Midsummer Day

This is indeed turning into an extremely good Purple Emperor season, almost certainly the best since 2018 - if the weather holds.  

At Knepp today, we had 16 down to baits along the hard tracks and some impressive showings up in the oak canopy - strings of 3s and 4s, and there's a lot more to emerge. I wasn't able to do any counts as I was showing groups around, but was seriously wowed by what I saw.

Here's a male pausing after cleaning his tongue on bramble, after a feed -

And here's another feeding - 

Elsewhere, Purple Emperors have been seen in low numbers in several counties, including Kent, Essex, Herts, Middx, Suffolk, Norfolk, Northants, Surrey, Hants and Oxon. Some counties don't seem to have kicked off yet, notably Warwicks, Wilts and the two northern outposts, Leics and Notts - but I may not have heard.

To the woods, the lot of you, this weekend - and don't come back till you've seen HIM...