The Emperor has landed

That time of year has come around yet again, as I look to get up to the local woods to enjoy the June / July butterflies.

While the weather more recently has been a bit hit and miss, beforehand saw a brief, mini-heatwave, allowing me to get up to Bucknell Wood and enjoy some fun and prolonged encounters with his majesty the Purple Emperor across several evenings. Having not had the best of luck with them last year, it was bloody lovely to enjoy them properly again!

Marbled Whites

As we headed into June, a couple of my favourite local meadows reach their summer peak, as orchids suddenly spring up and butterfly numbers rise, amongst a sea of Ox-eye daisies!



June and the emergence of the Marbled Whites is always an anticipated time each year. A real symbol of summer and my favourite UK butterfly for sure! I'm lucky that they are in great numbers around where I live here in South Northants.











There's also been the usual spread of orchids (Bees & Pyramidals) throughout, together with a variety of common butterflies and dragonflies too -all very nice and luckily blessed that the weather for the most part had been quite good for the majority of June.

Black Hairstreak bonanza

With a glut of warm weather and seemingly good, early numbers of Black Hairstreak butterflies at the usual sites, I decided to pay homage to these beautiful little creatures!

Last year, Hewin's Wood, just the other side of Bicester, proved really good for them and being only half an hour a way, it was somewhere I could target after work on a warm, sunny evening.

Tuesday 02/06 was just that and so over I went post-work. It didn't take me long to find 2-3 around the tops of some sunlit Blackthorn, no more than 30 seconds after getting out of the car -the omens were good! However, it was hard to find many more, with just one briefly down at eye level. Most of the good areas along the track were in shade, while the majority of bramble flowers were yet to open.



One area that had plenty of sun, was right by the roadside, next to where I had parked! It soon came apparent that this was the place to be and I went on to enjoy fabulous views of many, both basking and down to nectar.









I ended up staying far longer than I intended, with it being so still, calm and warm. They were still very much active right though to 20:15pm, when I thought it was high time I got myself home! The perfect visit and just before the weather was due to turn too!

The Chilterns

Right at the end of May and into June, I paid a couple of sunny visits to the Chilterns looking for butterflies.

On Saturday 30/05, I started early at Otmoor to see it's usual spring / summer specialities, seeing most. I particularly enjoyed soaking up the spectacle of drumming Snipe over Greenaways - a now rare, but awesome sight!



It was then off down the M40, to Yoesden Bank near Stokenchurch (Bucks). Always a stunning site to visit during the summer months. I was looking for Adonis Blue butterflies and managed to see quite a few, despite them probably just past their peak in numbers. Even by mid morning, it was swelteringly hot and seeing any settled for photos was a nightmare, but still cracking things to see in a beautiful setting. I also managed to find a aberation too (below) - with just a single discoidal spot on each underside. It most closely resembles ab. Krodeli - however this form seems to be females and this looks to be a male. So not really sure about that one!







There were also quite a few Small Blue about too in the areas covered in Kidney Vetch, plus some elegant, Chalk Fragrant Orchids popping up too.





Em and I met up with friends for a distanced picnic at Linkey Down, Aston Rowant on 31/05. There were stacks of very fresh Dark Green Fritillaries about, so I was keen to return!

It took a bit of time to get back there, but I did in the end, with a mild, early morning visit paying dividends on 14/06. The timing was perfect, before the butterflies became 'super-charged' tearing around the slopes, but also before the cloud rolled in too! Stepping through the gate, I was immediately greeted with a cluster of Frits on a purple thistle and I went on to enjoy really good numbers - simply a case of spot the thistles and bingo!













Also that morning I saw my first Marbled White and Small Skipper of the year plus a nice spread of Pyramidal & Chalk Fragrant Orchids. A very nice morning indeed!