It's still Very Early Days at most PE localities but the frontrunning site, Knepp Wildland, is showing exceptionally high numbers. Knepp doesn't just hold an unusually large and unusually visible population, it also starts and peaks before most others. It's an 'early site'.
Neil and I (but mostly I) have been running a PE transect there since 2016 (after two years in R&D to work out the methodology). Today, which is only Day 6 of the Knepp flight season, I counted 46 Emperors along this 2km route, despite an over-vigorous wind.
That is the highest count outside the annus mirabilis year of 2016, when we had counts of 55, 60 and 66 (which remains the record).
This is absolutely incredible, for so early in the flight season and, especially, after most of Knepp's sallows shed myriad leaves in last summer's heatwaves.
At Knepp, this butterfly is performing a miracle. It has come back from beyond the Seventh Gate of Death (or however many there are, one forgets...).
Here's a pristine male drinking Lord Knows What from one of Neil's bait puddles -
And here's Herself, also from today, looking vain in the shade -
I haven't got as far as checking out what was happening at other sites but this is looking like an immense Purple Emperor season.
Don't Miss Out...
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