Wednesday, June 24, 2026

On 19 June I had an amazing encounter with a female Purple  Emperor in  Whitecross Green Wood in Oxon. I was looking over one of the woodland ponds when the PE dropped out of the trees to perch on Amphibious Bistort covering the pond. It sat there for several minutes, presumably drinking as the day was very warm, before flying off back into the canopy. I managed to get the posted photo which I am very pleased with and I believe it depicts behavior rarely documented by the camera. There were also several White Admirals present in this superb wood.


2 comments:

Matthew Oates said...

Thanks So Much for posting this. I think it's the loveliest photo of an Emperor I've ever seen (and I love WXGW).

John Edwards said...

Thanks, Matthew. I knew it was something special as soon as I looked at it on the back of the camera. I put it out there so others could appreciate it..