Socks

I met Neil Hulme on 2 separate occasions last year and, both times, he was fully-clothed. This is, apparently, an unusual occurrence that warrants a mention. However, I didn't notice how many socks he was wearing - should any government official ask.

There goes our "PG" rating!

An adherent taking advantage of "one sock day"

Matthew's Anabasis

Weather change, and with it I move location from Hants, Surrey and the Sussexes to the Northants woods beloved by my boyhood hero 'BB'. Here, a grey morning with spells of rain that thoroughly wetted the parched woodland rides, leading to sunny spells from 2pm. I disturbed 5 male iris down on the ride en route to my lodgings in the wood (an isolated cottage + nesting reed bunting, whitethroats and grasshopper warblers).

I have a problem: I am staging The Emperor's Breakfast on Sunday here, as a contemporary art event, with 20 participants and the Beeb filming it - Mike Dilger's presenting it... . The FC (Whom God Preserve) are thinning pine in the woods and have wrecked by number one venue, my number two venue, my number three ..... and timber extraction and the rains have turned most of the rides into a giant breakfast table - and there's me with 6 varieties of shrimp paste, Surstromming, pickled mud fish, stinking bishop cheese, Pimms No 1 etc. Tomorrow's my dummy run.

Down south, iris is at peak - so if you don't know what to do this weekend: to the woods, without delay! Up here, males are well out and fresh, with more to come along with the bulk of the females. Oh, and by the way, this is a good iris emergence year after all. Enjoy!
Matthew

PS: You may be puzzled at Matthew's blogs being posted by Derek. Don't be.

No Messing with this Emperor

With the recent sunny spells coming to a grinding halt, a day spent in Bentley Wood started off rather slowly. However, when the sun did come out, so did the Emperors. We had around a dozen separate sightings - the strangest of which was a real hard-nut, hereby named Tyson (for obvious reasons), who continued to enjoy his morning breakfast of "doggy do and lager" (don't ask) while a 4-wheel drive vehicle drove over him. I believe a film of this intrepid character is in the offing.

Iris Continues Evening Sorties

In spells of very hot weather it seems that iris may be far more active during the evening than many people realise, perhaps even more so than early in the morning. I again visited Botany Bay, confident in the knowledge that they would 'kick off' some time after 5 pm. The first sighting came at 5.15 pm, when I watched the prolonged courtship flight of the Emperor, just to the SE of the 'Triangle'. She glided around the oak tops at a quite leisurely pace with initially one, then a second admirer in pursuit. This went on for more than 5 minutes, as if she was testing their 'suitability'. Her final choice was made high in the canopy, out of sight.

At 5.30 pm the males started to descend and at one point I saw two of them sitting on the path within a few feet of each other. I was just beginning to think that they had learned to 'play nicely', when one got up to trash a female blackbird that had the temerity to come within 10 metres. Iris was still going at 7 pm when I left.

Earlier that day I visited Southwater Woods. I had scraped together a total of 13 individual males, but they were hardly busy and the intense heat was clearly suppressing their activity. Dave Sadler had watched a female egg-laying, unusually early in the day from my own experience.

Matthew and the Beeb

Little to report today, as I again spent it helping the Beeb Nat Hist Unit film PEs in Alice. We've got some serious stuff in the can: stupendous 'sallow searching', serial Violence around the Goose Green territory, lots of landing and taking off (they land with a sideways backward flip), a brief bit of courtship, and best of all the disembodiment of a freshly emerged Painted Lady....

Off to Northants now, to film the ultimate Emperor's Breakfast + Mike Dilger....I have now spent 8 days viewing PEs from on high in a cherry picker, and have yet to see one feeding on honeydew or otherwise probing on a leaf for sustenance. Looks like a big myth. How marvellous!

'For he on honey-dew hath fed, and drunk the milk of Paradise' (Coleridge, under the influence of 2 grains of opium).

Bentley Wood, Hants

Paul Brock saw at least 5 Purple Emperor at Bentley Wood, Hampshire on a hot day where several purple admirers congregated. Before 9am in the car park, Mark Pike had already found an admirer, which settled on his backpack, Nikon and fleece. Well who can blame the butterfly, he was sweating a little, having walked a mile and a half from West Dean railway station! After half an hour the butterfly had enough.......others flew high up in trees by the Switchback, but often came to the ground sometimes for up to about 30 minutes to take nourishment from dung, or from soil, but mostly only too briefly. Once or twice one landed low down on bracken. At times, they opened their wings and camera shutters were quickly pressed in the hope of an all purple image! Just before 12am, one male expressed an interest in a silver vehicle bonnet in the car park, all too soon it was time to depart. I wonder what turned up in the afternoon?