I made my first visit to Oversley Wood in Warwickshire. On leaving the car park we headed to the triangle where there were a few people looking up into trees. No one had any sightings so far this morning of Purple Emperor.
We did a clockwise walk around the loop coming back over the hill top we saw good numbers of Silver-washed Fritillaries and White Admirals. On returning to the triangle I said goodbye to my parents and continued this years hunt for His Majesty. I soon came across a small group of people staring up into one of several large conifers. Someone gave rough directions and there I was on was my first Purple Emperor of the year sat wings closed possibly taking in sap about twenty feet in the air. Every now and the he would open his wings and change position. Gradually getting more and more restless he started to entertain the crowd as he glided gracefully around the trees at around twenty feet up. Giving us tantalising glimpses of his royal purple. You could feel everyone wishing he would grace them with his presence on the ground.
His Majesty eventually did grace us with his presence on the floor allowing many their first good views of a Purple Emperor. He showed off the myriad of colours you get to see when he lands and opens and closes his wings.
This one got flushed by passing walkers but we did not have to wait before long before this or another one appeared a little further towards the triangle and was being watched by one individual before it landed on him for a "trousering" he then hopped off onto a second observer and His Majesty proceeded to spend more than 30 minutes taking in the gents obviously very tasty "Yorkshire sweat" (he was from Barnsley).
More and more people passed to observe, those with a great interest plus people who were just out for a walk in this wonderful wood.
He eventually left the tasty ankle and proceeded to glide low over the main ride for some while landing every now and then for a few seconds. Unfortunately the ground was quite dry so he struggled to find any moisture to take on board so was very restless. He eventually gave up and headed into the wood.
I continued west along the track saw very little so headed back to where all the action had been. Within a few minutes I had (or maybe he had spotted or tasted me !) spotted His Majesty again quite possibly the same one from earlier. He approached me and I got the full flyby treatment checking me out, up and down getting much closer than a metre to me in fact he was so close I could hear his wing-beats !
He obviously realised my "Yorkshire sweat" was that of a Yorkshire imposter so sped off into the wood.
At that point I called it a day 12:45 and around 30oC it was very warm even in the shade.
We did a clockwise walk around the loop coming back over the hill top we saw good numbers of Silver-washed Fritillaries and White Admirals. On returning to the triangle I said goodbye to my parents and continued this years hunt for His Majesty. I soon came across a small group of people staring up into one of several large conifers. Someone gave rough directions and there I was on was my first Purple Emperor of the year sat wings closed possibly taking in sap about twenty feet in the air. Every now and the he would open his wings and change position. Gradually getting more and more restless he started to entertain the crowd as he glided gracefully around the trees at around twenty feet up. Giving us tantalising glimpses of his royal purple. You could feel everyone wishing he would grace them with his presence on the ground.
His Majesty eventually did grace us with his presence on the floor allowing many their first good views of a Purple Emperor. He showed off the myriad of colours you get to see when he lands and opens and closes his wings.
This one got flushed by passing walkers but we did not have to wait before long before this or another one appeared a little further towards the triangle and was being watched by one individual before it landed on him for a "trousering" he then hopped off onto a second observer and His Majesty proceeded to spend more than 30 minutes taking in the gents obviously very tasty "Yorkshire sweat" (he was from Barnsley).
More and more people passed to observe, those with a great interest plus people who were just out for a walk in this wonderful wood.
He eventually left the tasty ankle and proceeded to glide low over the main ride for some while landing every now and then for a few seconds. Unfortunately the ground was quite dry so he struggled to find any moisture to take on board so was very restless. He eventually gave up and headed into the wood.
I continued west along the track saw very little so headed back to where all the action had been. Within a few minutes I had (or maybe he had spotted or tasted me !) spotted His Majesty again quite possibly the same one from earlier. He approached me and I got the full flyby treatment checking me out, up and down getting much closer than a metre to me in fact he was so close I could hear his wing-beats !
He obviously realised my "Yorkshire sweat" was that of a Yorkshire imposter so sped off into the wood.
At that point I called it a day 12:45 and around 30oC it was very warm even in the shade.
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