Hi all

I had to go to England on business at the end of June and of course I took the Nikon, and wangled two weekends over there.

I flew in on Emirates because they were cheaper and faster from Durban than SAA or BA - and you get to fly in an A380 from Dubai to Heathrow! This plane is a problem in that it spoils you for all other planes - silent, roomy and comfortable, the TV screens are laptop size and the headphones have cinema sound.

I'd made contact with Jean-Paul Brouard, who used to live near me in Durban but now lives down in Woodcote in Oxfordshire. He knows all the choice spots! We decided to have a stab at Purple Emperor Apatura iris, and if we were lucky, Black Hairstreak Satyrium pruni. Locality of choice was Bernwood Forest, a place I'd tried to get to as a boy when I badgered my folks to have a holiday in Oxfordshire. It rained then, but it didn't rain now! The temperature got up to 32 deg C, and it felt more like Zululand than England! We tried to get there early so we could get wings open shots but at 9am it was already in the 20's. Should have got there at 7am like we do in summer at Tembe!

The first thing we noticed was that Large Skipper Ochlodes sylvanus was everywhere. I used to take this butterfly very much for granted as a boy but it is actually a very handsome little insect; here's a male:



White Admiral Limenitis camilla was much commoner than I remembered from my time in the UK. Interesting to see how similar in habits it is to some of the Neptis, particularly Swynnerton's Sailer N.swynnertoni in Zimbabwe. To begin with they were very hard to get close to, but this male was sipping at a bird dropping and let me grab a shot.



There were plenty of Ringlets Aphantopus hyperantus about, and they sat nicely:



They weren't too keen to open their wings but eventually we found a very fresh male sunning himself:



As we walked down a ride towards a meadow JP had said was very good, he pointed out some lycaenids high up on a Blackthorn bush. They looked just like Hypolycaena but darker, and JP told me they were Black Hairstreaks. I was a bit worried we wouldn't get a shot because they were behaving just like a certain White-spotted Sapphire Iolaus lulua at Phinda. We walked into the meadow and it was sheer heaven. Countless flowers in green grass, and butterflies everywhere. Not having the wide angle lens (I had to watch my weight on the plane) I didn't take a shot, but now I regret not hauling out the BlackBerry.

There were lots of Six-spot Burnet moths Zygaena filipendulae around. These are like some of our African zygaenids, but in much bigger numbers.



I saw some Common Blue Polyommatus icarus and Small Copper Lycaena phlaeas but they were the last of the spring brood - I was too early for summer brood specimens. There were hundreds of Marbled Whites Melanargia galathea about. These are not pierids but satyrine nymphalids. It was such a pleasure getting photos of the species I used to catch 30-odd years ago:



There was a couple in the field; the chap was on his tummy photographing a Marbled White, with a big Canon. Aha I thought, a fellow soul. 'Any Black Hairstreaks yet?' I asked, and the reply was 'No mate, tell me if you see one!'. And then it happened, as it so often does - beginners luck. Well it was for me with this butterfly There was a male sitting just to the right of me on a Blackthorn bush.



Adopting a devil-may-care attitude I casually tuned: 'Oh here's one'. Instant attention! I got a shot, but he was flighty. I introduced myself to my new acquaintance, Michael Field, and said I came from SA and new visitors were always doing to me, what I'd just done to him. He looked at me quizzically and asked 'you didn't write that book did you?' Amazing. I was wearing the same shirt I had on for the cover photo!

We spent quite a bit of time together and met up with him and his wife Karen again at Whitecross Green Woods just up the road, where Purple Emperors had been seen. Here we found much the same as we had at Bernwood, but still no Apatura iris. We eventually bumped into another UK butterflyer, Mark Duckworth, a northerner like me. He told us he'd just had a Purple Emperor land on him in a coppice up one of the rides! We walked up that ride and dipped with the Emperor but found a very obliging White Admiral:



JP was busy photographing it and I suddenly noticed a little golden brown lycaenid settled on the Blackthorn just above his head. A perfect female Black Hairstreak, which proceeded to pose prettily for photos. Michael turned up again at this point, with some other companions. I don't know what he thought of my jammy performance - every time he saw me he saw a Black Hairstreak! She even laid an egg...



We saw a Silver-washed Fritillary Argynnis paphia but it was far too fast to get close to. Eventually it was time to go, as I'd promised the family I wouldn't get back TOO late and we still wanted to try a spot closer to Woodcote where JP had seen Silver-washed, but we dipped. Never mind, a spectacular day! I finished off with this lovely Large Skipper female Ochlodes sylvanus



I then had a week at work up at Head Office in Wollaston in Northants. I'd hoped to get some good stuff at lunchtimes in their little nature reserve but there was nothing new there. I had to wait for Saturday 3 July, when I'd promised my Mum a visit and arranged lunch with sister and brother-in-law at my old local, the Brocket Arms at Ayot St Lawrence. I started off at Wilbury Hill, where I used to find a lot of nymphalids and lycaenids in the olden days. The chalky part of the hill had a lot of Large Skippers, Ringlets and Marbled Whites. I'd hoped to see a Comma Polygonia c-album and did see one, but it was far too fast for me! I did get some nice shots of the common Meadow Brown Maniola jurtina:



Something I only saw a few of, was the pest species Small White Pieris rapae. Here's one:



As I only had a few hours left I took myself off to Oughtonhead Common near my old village Ickleford. We used to get the odd Camberwell Beauty Nymphalis antiopa there for a couple of years, and Bill Steele told me he saw Purple Emperor, so why not have a look?

First thing I found was a female Large Skipper posing nicely:



Then I saw a Comma. He went and sat on the watercress on the far side of the stream. 35 years ago I'd have waded in, but I am older now and not so keen on soggy boots. Funnily enough, I then bumped into an American birder called Bob Lawrence whose wife was from Ickleford. Turns out he's related to the woman who started up Buckman Labs, our next door neighbours in Hammarsdale. Small world!

Eventually we found a tamer Comma who posed for a nice underside shot (you can see how it gets its name )



It was a real thrill seeing these; they were mega rarities in the UK when I lived there and now they turn up everywhere. Global warming or good conservation practice? Oughtonhead was looking brilliant; all the scruffy weeds I used to see there have gone and the stream is looking great - full of big brown trout, which made me wish I had a rod with me... no doubt that's what used to attract Bill there!

I got an upper side as well but not as good as ones I got later, so I won't waste space on it. I found some of what I thought were Small Skippers Thymelicus sylvestris but I now suspect they are Essex Skipper T.lineola, as the undersides of the antennae are black. Perhaps a European expert can comment.



There were also some scruffy spring brood Small Tortoiseshell Aglais urticae and Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta around.

Then it was time to go, and off to the 13th Century Brocket Arms for a gourmet burger (stilton ploughmans are no longer served at weekends, alas!) and a pint of Abbot...



The next day was my last in England and I was determined to have another stab at Purple Emperor. Original plan was Bernwood again but that was a bit far with a flight looming in the evening, and supper with the family first. So I decided to go down to Broxbourne, where I used to see them years ago. JP couldn't make it as he had car problems. I set off nice and early on yet another bright sunny day. Time's a funny thing and it took a while to find the exact spot, and I spent a lot of time wandering around first. I found a Comma on a piece of badger dung:



A nice upper side at last. For good measure he went to sit on a nearby tree trunk:



These woods are really something. This time I remembered to use the BlackBerry:



I found this clearing, full of flowers:



In it, there were White Admirals again, this time on brambles:



I saw a Purple Hairstreak Neozephyrus quercus but she gave on the small Oaks in this place, but she gave me no chance for a photo. I also found some Small Skippers which again I think are actually Essex - a female this time:



Eventually I found the broad ride where the Purple Emperors fly. I lurked balefully there for a while and took up with a band of British butterflyers. We found a great female Comma on the foodplant, stinging nettle:



Eventually we found an old chap walking a Jack Russell terrier, who took extreme exception (the JR, not the chap!) to our presence. Jack Russells are the same the world over. He mentioned a big black and white butterfly that had been around only a few minutes ago, and it had landed... there! We looked and found a Purple Emperor sitting in a grass clump sucking at a piece of dung.



It looked like a male and I nudged it to see if I could get it to open its wings, which it did, then took off. We could see no purple, it looked like a female.

It didn't come back. So we walked back down the ride, me racking my brains for a way to find one, and wishing I'd brought some rotten bananas. If I was in Africa, looking for Charaxes (Okay dear reader I know this is Apaturinae not Charaxinae, before you remind me) what would I be looking for? Mud...

This is when I casually glanced down at an almost dried-up stream bed full of siff mud - and saw this...



As nonchalantly as I could, I casually mentioned that there was a Purple Emperor on the mud in that stream bed. Pandemonium followed; everyone wanted a photo but no-one was prepared to brave that mud. I've lain down in worse muck than that in Africa, so I was first, and got this shot when I was able to get the camera level with him:



As it was boiling hot by this stage he didn't want to open his wings; all he did was flip them open every so often:



And then take off for a leisurely circuit of the clearing, showing off his incredible purple upper side. The colour is like that on the similar sized male Common Diadem Hypolimnas misippus, only visible from certain angles; by nudging him with a finger we managed to get a bit of purple to show:



Eventually he went and perched on a bush, looking at us:



At this point I decided to see if he was habituated enough for a finger shot... he was!



I then left him to his admiring audience (one of whom showed me on her Canon's screen a Camberwell Beauty taken nearby the previous weekend!) as it was time to drive back to Letchworth for tea. As I left, a Silver-washed Fritillary flew overhead like a Spitfire, as if to say goodbye...

I posted a lot of these shots on Photocamel and realise now that the old British Butterflies book I was using for scientific names is way out of date. So don't bother e-mailing me to point it out, I know they are wrong!

Seeing the way the Brits manage their woods was an education for an African conservationist. With volunteers they manage to have well maintained paths and rides, almost no invasive alien plants and everything is clean and neat. What could be done with Delville Wood or even Iphithi Nature Reserve with that kind of effort?

16 (or 17 - still not sure both those little Skippers are Essex Skipper) is nearly a third of British Butterfly species in two weekends!

After I got back, Michael Field e-mailed me to show me some shots he'd got on that same Sunday 4 July, of Purple Emperors at Fermyn Wood in Northants... which isn't far from Wollaston... and they had wings fully open, purple showing. I am green with envy. Perhaps he'll register and post them here or on Photocamel And I'll have to persuade Scott Bader to send me over next July!

Cheers

Steve