At Knepp, the Emperor season is fast fading. I struggled to see six on Sat 13th, before heading home for a while. Neil also struggled to see six at Knepp on Sun 14th, in perfect weather.
Many territories are now unoccupied there. Males have now stopped sallow searching and are inactive before noon. Surprisingly few females have been seen, and I'm wondering whether many emerged during bad weather and quickly perished... The egg lay isn't going to be high. The Knepp season will be over by July 21st-23rd.
Here's a female from last Saturday at Knepp, behaving just like a male - it is female, she laid an egg 20 minutes before this photo was taken:
And here's a male, doing likewise -
Elsewhere, I'm beginning to breathe sighs of relief that south Gloucestershire, where I live, is still Purple. The region was only recently colonised (perhaps in the 2018 annus mirabilis) and was clobbered by a severe outbreak of Willow Rust last Aug and Sept - most of the broad-leaved sallows that dominate the district dropped most of their leaves. The good news is that Glos is still purple. Here's a photo (not mine) of one feeding on owl pellets (!!!) in a barn near Cheltenham on July 11th -
Great to hear of a sighting at Saltwells NNR just SW of Dudley in the West Midlands (W of Brum).
Generally, numbers do not seem great, but that may simply be due to poor flight season weather - this is an old-fashioned July.
Today is St Swithun / Swithin's Day, and it's rained most of the day. Last year, we had a fully-fledged gale on St Swithin / -un. Personally, I think St Swithun/-in should be defrocked...
Four of five reasonable days are forecast. My guess is that they will reveal Emperors and Empresses in reasonable numbers in the later-emerging localities...
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