I said that this Emperor season would be a long one, especially in the south-eastern parts of The Empire - where many sallows came into leaf unusually late, in early or mid-May, after flowering profusely.
Sure enough, the butterfly is still going reasonably well at Knepp, where I saw 25 yesterday (Tues), despite losing two key hours to dense cloud (1-3pm). Most were middle aged specimens, and I only saw two on their last wings; a few still looked reasonably dark. My guess is that there's a week left in the flight season here, but we'll have to see how wet and windy the weekend is (another depression coming in...).
But they are now afternoon butterflies only, not getting up before midday, and they are highly localised - with activity centred around favoured feeder trees, with sap bleeds.
Elsewhere, Ashley Whitlock found males still going nicely near Bucks Horn Oak in Alice Holt yesterday, though he struggled to see any at the favoured southern end of the forest; and the Campbells struggled to see a lone male in the good territory near Bicester.
Who will see the last Emperor of the year, and when?
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