This is turning into an all-time great Purple Emperor year. At Knepp, I'm now thinking it's even better than 2018, but haven't got the data yet (and Knepp was far more open, and PEs far more visible then - the sallow thickets have grown up massively).
I ended up watching the evening flight along a west-facing oak edge which includes a popular sap feeding tree. Here are 4 males feeding close together, but at one point we saw 8 males feeding along a 3m length of this branch, but they kept being disturbed by Hornets -
All told, I saw in excess of 200 probable individuals at Knepp today, in a ten hour day, and 67 on the PE transect.
This included seeing the first eggs laid, and four 'tumbledowns' (mated females rejecting amorous males).
And we had a fresh Brown Hairstreak out at Knepp... and Brimstones.
Elsewhere, great to hear of sightings at Sandringham in N Norfolk and at Strumpshaw Fen in the Yare valley downstream of Norwich.
That's it for today: as the (iratating) 1970s song goes, 'I can see clearly now, my brain has gone...'
No comments:
Post a Comment