The star in the garden this week was the Purple Emperor butterfly, apatura iris.
One of the joys of this place is being almost surrounded by mature forest - leave the house and turn left up the lane and with the exception of two small fields, the next four or so kilometres runs through managed mixed broad leaf woodland. Our own bois de chauffage, the only heating source we use, comes from within a kilometre of the house.
Our boundaries are the same mixture of tree species including oak, birch, beech, sallow, field maple, willows and blackthorn all of which are self-sown natural woodland regeneration that we've attempted to tame into some kind of hedge. I'm so glad we didn't fork out on buying hedging plants when all of this simply appeared: the plants growing where they want to grow.
A consequence of all this leafy stuff is an abundance of moths and butterflies, and far more than I've managed to identify so far. The treat for this week was getting to photograph a male Purple Emperor, hardly difficult as it was in the garage and having been removed from the hungry gaze of a few fat spiders it was happy to sun itself on my hand for a good ten minutes. So, thanks to my other half for carrying out the photographic duties!
Fondly referred to as His Majesty, only the male has the deep purple sheen that can only be seen at certain angles.
Even with the wings closed it is a real beauty.
We should see a peak of Emperors over the next few weeks and then that will probably be it until next June and July.
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