Fri July 12th : More Grot...

At Knepp, heavy rain around dawn, then a day of lumbering dark clouds, slowly moving down from the north. A few glimmers around 2pm, then more grot... The few patches of blue sky that appeared, had infilled by the time they arrived.

I managed just four Purple Emperors at Knepp, all in good or reasonable condition, but hardly anything was flying - even the Ringlets and Meadow Browns. It was too cool.

Also, Purple Emperors seem to need a UV level of 5 to become active. Today, it was mostly around 2.

Good news from elsewhere: 2 males were behaving badly near Sapperton (of Daneway Banks fame) back in my home parish. That's important news, as most of the sallows in that district dropped many their leaves last August or Sept due to a massive outbreak of Melampsora Willow Rust - and I'd feared that the iris population, which was only discovered in 2020, had been lost.

Also, good news from Savernake, where a pristine male was photographed down on a ride, and three were seen in the favoured Dead Beech Glade (halfway up Three Oak Hills Drive) - 

Also, great to hear that a gang of Emperophiles from BC West Mids have just turned the butterfly up in BC'S Monkwood Reserve, Worcs.

PS  Other bloggers most welcome here! It's not my personal blog. We'd particularly welcome news from counties that don't get mentioned here - e.g. Kent, Norfolk, Lincs...  I seldom have time to trawl around the various websites to find news from elsewhere...