Visiting Knepp Wildland

Knepp Castle Estate is looking forward to welcoming visitors for the 2019 Purple Emperor season. 

The butterfly is likely to start to emerge there on or around June 18^th, and finish around July 26^th, but watch this space for updates.

Butterfly folk in the UK are used to open access sites. Only a few Swallowtail localities are pay-for-entry sites. Knepp Wildland is pay-for-entry away from on the few public rights of way, as the estate is trying to make a living from sustainable wildlife tourism, rather than from unsustainable and exploitative agriculture (see Wilding by Isabella Tree, the Knepp story; copies are on sale at Knepp Go Down). The estate deserves your support.

There will be a designated Purple Emperor visitor car park close to the campsite and safari reception centre. This will be clearly signed and will run throughout the Purple Emperor season. The SatNav code is RH13 8NN. Please drive past the main (campsite) car park (on your left), and through the automatic barrier. The Purple Emperor Car Park is immediately on your right, just past the barrier. For more details please visit: https://www.kneppsafaris.co.uk/Information/Purple-Emperor-Car-Parking

The estate asks £10 per vehicle for a day’s parking. For this you will have access to tea and coffee-making facilities in the Go Down, the Go Down loos, and can pick up a detailed hand-out on the Purple Emperor at Knepp, which contains a map of the recommended route. You will also be given a Knepp Wildland Purple Emperor 2019 wristband.

I planned this route. It goes through many of the best parts of the Wildland for Purple Emperors. It is clearly marked on the map and on site by purple-topped posts and purple ribbon on bushes and trees.

Please keep to this designated route, to avoid disturbance to sensitive wildlife and to prevent people getting lost (last year people were getting lost in the 458 hectare Wildland on a daily basis, in extreme heat). 

We would welcome your sightings. Please record these in the Records book on the Go Down table, or email them through to me on matthew@matthew-oates.co.uk. Neil Hulme and I are volunteers at Knepp Wildland, running Purple Emperor safaris (which were fully booked by the end of January) and conducting detailed monitoring. 

A few public rights of way cross the Wildland. Several of these do not run through good Purple Emperor areas but the green lane bridleway which goes from Countryman Lane, Shipley, down to Blonks Lane at the southern end does run through prime Purple Emperor country. There is a limited amount of roadside parking along Countryman Lane, but it is often taken up by dog walkers. The footpaths in from Dial Post also go through some reasonable Emperor terrain. Unfortunately, the Wildland is covered by two 1:2500 maps: No 134 for Crawley & Horsham and No 121 for Arundel & Pulborough. The best route is the designated Purple Emperor route from the Go Down, explained above.

The Wildland is grazed by longhorn cattle all year round, and is on Weald Clay. This combination means that paths can be hard and bumpy in dry weather, and very sticky in wet weather. Those of us with dodgy ankles and knees (#MeToo) take heed! First Aid assistance is available at The Go Down. The cattle are docile (but don’t walk between cow and young calf). Dogs on leads or under close control please.

The mobile phone signal is very bad in the Wildland, best near the villages. 

Note that Purple Emperors are unlikely to appear in last year’s numbers, due to the impact of the drought (no rain fell at Knepp between May 31^st and July 28^th 2018, and much foliage wilted). Many sallows are now dying (mainly the less favoured narrow-leaved varieties). It may be a season of quality rather than quantity.

See www.kneppsafaris.co.uk and www.knepp.co.uk/home     Enjoy your Emperors!

LET THE GAMES BEGIN

As we battle the first of our big winter rains sweeping in off the Indian Ocean here in Australia, I remind myself that somewhere half a world away the days will soon be at their longest, and iris will be stirring. I'd like to wish all my fellow emperor subjects a wonderful few weeks, and if you wish to be added to the list of bloggers this season, please let me know before the end of June, as after that I'll be in the field myself and well out of range.

Here's the relevant page from Sandars' "Butterfly Book for the Pocket", published in 1939. He has iris emerging the second week in July. 

I wouldn't wait that long if I were you!

Sallows at Fermyn

From Dave Phillips

I took this picture this week at Bearshanks Wood, near Fermyn, where the sallows are very looking extremely poorly thanks to the "sallow spit" moths infestation. In Fermyn it is just as bad, if not worse thanks to the ride widening that has removed many of the sallows in the area with the highest concentration of emerging purple emperors (we all know where that is). 

Poor Weather Delay and State of Sallows News

Singletons of Silver-washed Fritillary and White Admiral have already been seen this year, in Sussex. However, the current poor weather should delay the start of the Emperor season. At this rate I think He will start on June 18th (which is what Neil Hulme has said all along). Emperors can get delayed for ages in the pupal stage by poor June weather.

Several observers have noted the poor state of sallows in various places. There are several causes: primarily, the impact of last year's drought and local infestations of small moth larvae, especially of the Mottled Umber. A large number of sallows are dying, though these are mainly the narrow-leaved varieties which are less favoured by the butterfly. More information is needed on this, please...  Where else are sallows badly affected? Let's share necessary information.

Here's a pic showing struggling sallows at Clappers field in Knepp Wildland, taken on May 17th. The broad-leaved sallows (behind and to the right) are fine, but the central narrow-leaveds are flowering profusely before dying.

  
Here's a Mottled Umber larva (det. Mark Parsons). They're highly variable, it seems with different colour forms prevailing locally.

Invitation.

Her Royal Highness the Queen of the Broads is on the wing and requests that His Imperial Majesty is not late to the party.

Fermyn sallows

Has anyone noticed the devastation to the sallows at Fermyn? These scale bugs are the culprits.

Prospects and Predictions for the 2019 Purple Emperor Season

The first Purple Emperor of 2019 will take to the air at lunchtime on Friday June 14th, somewhere in Sussex or Surrey. An earlier appearance was on the cards but larval progress has been slowed down by cool nights and evenings during May (at one staged a May emergence was a possibility).

This prediction is based on the progress of larvae being followed in the wild (last year my prediction was less than 24 hours out...).  

Most years we get records of odd specimens being seen ridiculously early. These seem to be misidentifications (of White Admirals) or result from specimens bred in captivity, which often emerge early (and are undersized).

Numbers could be exceptionally high, though with some local exceptions. This is because of (1) a high egg lay last year, (2) normal levels of larval losses during the autumn, (3) relatively low losses of hibernating larvae, (4) relatively low losses of early spring larvae.  Much, though, depends on flight season weather.

There will be exceptions, particularly in parts of the South East which were severely droughted last summer.

Numbers will almost certainly be down at Knepp Wildland, I fear significantly. No rain was recorded at Knepp between 31st May and 28th July 2018. As a result, leaves withered on many of the sub-canopy sprays on which most eggs are laid and on which young larvae feed. Also, many of Knepp's sallows have shown signs of severe drought stress this spring, and many more have been attacked by moth larvae (mainly Mottled Umber moth). Similarly stressed sallows have also been noted at Bookham Common, Surrey.

Also, numbers will be down in Fermyn Woods, Northants, where several hundred sallows have been felled during extensive Forestry Commission ride widening work, as part of a Back from the Brink project in liaison with Butterfly Conservation. Hopefully, this will only be a temporary blip. Much depends on what happens, and doesn't happen, next.

Conversely, prospects are extremely good elsewhere, including in Hampshire and Wiltshire. For example, sallows (and Purple Emperor larvae) in Alice Holt Forest were saved by 10mm of thundery rain on Fri July 13th 2018. 

The season will be over by around July 23rd.

Cold nights are forecast for next week. This could induce temperature shock on freshly formed pupae - so watch out for aberrations...

Enjoy your Emperors! This is going to be a cracker...