Ladies, Gentlemen even, the 2021 Purple Emperor season is almost upon us...
I predict that the first iris of the year will appear around high noon on June 26th one of our 'early' sites such as Bookham, Knepp, a few of the woods around the M25 perambulation and in some of the Oxford woods - if the current warm weather continues. There is a chance of the butterfly appearing a little earlier, especially in the sunnier Kent and Kentish woods [though we seldom receive any records from them].
Neil Hulme predicts June 28th and Ben Greenaway is going for July 2nd, which is when the majority of sites are likely to start.
Peak season will be during the second week of July, so that's the week to throw a sicky and go Emperoring...
Numbers are hard to predict. Numbers may well be poor in The Weald, which was hit by a major drought in early August last year, many sallows there dropped their leaves. This includes Knepp, where many [but not all] sallow stands were seriously drought-struck.
It may well be a patchy season, with good numbers in some of the far-flung parts of the Empire which were not hit by drought last August. This may even be the year in which to search for the butterfly outside the standard known range...
Larvae are currently pupating at the non-early sites, and enjoying good pupation weather. Many will undoubtedly have already pupated in the SE. The quicker they pupate, and the shorter time they spend as pupae, the more of them fly - but, really, everything depends on flight season weather [and we are owed big time after last season's gales...].
There may be an unusually protracted emergence this year, as many sallows flowered profusely this spring and came into leaf late. This will have slowed resident larvae down.
Watch this space... His Gloriousity is going to shine...
2 comments:
Yes, it was a pretty awful Emperor season last year.
A heatwave and gale during their flight season.
Those that did come to ground did not behave.
The usual period of grace between landing and approach
didn't work, they went straight up again.
Not complaining though I've had some vintage years
with them.
Here's to 2021!.
Good luck all,
Trevor.
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