5th July 2017 Field Trip to Fermyn Woods.
This was the day of the illusive emperor. All very frustrating. On what must have been one of the best days of the summer so far 11 of us met in the informal car park which leads into Fermyn Woods. Bob and I had arrived early to have a look round and there were already several cars parked with photographers rushing off eagerly to take pictures of the illusive one. We received a great deal of advice. All different of course, but we did know where the emperors had been seen on previous days. We were left with the feeling that one needs to be early to get a picture at all.
We found 19 different species in total including the Purple Emperor, but we were not able to get a picture. One gentlemen showed us a photo he had taken which did little to ease the frustration, but generally everyone was struggling to see them any lower than the tree tops.
We found white admirals, red admirals, silver washed fritillaries including the valenzina, commas, ringlets, meadow browns, large, small and green veined whites, large and small skippers, small tortoiseshells, speckled woods, purple hairstreaks, white letter hairstreak gatekeepers, brimstone and marbled white. Most of these were seen in good numbers and it was an excellent butterfly day. We may not have managed pictures, but that means we will have to arrange another trip there.
