Midsummer Day

Serious heatwave, breaking the record UK temperature for June (it may be broken further tomorrow)... and dead calm and excessively humid too.

Visited the north-west sector of Savernake, where I've always struggled to see Emperors, having never managed to find the male territories. Great to be shown an about-to-hatch pupa, from a larva my Savernake colleagues, Gary and Sarah, have been following since last Sept, called 'Rainman' (because he was found in heavy rain).  He hatched at about 1pm.  

Here's the empty pupal case of another pupa, again from a long-followed larva - 

I particularly wanted to see adults feeding on the mega sap run on the Bumble Oak, outside the FC loos. One was there around 9am, which I missed.  All I saw feeding there was Red Ads, Commas, hornets and the rare sap-run hoverfly Ferdinandea ruficornis (and I mean ruficornis, not the common cuprea).

Finally, here's the White Road Oak, another Savernake veteran. If you pass a small child through the portal on Midsummer Day you'll cure it of rickets...

Damn hard working Emperors in this heat, as many conk out around 1pm, before becoming active again in the evenings. Neil Hulme walked the 2 hour-long Knepp PE Transect yesterday evening, starting at 6pm with the butterflies nicely active. His count totalled 27 (including 1 female). That's a modest tally for Week 2 (the record individual count is 80, set in Week 3 last year).

 

 We visited Chedworth Roman Villa yesterday (about 10 miles N of Cirencester) and saw a male PE fluttering around which we later found on one of the display boards. Here he is extracting sweat from my daughter's hand! Ironically, we'd been to

Sapperton the day before and seen none at all!

On 19 June I had an amazing encounter with a female Purple  Emperor in  Whitecross Green Wood in Oxon. I was looking over one of the woodland ponds when the PE dropped out of the trees to perch on Amphibious Bistort covering the pond. It sat there for several minutes, presumably drinking as the day was very warm, before flying off back into the canopy. I managed to get the posted photo which I am very pleased with and I believe it depicts behavior rarely documented by the camera. There were also several White Admirals present in this superb wood.

Foxley, Norfolk. 23rd June

A bit of over night rain was promising so an early start before the heat hits. Unfortunately 20 miles away at Foxley Woods it seemed they had very little and the main ride was bone dry. The first Emperor was seen at around 9am and the initial sightings were all Sallow searching. There was a peak in activity at 10ish when three were seen by the bench at the cross tracks. One male constantly buzzed my face and I thought would come to ground but no luck. At least six seen but probably still early days. Paphia and Camilla are doing well but the grassland species numbers are quite low. I will leave you with the only shot I got, use your imaginations.

June 23rd: After the Thunderstorm...

Heavy thunderstorms in the western parts of the Empire yesterday evening. That meant wet rides and a steamy forest today, and the descent of hungry Emperors...

I saw three pristine males coming down to feed in one of the Braydon Forest woods, NW of Swindon, notably this beauty - 

This is a newish site, with a building population. The male territories have yet to be discovered.

So we looked for a male territory in a classic sheltered wooded hilltop with oaks and small-leaved limes (which PE love). Nothing. They're not there, though they must be assembling somewhere close by. I'm cross with them. 

Instead, Herself appeared and laid two eggs right in front of me. Now I've got to look up my earliest ever egg (which I shall do after the football) -

Elsewhere, PE started in Dorset and Glos (Sapperton) on Sun 21st, and has now been seen in Norfolk (in the Yare valley again) and Notts.  4 seen at Sapperton today.

No reports of astronomical numbers yet, and it doesn't (yet) appear to be a particularly great year for them, but the weather this week isn't easy to work in.

Advise: in extreme heat, work the evening flight, between 6pm and 7.30.   

Right, football.  

Bernwood Forest 22nd June

At least three coming down from the Oaks late morning. This one was present for at least forty minutes  imbibing from one of the few areas of damp ground on a track through the woods.He found it a struggle to find anything to his liking, regularly flitting along low to the ground searching for that sweet spot. Always good to get my initial adrenalin rush of the season as I glimpse that flash of glorious colour.

Sat June 20th & Sun June 21st: Heatwave Coming!

Sat 20th: a little too cloudy at times. Savernake had a welcoming party out for me, in the form of a large (Emperors are unusually large in Sav) male flying down Grand Avenue towards me as I drove in from the Burbage end (stop, switch off and Squirt Windscreen - but he hurried on by...).

Then a magic 40 minutes with this pristine male, who was struggling to find anything to feed on -

Eventually he found a squashed fox scat (identifiable by smell and the presence of Woodland Door Beetle wing cases!) -

A search of the Three Oak Hills Drive male territories, in imperfect weather, produced lone males in three of the primary territories (and, as usual, none at The Column, where everyone goes, which is a secondary territory).  

Incidentally, PE started in Savernake on Friday 19th, when the last of the followed larvae there pupated. PE also started in Bentley Woods, S Wilts, then.

Sun June 21st.  Not many people out Emperoring today, deterred by the heat.  Today, the Emperor started in Glos, with 2-3 males active at Sapperton Broad Ride (Mick Peacey's been checking daily, so this is Day 1). Here's one up on a favoured lime tree - 

 

The Purple Emperor is now out in virtually all known counties: Dorset, Glos and Leics all started today. We've yet to hear from some of the northern counties. Numbers are low to modest nearly everywhere (Fermyn Woods may be in the lead at the moment). 

In the coming heatwave, males will be looking for food on the rides in early to mid-morning, and thereafter intermittently throughout the day. The rides are, though, very dry. Dog mess (commonest near to parking areas) will be favoured. 

Males will be active on territory from about 12.30 to 2.30-ish, but may then conk out for a siesta, before having an evening flight from 5.30 to about 7.30. The evening flight is terrific. 

Both sexes will readily visit oak sap runs, but these are hard to find (watch for hornets and Red Ads), and flow intermittently. Here's a cracker of a sap run on the Bumble Oak, a named veteran oak close to the FC loos at Postern Hill in Savernake. Note the white bits - that's what the Emperors favour -