Today was dire, at least at Knepp: Stygian gloom with just a few glimmers around lunchtime, then spits and spots under increasingly leaden skies. The day's ambition was to rain...
I did well to see 5 males, who jumped into action the moment a glimmer appeared.
Purple Emperors are starting to struggle. They're accruing lost time. The females should be busy pumping out eggs, but they're sitting in the thickets waiting for it to brighten, trying to warm up - and the forecast for tomorrow is little better.
Already it looks as though 2024 will not be a high egg lay year; in fact, it may see a very poor egg lay. That may not be utterly disastrous in the longer run as titmice, Great Tit especially, home in on hibernating larvae when larval numbers are high, but they don't when numbers are low. Swings and roundabouts...
But at least we haven't had a gale (we had one on St Swithun's Day last year, July 15th, which wrote off the 2023 PE season...). The numpties roost in treetop sprays and get shredded by gales, especially nocturnal gales.
Males have stopped coming down to feed on the tracks at Knepp for the year, and soon they will start taking the mornings off there, and becoming afternoon butterflies.
Elsewhere, good to hear that six males were seen down on the rides in Fermyn Woods this morning, where the season is later.
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