Bookham Common for Butterflies (14 July)

Nine of us met on a sunny and warm morning with a view to spotting some of the butterflies that can be found at this beautiful National Trust site. The most sought after is the purple emperor, but more of that later.

We began near the car park where the first silver washed fritillary was seen, a large and showy orange butterfly with dark brown patterning. This was a species we encountered regularly during our walk. We were also seeing ringlets, so called for the light rings on their black or brown underwings. In the sunny glades between the trees there were also gatekeeper, meadow brown, comma, skippers – both large and small – lovely marbled and other whites along with speckled wood and a surprise holly blue.

Both red admiral and its close relative white admiral were present. The latter is mainly dark brown/black with large white bands on the upper wing, and lovely to watch as they glide about.
So to purple emperor there were suggestions from different members of our party as to the best place to find them. We checked each area with no luck and we were almost back at the car park when a tree suggested by Jonathan proved to be the one we wanted. Way up towards the top we could see these large butterflies. One had a territory and perched on the leaves from which it flew from time to time when a rival appeared, or was it a female it fancied? Although we didn’t see the purple the patterned underwings were very clear. A satisfactory sighting.

By Diana Housley