They got the weather forecast wrong today... It seems that most places in The Empire had a very cloudy day, with perhaps an hour or two of brightness around lunchtime, followed by bad light stopped play...
At Knepp, I only saw one - a male chasing off a brace of starlings at 1.45.
Crucially, I haven't seen a definite Purple Hairstreak here yet, and only saw the first Knepp Ringlet today. This indicates that it is still very early in the Purple Emperor season. I think that what we are seeing is a few early males who developed as larvae on early-leafing sallows and were able to pupate before the weather deteriorated for the Jubilee. But it may be that tomorrow will see the first decent emergence of the year. We will see...
I've got to go home tomorrow evening so may not have time to post anything then...
Other news from today: the first Emperors were seen in Epping Forest, another 'early' site.
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