Purple streak

I've made two unsuccesful attempts this month to try to find my lifer High Brown Fritillary in the south of Belgium.  On the first attempt, in the province of Namur, I got a brief look at the elusive Lesser Purple Emperor instead.  Two days ago, it was this Purple Hairstreak at a nature reserve in Belgian Luxembourg which more than made up for not connecting with my target species.  Purple Hairstreak is not particularly uncommon and quite widespread but notoriously difficult to observe since its spends most of its life at the top of mature oak trees, rarely descending to ground level.  I knew it was the first I'd seen in a long time but, looking back at my records, I was amazed to discover my only other sighting in Belgium was EXACTLY ten years before, on 29 Jul 2009!  The only other naturalising I've done of late was some dragonfly photography in Brussels, where this Red-veined Darter, a recent coloniser from the Mediterranean, seemed very much at home thanks to the all-time high of 40°C we reached last week.

More Belgian butterflies

Whilst photographing the Weaver's Fritillaries, I noticed several of them feeding on this patch of flowers so I sat down and waited.  Of course, once I was ready and waiting for them, no more fritillaries came but this Pearly Heath did oblige.  During another, short walk in the province of Namur, I got to see my second ever Lesser Purple Emperor.  It only descended ever so briefly from the treetops so I wasn't quick enough to get a picture but this time it was the beautiful, summer form of the Map Butterfly which decided to cooperate instead.

Third time lucky

Having found my first Silver-washed Fritillary in Brussels, I decided to try my luck again with Weaver's Fritillary, a species I'd never seen in Belgium.  My previous two trips to their stronghold near Couvin in the south of Belgium were unsuccessful, the first being rained out, and the second, on 1 June, must have been right at the end of the flight period of the first generation since I didn't find any.  By the end of June, however, the summer generation were on the wing, so I headed back to Dourbes nature reserve and, this time, found plenty of them.

On the way there, I'd already seen some Marbled and Silver-washed Fritillaries and, while photographing the numerous Weaver's, I noticed another large fritillary flying around, one of which eventually landed briefly on a thistle, allowing me to identify it as Dark-Green.

Four fritillary species in one day is pretty exceptional but even more impressive was the fact that, of the fifteen species of butterfly I recorded, Swallowtail was the only one I also saw on 1 June, all the other species being different, with an obvious shift from blues and smaller species to fritillaries and other large butterflies.  That's a complete change in the composition of the butterfly community within just four weeks!  Perhaps the biggest surprise of all, though, was finding this beautiful Black Hairstreak.

Sun thrush

It was a sticky 32°C in Brussels over the weekend so I sought out the shade of the Forêt de Soignes/Zoniënwoud.  This Song Thrush was doing the exact opposite, sitting with outstretched wings in the midday sun, almost certainly to rid its feathers of parasites.  I had hoped to find the elusive Purple Emperor but got to see a Silver-washed Fritillary instead, another forest-dwelling butterfly which is quite rare in Brussels and I have not seen here before.