyable close up encounters! Most sightings though were fleeting, presumably due to the heat.





Impressive numbers of Purple Hairstreaks were on show and over the course of the day, I saw several at ground level coming down for salts. Best of all was one I discovered sat on a leaf, (below) above a valesina Silver-Washed Fritillary I was trying to photograph!



White Admirals were in good supply with at least 25 counted. The last 2-3 years have been far better for them, after a real dip in their numbers previously. They seem to have done very well again this year, so let's hope they'll continue to increase over the coming years.





Silver-Washed Fritillaries rapid rise only continues too. My count for the day was 74+ which was even more impressive due to the fact that females were still in small numbers, with many more still to emerge. On the day, it was also good to connect with at least 3 valesina form females. These have become a real speciality of Bucknell.





The following week or so after, I managed to squeeze in several more visits to Bucknell that yielded yet more great views of nectaring White-Letter Hairstreaks, yet more valezinas, as well as insane numbers of Silver-Washed Frits too.











Away from BuckneIl, I also managed to find Silver-Washed Frit, White Admiral and quite a few Purple Hairstreak during an evening walk around nearby Whistley Wood on 06/07. Best of all though was a surprise & all-to-brief Hummingbird Hawkmoth!



Finally, both Whistley and Bucknell have brought me my first Spotted Flycatchers of the year, with 2-3 vocal family parties knocking about, which is pleasing to find!