Purple Emperor continues to emerge steadily at Knepp. We haven't had a mass emergence yet ('Big Bang') and to date only three females have been reported. I've managed 120 sightings of apparent individuals so far, mainly of sallow-searching males during the late morning period. To date, few have gone on to establish territories on the oaks during the afternoons, so things have been rather quiet from around 1 pm.
It's still too early to judge how big an emergence we'll get, with much depending on flight season weather, but I don't think this is going to be a great Emperor season - though I'd be happy to be proven wrong.
Clearly, the butterfly is only just starting elsewhere, and late sites such as Savernake Forest probably wont kick off until the weekend.
120 sightings ??
ReplyDeletethis is simply mind blowing