Shady Goings On at Alice Holt

Another hot day around Alice Holt forest was rewarded by 10 sightings of Purple Emperor throughout the day. First a low 'daisy cutting' cruising male past my feet at speed flashing electric blue. This one landed a couple of times, but did not settle, eventually deciding to rest 10ft up in a sallow around 11.30. An hour later another male made his presence clear by attacking a Beautiful Demoselle damselfly, clashing mid-air. The Demoselle backed down, and did not appear quite so beautiful after that!
Other brief groundings were seen, but they did not stay down for long. As Matthew predicted they were spending a lot of time in the shadier areas of the wood. A couple of times I saw males disappearing into 'black holes' in the woodland and did not see them fly out. A bit of further excitement occurred when a male investigated some cars at 13.00 but did not care to land. My final sightings were at Goose Green at 15.30 with males half-heartedly going into battle, then sitting on the tallest branches for a well earned rest.

First Purple Emperor of the day.