Struggled to see two Purple Emperors at Knepp today, a very old male and a female in reasonable condition.
A pair of battling old males was seen elsewhere, by other observers.
So, 4 seen all told, only.
This ageing male rockstar was behaving appallingly. He threw the hotel TV out of the window, got badly tanked up on oak sap, flew off upside down and molested an egging female - causing her to crash land on my ebike, who is now Blessed:-
The butterfly is all but over at Knepp. If you're thinking of visiting, you will see storks but you are highly unlikely to see any Emperors... Also, I will be taking the purple ribbonry and bunting down very soon, to effectively close the viewing season...
The fate of the 2023 Purple Emperor season at Knepp depends on the place getting a useful drop of rain within the next week. The sallows are dropping sub-canopy leaves. The ground below sallow stands looks like this -
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