Hot stuff

I don't know how they could bring themselves to get this close, frankly. All I wanted to do was find some cold water and sit in it, all by myself. Sadly, the only water I came across at Oversley Wood today was a muddy puddle, with a rather suspicious-looking oily green sheen on the surface and a swarm of mosquitoes breeding over it, and I wasn't that desperate. Almost, but not quite.

I went to Oversley this morning because it's close, and I didn't want to be out too long as the day was forecast to turn tropical. The temperature was already in the mid-twenties by 9am, and climbing steadily, but the rides I was walking were reasonably well shaded, and I kept my pace steady so as to stay cool for as long as possible. Of my three target species, I had one good fly-past by a Purple Emperor (which at least puts it on my year list, even though it didn't stop for photos), and a couple of possible though not definite sightings of White-letter Hairstreaks, but not a hint of a Purple Hairstreak, despite the amount of time I spent peering up into the canopies of likely-looking oak trees.

I'm not a dedicated enough butterfly hunter to have been especially put out by this situation, though I bumped into some people I know slightly who were a bit grumpy about it. One of them offered the opinion that the Purple Emperors may have emerged early this year due to the warm spring, and that the three sightings we netted between us might therefore represent the tail-end of the PE season. I think this is fairly likely to be the case, because I saw a number of other large midsummer butterflies, such as White Admirals, that were already quite shabby, when you'd expect them still to be reasonably fresh.

On the other hand, this pair of Silver-washed Fritillaries was definitely fresh, in both senses of the word. The female will have emerged very recently, and this will be the only time she mates, having selected her partner for his performance during a ritual courtship flight. She will have flown fast and in a straight line for some distance, while he not only kept pace but looped over and under her, showering her with scent scales from the four "sex brands" on his forewings. These flights don't always lead to mating, but in this case the male (on the left in this photo) was successful in his courtship. Copulation lasts for around two hours, and though most of that time is spent up in the tree canopy, at intervals (unsurprisingly) the lovers need a snack to keep them going. I first saw this pair when they shot past me in a great flurry of wings, with the male leading, and landed on the bramble to take nectar. Luckily I managed to get a decent sight line on them and secure a quick burst of photos, because a second male arrived a few seconds later and tried to break their tie, at which point this chap hauled his partner off the bramble and they flew back up into the trees.

In other news, I'm no longer embargoed from telling you that one of the other images from this shoot has been chosen to represent April in the 2023 Worcestershire Wildlife Trust calendar. Photography competitions bring out the worst in me, for which reason I've pretty much given up doing them, but I always stir myself to enter the WWT calendar competition because it's a fund-raiser that supports local nature projects, and I'm delighted whenever one or more of my images is selected.