From Ashley Whitlock

I took several people around a new site on Saturday called Abbotstone Down and it looks a good Emperor site and now Ive been, e-mailed by somebody who lives quite near and sees them there most years...another tick in the box. I thought readers might like a photo of a courting pair taken by Phillippa Gordon, at this site where I now have a recorder going to investigate this season.

From Ashley Whitlock

Today I made my first pilgrimage to Alice Holt Forest although the weather was generally warm with lots of dark clouds the majority of time after twelve o'clock it was quite sunny, and the woodland itself in Abbotts Wood Inclosure there wasn't a lot around at all. Plenty of Ringlets a splattering of Meadow Browns and a single Speckled Wood with a couple of Marbled Whites. Very poor considering what I saw at Abbotstone Down yesterday. However I ventured over to Alice Holt Forest (1) Assembly Point and as soon as I set up my step ladder, unfortunately this site is now almost a right off, as I cannot see with trees and shrubbery in the way, and I just caught a glimpse of two Purple Emperors chasing each other at 1250 flying from the east-to west. Then there was a single male doing a typical vista patrol around the Assembly Point. I never stayed long as this site now is very uncomfortable trying to make notes balancing on a step-ladder....could almost be in a circus!

Fermyn starts with a splutter

4 Hours around the woods from 10.30 yielded 2 Emperors.  Both in Souther Wood and both coming out of swallows and up and over the canopy during breaks in the clouds. Not the most robust of starts for the season but a start nonetheless.  A quick look in at Glapthorn on the way back to the Fen was rewarded with a fine Black Hairstreak drunkenly heaving itself around the blossom, earlier in the day 7 had been counted here still.
DPo

Grounding at Knepp

I know there was a safari at Knepp today so hopefully there will be a more informed blog from Matthew or Neil later, but I had 23 sightings today (may have included repetitions, I'm not sure) although I left at about three and in previous years Knepp has been great later in the day. 

Luckily my day ended with a grounded male on the path near the lake - a detour I only took, as I was walking towards the exit, due to the previous couple of Knepp blogs which had mentioned the possibility of males coming to ground to visit the new path surfaces. So glad I bothered as I spent a good ten or fifteen minutes less than half a metre from a pristine male who showed full purple. Inevitably, I only captured more distant shots with him showing half purple as I got a bit over-excited and ran out of space on my phone, but I will add these at a later date when I've sorted out my google account. 

 

Still, an amazing moment and I recommend anyone visiting Knepp checks out the area of path near the lake not far from the visitor centre. If I see no other groundings this year, I'll still be happy. 

Good hunting all! 

Sunshine & Showers

A Knepp Safari group managed to see 30 male Purple Emperors today, despite a number of showers during a truncated afternoon. No females today.  Most activity was around noon, before the wind got up.  At one point we saw six in as many minutes.  We had two vistas of threesomes.  

We missed out on the male down on hardcore. Sightings of grounded Emperors are rare here, but may perhaps increase now that hardcore has been imported to fill in some of the hollows developing in the track system.  

Here's the best piccy, of a male posing between bouts of sallow searching - 

Fresh male on the ground at Knepp

Last year, very early in the season a male was found on one of the rides at Knepp which is rare for this site. The chances of history repeating itself were slim to none. So finding one this season was quite an achievement.

Although very fresh, it did show signs of wear. Some 20 minutes passed after it had flown off. It reappeared but had suffered further damage to its left forewing.

Herself Appears

Very surprised to see two females at Knepp on Fri July 1st.  That seems rather early in the year for Herself.

One was being ardently courted.  They nearly joined, in the top of an oak, but were blown apart at the crucial moment, leaving the male in state of desperation.

The other was a pale aberration, which Neil and I saw together. This could be a good year for Emperor and White Admiral aberrations, due to cold nights at the start of June impacting on freshly-formed pupae.

Watch this space...