To the Purple Empire ...

Last year, our very first butterflying day was to Bentley Wood, where we hoped to see purple emperors. We didn't see any, most likely because it was just too late in the season for them. Of course, we were eager to try again, and decided to go to Abbotts Wood, walk 7 in our Hampshire Butterfly Walks booklet, about three weeks earlier than last year. Would the Emperor grant us an audience this time?

As we left home, a peacock landed on the front door of our house. Was this a blessing, maybe?

Arriving at Abbotts Wood, we started walking along the forest rides, craning our necks and with binoculars at the ready ...

Pretty soon we saw a large butterfly gliding among the trees! As it swooped down and flew past us, a clear flash of purple; we'd seen our first purple emperor!! A few minutes later, a large butterfly on the ground. Very skittish, but we managed to get a picture. 

No matter what we would see from now on, the day was already a success. It turned out we had been very lucky .... several other butterfly enthusiasts had not seen one so far today (one had been to the wood for three consecutive days without seeing one), and we were told emperors had hardly come to the ground this year ..... During the day, we saw at least half a dozen, including one more on the ground just before we arrived back at the car park. 

As for other butterfly species, there were lots and lots of silver-washed fritillaries around. After meadow browns, they were the most common species. 

We saw a few white admirals as well! No pictures, though, they remained high up in the trees. It turned out that this was our best butterflying day ever, with a total of 17 species, including this ringlet.

Even though our focus was very much on butterflies, we didn't ignore dragons and damsels. We saw a few southern hawker (first ones this year for us) ...

... and a few beautiful demoiselles. This male posed very nicely for us!

And then, as we had found a nice open space with sallow and high trees, and sat down, looking out for emperors and white admirals, a large brown dragonfly with amber wings flew past, and then another one. Unmistakably brown hawkers, a new species for us!

A total of 17 butterfly species, among which two new ones, plus a new dragonfly species ... That peacock on the front door turned out to have been a real omen!

The tables for today include the longest so far (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):