Today I took a trip over to Fermyn Woods in Northamptonshire to look for the Purple Emperors that the site is renowned for.
I wasn't quite sure of the best area of the wood to see them so basically decided to keep walking round until I met someone who did as there were plenty of other cars parked when I arrived. (For anyone visiting, park in the entrance opposite the glider club along the minor road along the edge of the wood rather than in the country park car park itself and then just follow the one main ride through the wood).
With some information gleaned from other blogs, and after chatting to one observer I made my way over towards a couple of other woods which lie beyond the main wood across some fields. Here I met someone who had seen one earlier and then we walked along to Souther Wood where he knew others had headed, and which was apparently the best place to see them.
On joining the others we discovered they had been watching one on the ground for about 20 minutes, but it took an anxious wait of about an hour, during which time a couple were seen briefly high up over the trees, before another one eventually came down onto the path where it gave excellent views. Incredibly pleased with seeing my first ever ones coupled with the one showing as well as it did on the path, I walked further along the track into the wood and found another three on the path, and then returned to the original spot where again one showed very well on the ground and eventually held its wings open. By adjusting your position relative to the sun, it was possible to get the purple sheen to show, although getting it totally across both wings didn't quite happen, but the amount of purple seen was stunning none the less.
They would visit the made up tracks to get the salt up from the surface and would also visit piles of dung on the track, including horse and fox.
