The Purple Emperor season is starting to get going...
At Knepp, today saw the first decent emergence - after a week of ones and twos. Males have started descending to the tracks: one yesterday, three pristine males feeding on shrimp paste baits today. I only managed to see about 12 males in all, but it was too cloudy for much of the time and they were only active intermittently.
Elsewhere, the first male was seen in Bernwood Forest, Oxon / Bucks, yesterday; one was seen in Oversley Wood, Warwicks, today; Essex kicked off today, and the butterfly has also been seen in Epping Forest.
Still none yet in Alice Holt Forest, Hants, and no news from Bookham Common, Surrey, which is an 'early' site. Odd.
Sorry for lack of pics but Blogger wont let me post any...
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