I made another visit to one of my favourite places, yesterday; Belgium's oldest nature reserve adjoining the village of Torgny at the southernmost point of Belgium. This really feels like a completely different place to anywhere else I know within Belgium as Marbled White (above), a species I have never seen elsewhere, was again the commonest butterfly present. The birds, too, were significantly different to what I am used to, with Yellowhammers and Golden Orioles singing all around, a Black Kite circling in the distance, and several Red-backed Shrikes, including one or two recently-fledged juveniles.
When I first visited this area three years ago, my sightings within the reserve itself were overshadowed by the discovery of my first, long-awaited Purple Emperor in the forest just to the east. I did the same walk through the forest this time around so, naturally, my thoughts turned to that emperor sighting when I reached the spot, which I easily recognised. Almost immediately, I noticed another unsual butterfly and suspected it might be another emperor, except this one had an obvious orange colour even in flight. It took what seemed like an eternity for it to settle and, when it did, it refused to open its wings for the longest time but my patience eventually paid off.
So, three years and four days after seeing my one and only Purple Emperor, I found the even rarer Lesser Purple Emperor in exactly the same place. I really should visit this spot more often!
