Excellent day at Knepp, where I walked Week 3 of the Purple Emperor transect in good conditions. The temperature was much cooler today (25C max), due to a cooling Light to Moderate easterly breeze, and the Emperors were properly active and were not heat suppressed.
I counted 32 on the transect, including five females. That's par for the course for peak season in an 'average' year here. Last year's peak count was a meagre 24, but then the Emperors got blasted away by gales before they'd reached a natural peak. The record transect count here is a staggering 66, back in 2018. Dream on...
All told I saw over fifty, which is good as I spent most of the morning looking for Brown Hairstreaks (none seen, but must be imminent).
The forecast thunderstorms may knock out a few adults, but wont wash off many if any young larvae as few if any eggs will have hatched yet (baby larvae are vulnerable to being washed off).
Emperors tend to go berserk in sun after thunderstorms, so get out tomorrow if you can. The butterfly is at or around peak season.
Not too much to report from elsewhere today. Mark Tutton struggled in one part of Alice Holt Forest, then cleaned up in another part. Emperors are very hit and miss this year.
Well done to Liz Goodyear for looking for Emperors at Strumpshaw in The Norfolk Broads. She didn't find any but saw three Swallowtails instead.
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