I honestly thought that Emperors, and in particular Empresses, would easily last into early August at Knepp this year, perhaps to around the 7th. Consequently, Neil and I both took a couple of days off (the 25th and 26th).
Wrong, again, but that's Emperors for you...
This afternoon, in good weather conditions, Neil and I independently searched hard. He saw just two females, I managed one male and three possibly four females.
Conclusion: the butterfly is going over fast, and I may have seen my last male of the year.
This is remarkable as there were still fresh-looking females around at the weekend, and some males in quite reasonable condition - but we don't know how long Emperors live.
I still need to see the butterfly on one more day to achieve my 40 Days & 40 Nights target...
Advice: unless you know exactly where and how to look, don't bother venturing out in search of Emperors and Empresses again this year, you're too late...
For the record, this has been the second best year for the butterfly at Knepp after 2018 (since monitoring began in 2014). They have behaved appallingly...
Crucially, we had a useful 6mm of rain at Knepp on Fri 22nd but need more if the sallows are not to wilt further. The fate of the 2023 Purple Emperor season depends on early August rain... ... ...
Keep reading this Blog, it functions all year round, not just during the flight season.
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