Ditton Park Wood, Cambridgeshire

Despite the breeze and the cloud cover the warmth building up during the morning prompted a trip to Ditton Park Wood, just south of Newmarket, a 20 minute drive from home.  Two year old Eve only needed a short shoulder ride to a suitable picnic spot dictated by the immediate presence of Himself engaged in sallow searching antics.  2 males and Herself became evident gliding, arcing around and in and out of the sheltered, open canopy of the sallow.  The focal point of activity though centred around a low Hazel, which was vigorously defended.  After several long sorties the male I was following alighted on a Hazel leaf which already had two Emperors, previously unseen, resting upon it.  The three didn't spend long together but I did get a couple of photos which, with a lot of cropping, reveal a female who spreads her wings and imposes herself over one of the males. 

 

Shortly, an aerial scuffle ensued and two spiralled up and tumbled down, entwined with invisible gossamer and into the bracken, heaving with Ringlets today.  Herself took to the wing almost immediately and was off but the male sat long enough for a closer approach, forewing tightly tucked down, eyeless, before returning to the air again

 

 



Activity was continuous for a further 5 minutes with low swoops around a bramble tangle instigated by some plucky Comma's willing to harry the passing Emperors on their loop, in turn perking their interest to return.  Then one male took to the vigil, the other looped us at eye level before banking sharply up and into the Oak canopy above and behind us.  There were several Purple Hairstreaks flying between trees and on the Hazel allowing reasonable views through binoculars.

 

 

 

A little wander further up the path revealed a couple more canopy areas occupied by Emperors and I think there were at least 6 individuals.  A great hour out, I'm so happy to have an accessible and productive purple wood near to home, a true luxury.







Curiously Finemere Wood in Bucks was deserted of people this afternoon but fortunately there was plenty of Emperor action on offer. This fine fella landed on my jeans as soon as I entered the wood. I transferred him to my finger where he stayed licking salts from my hand for the next 50 minutes. I did a tour of the main ride up to the turning circle and back with him in my company.

The light was perfect to get a good look at him excreting fluids onto my finger and sucking them back up presumably extracting the salts from my fingers.

There were several other males actively searching the Sallows along the main ride looking for females. I think Dennis is correct, we are close to peak in the Bucks woods.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics

This is especially true for biological data, because of the huge variation. I do this just to provoke Matthew, because he hates trying to tie down that independant spirit, HIM, with numbers. Nevertheless, I do have a lot of data, gleened from the observations from about 30 Upper Thames enthusiasts each year since 2003..
Only from 2009, however, are the data sets large enough to be able to do anything useful with them. For instance, I have been asked the question, what is the time between the first sightings and the beginning of the peak flight period?
So, for this 8 years, 2009 to 2016, the average time was 10.5 days, with a 90% confidence interval of 8.3 to 12.7 days. For example, for this year, the first sightings at Knepp were on the 14th of June, or thereabouts, suggesting that the peak starts from 22nd until 27th June. In the Upper Thames region, the first sightings were on the 17th June, giving the start of the peak from 25th June until 30th June.
We have seen that the peak is rather extended, lasting between one and two weeks.
Depending upon how reliable this is, it is unlikely that we will be seeing many Emperors after mid-July, although we will see tired Empresses.
I look forward to being struck down in ignominy!
All the raw data is available from the appendices of our annual reports, which are accessible on the Upper Thames website, under 'species champions' and then 'purple emperor'.

Wedding & Bedding in Fermyn!

Phenomenal day in Fermyn Woods with Neil Hulme & Andy Wyldes, but hardly anyone else. This is the peak weekend of the 2017 Fermyn Emperor season and the woods were almost devoid of butterfly people. Perhaps some people don't realize that the Emperor is out, or maybe they haven't been able to bring their booked July pilgrimage forward? I fear there will be a lot of disappointed visitors there in mid-July, which is galling as the butterfly is out in very good numbers this year.

Despite a lot of cloud, which rendered it too dull for Emperor activity at times, the butterfly put on a memorable show. I saw two pairings, high up in oak tops, and two other courtship flights. Here's one pair, the other was tucked well into the spray and impossible to photograph - 

As usual, a third male tried to muscle in -

Curiously, the males were scarcely coming down to the ride surfaces today, whereas yesterday they were dropping down at every opportunity. Instead, today they were frenetically searching the low tree tops. I suspect this was because there was a big hatch of females today, and that we were witnessing the Fermyn festival of wedding and bedding.

We were greeted by a male down at the main entrance, crawling under a car. Here's Neil dealing with this recalcitrant butterfly -

Of course, the police were called and weren't impressed by his explanation. Mr Hulme is still helping them with their inquiries down in Corby nick.

I'm off to Knepp tomorrow... ... ...

Doings in Fermyn...

Neil and I were in Fermyn Woods today, working with BBC Countryfile and living legend presenter John Craven to film The Emperor's Breakfast, for transmission on Sunday July 9th.

Despite a lot of cloud and marginal conditions the Emperor was on good form, and was highly obliging. Several males came down to our baits, both on the breakfast table and on shrimp paste puddles on the nearby rides - and it wasn't just shrimp paste and fermented sardines, for a particularly smelly runny French cheese (worse than Stinking Bishop) was favoured.  

On several occasions we saw vistas of three males, patrolling the oak tops. I also witnessed a classic 'tumble-down' - mated female rejecting an amorous male.  

It looks as though this will be the peak weekend for numbers and activity at Fermyn, where the butterfly commenced on Sat June 17th.

The other day a pristine female ab. lugenda was photographed in Fermyn, by Lucy Milner (the poet Edward Thomas's great-granddaughter). She's sending me the picture, which I'll post here.  

Here are some memories from today -

When it comes to eccentricity Britain still has what it takes... ... ...

Is it peaking in June?

In the top Bucks wood yesterday afternoon, there was no sun, a very brisk breeze and a temperature of 20 degrees. Just 12 were seen in 66 minutes, all high up, clashing and gliding around the Oaks and Ashes. Little Sallow searching. When I retraced my steps along the ride where I had seen 6, about 30 minutes later, none were to be seen. I have seen this before: presumably, they are not constantly on the move and have periods of respite in the trees.
Today, the Campbells spent 140 minutes in the wood, in similar weather conditions as yesterday, and saw 43, so they have not peaked yet.
It is good to know that in woods where the numbers are high, we can go looking even if there is no sun; as long as the temperature is in the late teens, we will see activity.
A few days ago we were in Little Wood Oxon which is on a very steep slope. A very large wide Ash at the top of this slope is normally a banker for seeing activity; we saw nothing in 15 minutes. We went down the slope to the bottom where the trees are very close together, allowing poor views of the tree tops. In one small opening, however, we were treated to two pairs of males clashing.
Nothing is certain or predictable in the Emperor's world!

Abbots Wood

Lucky again with the groundings. It seems to me that there are more individuals around this year with plenty of activity mid to late morning along the main ride. Even spotted one settling onto a pine tree at the top car park.