An impromptu expedition to the land of the Purple Emperor took Sue P and I to just beyond Peterborough, to Bedford Purlieus - a national nature reserve run by English Nature and the Forestry Commission. It's an amazing tract of ancient woodland, full of magnificent trees and reputedly the home of the Emperor... Typically, a hot sunny day in Oxborough had slid into a muggy overcast one at BP, but even so we were in for some real treats.
A network of rides dissects the forest, with great plants and butterflies along many of them.
First up was a whole patch of herb paris, just after going through the entrance:
From then on it was great plants all the way, very diverse rides full of classic wayside flowers but also with some more unusual stuff, like nettle-leaved bellflower:
We also found a magnificent plant of Atropa belladonna, Deadly Nightshade, just coming into flower and the "Death Cherries" just starting to form:
The sun managed to burn through the cloud a bit and things really warmed up - lots of butterflies soon around, hundreds of meadow browns and ringlets, plenty of large skippers too. Then a single marbled white in one of the more open grassy areas, a lone small heath and several brown arguses:
Then the first of several silver-washed fritillaries raced by - they must be the fastest-flying of all the British butterflies, but as the sun came through they increasingly settled:
Lifting up pieces of corrugated iron left in the grassy areas produced four slow-worms under one and these two under another - lefthand individual at least 18 inches long!
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