At Knepp, after a wet then dull morning, His Gloriousity erupted. I counted 37 on the Knepp PE transect, an exceptionally high count for Week 2 of the Emperor season there. However, I'd actually expected more (!), but the males were not holding territory - they were merely wandering through, and not clashing & chasing.
Neil had one of his best afternoon's ever, along the southern edge of Bentons Gorse. At 2.45, he saw 11 in a vista: 5 together on a sap bleed, plus 3 on other little bleeds, and 3 in flight. To put that into perspective, only four living people have seen double figures of iris in a vista in the UK...
At 5.15, he and a group of watchers, watched a female being pursued by 4 males there. By the time I got there there was only one -
Males will stop coming down to the tracks at Knepp after the coming weekend.
Elsewhere, the butterfly is emerging only in low numbers to the north of London - it's just starting to get going there now. Knepp is ridiculously advanced, and may finish by July 21st.
Someone counted about 20 in Fermyn Woods today. This means that the coming weekend will be the best time to visit Fermyn to see males on the rides.
This is an excellent Emperor year. Don't miss out! But the season is far more advanced in some localities than others...
PS If you're on Twitter, check out the utterly amazing video clip of a Purple Emperor male getting crunched by an Emperor dragonfly (Anax imperator) on @marktutton25.
My Twitter account is @MatthewOates76 (my favourite summer)
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