Purple Emperor at Straits Enclosure, Alice Holt Forest

July 12, 2016 by Jackson | Comments Off on Purple Emperor at Straits Enclosure, Alice Holt Forest

This Sunday I visited Straits Enclosure in hope of spotting the elusive Purple Emperor. Luckily enough it was sitting in the middle of the path apparently eating some very old fox/dog scat. It stayed there long enough to allow me to take some good photos but then it flew away shortly after I arrived. We watched it floating around in the tops of the oak and hazel surrounding the path. It settled in the tree tops a few times and soaked up the sun for a while. It didn’t come down to the path again for long though.

It was far bigger than all the other butterflies that were around and seemed to be a much more powerful flyer.

Before I saw the Purple Emperor there were other great butterflies on the bramble flowers like white admirals, ringlets and commas and along the way there were little frogs and toads crossing the path.

There were many commas and ringlets flying about. It seems to be a good year for both species.

I was surprised at how many white admirals there were at straits enclosure; three or four at a time! I had considered them as being quite rare but there seemed to be a few around.

Small baby frogs and toads were crossing the path whilst we were on it.