Oversley Wood

Sunday 22nd July 2012
Purple Emperor - it floated down as some horse riders went by, and landed right beside the path - this was a  female - larger than the male and it certainly looked huge
Mark and I had an excellent time at Oversley Wood, Warwickshire, this morning looking for butterflies. In all we had one PURPLE EMPEROR, six White Admirals, 4+ Purple Hairstreaks, 10+ Silver-washed Fritillaries, a Marbled White, a Large Skipper, a Small Skipper, three Red Admirals, two Green-veined Whites, 1+ Small Whites, 1+ Large Whites, three Meadow Browns and many many Ringlets. There were also a few hawker dragonflies; one I saw perched was a Southern Hawker.
This White Admiral was very obliging, perching nicely in the sun
White Admiral - fantastic insects - I became mesmerised watching them glide around us
Another shot of the exquisite underwing of the White Admira
Male Purple Hairstreak
The Purple Hairstreak crawled around in the mud for some time
Southern Hawker
I was glad I also got to to see the WWT Slimbridge LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER on South Lake first thing, as I had been unable to get there yesterday - a very nice county tick.
Adult summer-plumaged Long-billed Dowitcher

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