Fun at Fermyn with a tinge of sadness

Up to 40 Emperors seen on a good day at Fermyn today. Despite the morning cloud, the sun finally broke through, if a little breezy, making HIM somewhat flighty at times. However, the Emperor was largely good humoured and allowed plenty of opportunities for lighthearted banter and encounters. 

A moment of melancholy though, when a pristine male unexpectedly landed on one of the Cypress Tree stumps in Souther Wood ride (these trees were recently felled by Forestry England). The Purple faithful will remember, they were formerly the epicentre of the Purple Empire at Fermyn and where I photographed my first Emperor aberration (ab.afflicta). I think the photo of this male resting on one of the stumps is a fitting epitaph to those wonderful trees. RIP 🌲🪵🦋😪 

14th July: Fermyn Outscores Knepp!

Briefly, or I'll never get any supper...

Mart Tutton counted 48 in a ten hour innings in Fermyn Woods today. I only managed 44 at Knepp, though in a shorter time. Neil managed 33 whilst leading two PE Safari groups. 

At 11am Neil and I watched a female lay two eggs. These are the first eggs seen laid this year, already...

I ended the day watching at least six males behaving appalling around a sap run oak, between 5.15 and 6.30 (probably more like 8-9, but included a vista of 6 - 5 squabbling together, the other getting plastered on oak sap). The Home Secretary has been informed.

Dave Law saw 7 males along Three Oak Hill Drive in Savernake Forest, some using the Dead Beech Glade territory which I discovered in 2001.

Liz Goodyear turned up two more sites local to her home in Herts. 

One seen today on Sherwood Forest.

Any news from Leics yet, on our northern fringes?

 

Bentley Revs Up!

I arrived at Bentley Wood  at around 10.15 today and had barely left the car park when I noticed a group of people along the main track. As I approached I was told that a male Purple Emperor was down on a pile of dung and another was in a nearby oak. Apparently the one on the dung had been down for over an hour and had a car pass over it but it had returned to it's feast. On looking closer it looked like it had been out a little while and it had part of it's hindwings missing. Without warning off it flew, not to return. I walked on until I lost the crowd, (mid-week and the car park was full up)! My second encounter was with a really fresh male, it stayed down but only for a short time. Well worth making the effort for. I would have loved it to stay down a little longer though. Altogether I saw 8, the others were high in the canopy along the rides. A look at the logbook showed that one had been seen yesterday, so it appears the season has just started here.

July 13th - Summer Returns

 Anticyclone nudging in from the SW, as welcome as the first Orange Tip of the spring.

Knepp (still largely a quagmire): Neil had counted 52 Emperors when we separated at 6pm, having batted all day. Last year's peak day count here was 84 on June 24th, so it looks as though this year's peak count will be similar. The butterfly will be at peak here from Thurs to Sun (and maybe a little beyond). The first females were seen here today, both being ardently courted (but I failed to locate a mating pair as the cattle were in my way!). 

Males only intermittently active as there's very little moving up in the oak crowns to wind them up - hardly any Purple Hairstreaks this year [so far] and very few other winged insects up top, and no tit flocks.  

Not too much reported from elsewhere today, apart from in Fermyn Woods where males are still coming down to the ride surfaces nicely [NB the A43 will be closed at Silverstone this weekend]. 

Apparently, none has been seen so far this year in Chiddingfold Forest on the Sussex / Surrey border.  

Mon July 12th News

More stagnant gloom over most of The Empire again today. Random holes in the gloom stirred the odd Emperor into action, for example at Bookham Common. Biblical rainfall reported from the South Coast late on, after a day of warm dense cloud.

Today's most exciting record comes from a garden next to Putney Heath, with a photo of a nice male. This is the third year running that iris has been seen there!  [per Twitter]

Also, from Twitter, a nice photo of a male down on the ground at Chalkney Wood, near Colchester. 

Slightly older records of note are from Chicksands Wood, Beds, and Foxley Wood, Norfolk.  

News from Fermyn Woods: 20 Emperors seen there today in 4hrs 30 mins by Dr David Jenner, 17 of them on the ground.  

Advice: if you're planning on visiting Fermyn Woods to see fresh males on the ground, go very soon, the weekend at the latest. Don't leave it till next week, the grounding season there doesn't last long.

Sun July 11th News

 Briefly, because of the football...

Large parts of The Empire were clouded off today, with rain spreading in from the SW, again...  nothing flew today in Wilts & Glos, for example.

Morning sunshine in Northants saw some good action in Fermyn Woods, with fresh males coming down to the rides, as they are so want to do there. David Jenner saw 15 males there today, all bar one on the ground.

Knepp had a day of warm cloud and good sunny spells. Neil led group walks in the morning and afternoon. These saw 13 and 15 males  respectively. This, and the fact that Ben's surviving pupae up the road are starting to hatch, suggests lateness rather than severe collapse, though this is clearly not a good year for the Emperor at and around Knepp (it never was going to be, after the sallows wilted in the district last August).

Five males around a master tree near Bicester during a short sunny spell there (Wendy & Mick Campbell).

Nothing else.

The weather's set to improve from Tues, and it better...

More Gloom & Doom

 Yet another poor weather day in The Empire, and on a key weekend day of the 2021 season. Rain moved slowly eastwards south of the M4 corridor. North of it, it was dry, but there was a lot of stagnant gloom. 

So, very few sightings reported, with few people venturing out. Neil Hulme led an afternoon Purple Emperor safari group at Knepp, which somehow managed to see five Emperors [it helps if you know where the favoured male territories are].

We are beginning to realise the extent of predation on Purple Emperor pupae. This is something I hinted at in the book, but this summer there has been a major scientific breakthrough, coupled with a technological breakthrough. 

The discovery is that PE pupa glow in the dark under strong UV torchlight, they flouresce. Some of us have been venturing out into the woods in the dark, suitably armed. 

Ben Greenaway found 13 pupae in woods in W Sussex: 8 have now been predated, one has emerged, only four remain. 

The cooler the weather, the longer the pupal period lasts, the more get crunched and the fewer Emperors we see on the wing.     

We still don't know who or what is doing the crunching, as we don't have trail cameras up. There's some evidence to suggest that predation is largely occurring at night, in which case the likes of the yellow-necked mouse and hazel dormouse come to mind. My cat is charged with sorting this out...