Thursday, July 6, 2023

Sighting at Southrey Wood

Had an enjoyable hour or so in the company of Richard Smyth at Southrey Wood today, which is part of the Bardney Limewoods National Nature Reserve, located in central Lincolnshire. This is a wood that I have searched and searched and searched for Purple Emperor on many previous occasions, not only this year, but in the preceding two years as well. All prior attempts to find Purple Emperor there have been fruitless, but today we recorded one male, which was low down, only a foot off of the ground, probing a Small-leaved Lime Tilia cordata tree, which was covered in a sticky residue.

The photo shows that the butterfly is extremely fresh, but the left hindwing has curled up on the inner edge near to the body.

My thanks to Richard for making it a very memorable day!

1 comment:

Richard Smyth said...

Great day Toby. Thanks again for showing me some really nice Lincs sites.