Saturday, June 29, 2024

Sat June 29th: Purple Haze...

News from Knepp.  I thought they'd go utterly berserk today, as cloud prevented them from doing much yesterday. 

However, I think there was a mass emergence of females today, as many male territories were unoccupied during the afternoon, and many males spent much of the afternoon sallow searching (i.e. hunting for girls in the bushes...). Normally, they sallow search during the mornings, then take up territories during the afternoon - at least until all the females are wedded and bedded, then they take the mornings off. 

Here's a 3-4 day old male that came down to my mixed dung and urine bait ("They mustn't ask us...") -



Elsewhere, delighted to report that Gloucestershire, Leicestershire and Norfolk have now come out and declared themselves in purpuratum for the season.   

The Knepp season remains way ahead of everywhere else...

Tomorrow: Out, the lot of you!  Enjoy...

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