A Poor Season?

Purple Emperor is now at peak at Knepp, where it started ten days ago.

It looks very much as though, as I suspected all along, that this is proving to be a poor - quite possibly very poor - year for the butterfly. Yesterday, the 6th, males were conducting less sallow searching during the mid to late morning period, a clear indication that the season is moving on - without any mass emergence having occurred. Then, males went into deep siesta mode in mid-afternoon heat.

It may be that Tuesday's count of 57 will be the maximum obtained here this year (though today's forecast warm calm cloud may bring an increase).  If 57 is the year's top count, then numbers are less than half of last year's - and the population at Knepp is still in building phase as habitat conditions improve annually.

Sure, Emperorphiles at all other sites (apart from Fermyn) would be ecstatic to count 57.  But, if this halving of numbers is replicated generally then it may prove very difficult to see the butterfly at all in sites supporting smaller populations.

The butterfly may not have started yet at late sites such as Savernake (Sunday there, I reckon).  Also, it's possible that the butterfly will do better in some other regions, so there's still some hope...  

Can we please have some news from Fermyn?

Here's Herself, minxing photographers from within the sallows yesterday, and a classic distant male high up on a lammas spray -

From Jane Chilcott

I was extremely blessed mid afternoon today to find this fabulous butterfly feeding on some dog poo on Wimbledon Common.

I held my breath as I thought it was a Purple Emperor and then as the sun shone so did the purple colouring reveal itself! 

Took some lovely photos and spent about 29 minutes with him before I put him back down and carried on with my walk. 

1st time in 20 years on the Common that I've  seen one.

Is Wimbledon Common a known location for iris, anyone? - Derek

50 up at Knepp...

I managed to see 57 Emperors at Knepp today, including an 'egging' female.  

To be honest, I'm disappointed by that tally, as I had anticipated over 80. I am beginning to feel that this is not going to be a good Emperor year, but it may still be early days (actually, at Knepp it's Day 9) and I may yet be proven wrong.

Males were dashing about all over the place until about 2pm, sallow searching and generally exploring. That's typical of freshly emerged males. Crucially, nearly all were seen in close proximity to the sallow thickets, usually leeward of them. I don't think any were recorded on the tracks today.

Here are a couple of photos from today, of males on oak territories - 

Maiden visit to Knepp

After dropping the boy to school . .....early , we were soon out of Dorset on the M27 and by 11am at Knepp . Glad to say the satnav post code directions took us straight to the gate . The weather was good and started the walk by the gate on the right of the camp site . Initially all we could see was hybrid sallows but once we ventured off the path and to a clearing the broad leaved sallows became evident and it wasn't long before HIM buzzed us at low level . Another male quickly followed and then a huge female emerged from a sallow , flying very slowly , possibly her maiden flight and then disappeared over the trees . The next hour gave us plenty of sightings , at one point 3 males around a pine tree with 2 of them battling it out . By 2pm the weather clouded over so called it a day .Total of 11 males and 1 female . The supporting cast numbers wasn't great , those being Meadow Brown , Small/Large Skippers , Marbled Whites , Small Tortoiseshell , Purple Hairstreak and a fresh hutchinsoni Comma .  Not a bad day considering the long journey . Sadly not lucky enough for groundings so went home with a stiff neck .
 Nothing from Bentley yesterday .

Strange Lady

On Friday evening (1st July) I joined Matthew at Knepp, in an effort to determine how good a season is developing and, based on sightings of Herself, where we are in the season. This had proven difficult due to adverse weather conditions - most latterly very strong winds.


As I complete this post we have had the benefit of a few more days on which to base an assessment, including a few prolonged periods of good flight weather. The jury is still out, as reports from other sites suggest that it is still early days ... even at Knepp. The appearance of females so (apparently) early in the season may have bowled us a googly.


More importantly, one of those females was, I believe, an extreme rarity. As we turned a corner I immediately shouted "female", based on the size, pale colouration and flight pattern of an Emperor which was gliding around the far side of a Sallow stand at low level, before disappearing through a gap between Oaks. She returned two or three times, on one occasion passing close to my left shoulder, always flying slowly and occasionally turning tightly to reveal both surfaces in the evening sunlight.


She looked odd - very odd. At times she appeared very much like a huge, very faded Painted Lady; the ground colour was mottled orange and pale brown, but she had normal, white banding. We were both struck by how strange her appearance was and we were left completely bemused. We considered extreme wear and tear, but she appeared structurally perfect and was most likely very freshly emerged.


After searching the literature, including an excellent summary of aberrations on the UK Butterflies website  http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/aberrations.php?species=iris I am left in little doubt that this strange lady conforms to ab. thaumantias Cab. I can see no rational alternative and believe that this represents a first for Sussex.

Knepp Update

Purple Emperor continues to emerge steadily at Knepp. We haven't had a mass emergence yet ('Big Bang') and to date only three females have been reported.  I've managed 120 sightings of apparent individuals so far, mainly of sallow-searching males during the late morning period.  To date, few have gone on to establish territories on the oaks during the afternoons, so things have been rather quiet from around 1 pm. 

It's still too early to judge how big an emergence we'll get, with much depending on flight season weather, but I don't think this is going to be a great Emperor season - though I'd be happy to be proven wrong.  

Clearly, the butterfly is only just starting elsewhere, and late sites such as Savernake Forest probably wont kick off until the weekend.

  

Hertfordshire, Middlesex and Epping Forest (Essex) are off!

Reports today from Balls Wood in Hertfordshire by Stephen Wooderson (photo below), Whitewebbs, north Enfield by Robert Callf and in Epping Forest by myself and Laurence Drummond despite it being cloudy. The Epping Forest sighting was a relief as we arrived at 12:45 when the cloud cover also arrived.