The Emperor season was hit by another bout of rain on Sat 22nd. I managed to see an OAP male over one of the favoured feeder tree oaks at Knepp an hour before the rain began. Red Admirals were feeding on the sap bleeds there.
The Red Ad is, of course, staging a mighty bold bid to win Butterfly of the Year - and with a homegrown autumn brood to come...
Oddly, I spotted a male Brown Hairstreak perched on one of the favoured male perching sprays as steady rain arrived.
Since then, there have been single sightings at Knepp on Sun 23rd and Mon 24th, a sighting of a female in Bernwood Forest on Sun 23rd, and sightings on Billa Barra Hill in Leicestershire on Sun 23rd and Mon 24th.
The race is on for the last iris of the Great 2023 Season (which wasn't great in East of England region, but was just about everywhere else, and was stupendous in Central Southern England).
This Blog, of course, carries on all year round, covering adventures with the immature stages...
An unusually large number of eggs should have been laid this season, and larvae should be relatively numerous this late summer and autumn. Therefore, this is the year in which to look for new populations by searching for the immature stages. Herefordshire, here I come... ... ...
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