Fri July 15th (St Swithun): 30 Days Purple Fulfilled!

Today saw the completion of my 30 Days Purple challenge. Advise: don't even think about doing it... 

I only tackled it because I found the Wildlife Trust's #30DaysWild challenge boringly facile - and because someone had to, sometime...

Today, His Gloriousness got up very late indeed, scarcely rising before 1.20 - which begs the question of what he was up to under the warm full moon last night? (No, I'd rather not know..., and someone else can look). Males were then very active until late afternoon. Most of them are still in reasonable condition and there are as yet no OAPs or geriatrics around.

Her Gloriousness didn't rouse till much later, and then went oak sapping. Teste - 

The big question now is how will the Purple Emperor behave in the coming heatwave, given that it is now late in the flight season?

 Possible answers -

1. Don't bother looking for males before midday (though some may be active very early in the morning).

2. Old males will conk out in the heat on / around their territories from about 2.30, possibly rousing again for an hour from 6.30pm if it's not too windy. So, a narrow window of intense action.

3. Females will spend hours shading, invisible, and may best be seen imbibing from oak sap - if you know a feeder tree or two. I really don't know when they lay eggs in major heatwaves, possibly early and late.  

4. Both sexes may shoot over fast in the heat, as they did in 1976 (when the flight season barely lasted more than three weeks).

Good Luck, you'll need it... ... ... So will I... ... ...