Glorious day at Fermyn yesterday. A day of warm sunny interludes and the odd shower and for once that westerly wind dropped. But where were all the punters? Virtually had the place to ourselves on what is high season for HIM. Have a feeling it must be the exhorbitant price of petrol these days. Having said that my 'client' for the day Mr James LeRouge had travelled up from Bournemouth on the pretext that I bet my house if I couldn't find him a close up encounter with His Majesty (i am by nature very risk averse 🙂).
The first grounding was reported as early as 8,15am, but our first sighting was high over the trees at 9am. The deeds to my house were safe by 9.30am with our first grounding in Souther Wood. Like many other males seen this last week, although intact he was very 'scratched', no doubt a testimony to the constant lashing of foliage by the wind as His Majesty roosts atop the trees. This was extremely frustrating for the connoisseur and my OCD regarding their photographic condition, but many of the individuals seen over the last week were a little shabby. Bumped into an old pal on the rides. Andrew Porter. The Purple Emperor had finally brought him out of butterfly hibernation!
Over at Lady Wood the groundings started to ramp up with 3s and fours down at any one time, hot footing it between one butterfly and the next. Then an extroadinary occurrence. One of the grounded males flew up and was immediately snatched by a passing Emperor Dragonfly. I chased after the pair but couldn't quite see where they landed amongst the Hazel. I gently rattled the trees and the pair were off again over the treetops. A sobering lesson for HIM. There others that claim the Imperial crown!
By 1pm I had recorded 40 odd sightings and a dozen groundings, but alas only one in pristine condition. Many were nice, but no cigar. As the clouds rolled in at 2pm I thought that was it for the day and as the rain started to fall we had to take shelter under the trees and a late lunch. 3pm the sun returned and to my surprise the groundings started again. But this was siesta time wasn't it? What's more these individuals coming down were different, all in 'out of the box' condition, spread flat on the ground and shimmering glorious 'double purple'. We filled our boots. Shot after shot every angle which way. It was a heady and intoxicating purple experience. Then a brief fly by from an Empress rounded off a near perfect day. Mr LeRouge was a very happy bunny and said he'd never seen anything quite like it. Well that's Fermyn for you. Safe as houses 🙂
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