Thurs July 6th: Back at Knepp...

 Back at Knepp. The sun came out to play for the afternoon, but with it came a Moderate SSW wind, which died down after 4.30 to allow a nice evening flight. 

The Emperor is now at peak season here. Females are still emerging (a mating pair was seen today, involving a freshly emerged Empress; another pairing was seen yesterday). 

Males are still active in the mornings, and searching the sallows for girls, but have almost certainly stopped descending to feed from the tracks.  

I'll count them tomorrow, which is supposed to be hot and sunny, and hopefully with less wind. This should be my peak season count. Watch this space...

Here's Herself getting plastered on oak sap today. Note the small white bead - this is what they feed on -

Wed July 5th: with a hey-ho the wind and the rain...

Another day largely lost to poor weather. Too cloudy here in Glos, though it looked a bit brighter to the south in Wilts. 

Further east, in Hants and Sussex, good PE activity during the few sunny spells that came along there, though the wind was disruptive - a day for a lot of hanging about and working sheltered east-facing edges, only. 

Males are still emerging and coming down to the ride surfaces in Fermyn Woods, and should still be doing so this weekend - but don't visit after this Sunday if you want to photograph / see males on the ground there, they'll stop coming down.  

They've probably already stopped coming down at Knepp, but I'll find out when I return there tomorrow.  

The good news is that the humungous female I bred, from a larva rescued ahead of ride-side sallow felling by our most beloved forestry body, successfully hatched. I pinned her out 4m up as I didn't want to release her at Knepp, which doesn't need additional Emperors. She was one of four I reared this year, as my 'thermometer': a male and three females. 

  

Tues July 4th: Rain Stops Play

Rain prevented little if any play today over much of the Empire, especially in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Hampshire. Some play was possible in some of the northern parts of the insect's range, e.g. Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire.

Interesting, and odd, that the butterfly still hasn't been seen in Sherwood Forest, Notts, this year... The forest suffered a severe drought last August.

Emperors should erupt tomorrow, after two day's of enforced inaction (weather permitting).

We still don't know what numbers are like in many northern and eastern localities.   

Gale-struck!

Weep for the 2023 Purple Emperor season, and Pray, hard! 

Purple Emperors, the males especially, are highly vulnerable to being smashed to smithereens by gales. They roost in treetops, like this -

Or worse, hanging from the underside of oak leaves...  If they had any sense whatsoever, they'd roost on the sheltered, leeward side of oak boughs and trunks, but they don't...

Today's Fresh to Strong SW winds will have shredded many an Emperor, and blown many more to Kingdom Come (wherever that is...). 

Teste 2020, when a gale that ran from June 27th to June 29th blasted them away. We were finding maimed Emperors on the forest floor, like this -

We'll find out the extent of the damage when the wind subsides and the weather improves, as is forecast. Fingers' crossed, we may just have got away with it...

On the big picture, there is an unusual degree of disparity between the state of the flight season at Knepp and other sites in the deep south, and elsewhere. North of London it seems still too early to determine what numbers are like (apart from in the Bucks / Oxon woods, where iris is always relatively 'early'). 

Norfolk Empress

3rd of July. Took my first trip out to seek Emperors this season, kept local and visited Foxley Wood. Conditions not ideal but when the sun did shine plenty of activity from Camilla and Paphia but nothing purple until this lady dropped in. I think this is my first sighting of an Empress on the ground. As we say in Norfolk she was a "gret ol big mauther". No males spotted.

Sun July 2nd: Cloud and Wind...

Another day dominated by cloud (Stratocumulus with sunny breaks) and a moderate to fresh West wind. Difficult working conditions, with a lot of hanging about waiting for a break. Emperors erupted with every break.  

They're starting to get tanked up on oak sap - 

Congratulations to Knepp Castle Estate, pioneer rewilding site and home of the UK's largest known Emperor population, which has now been successfully running Purple Emperor Safaris for ten glorious years! He's today's Safari group getting wowed by His Gloriousity (joined by one or two other folk who were passing by) -

We've got another three days of indifferent weather, then another anticyclonic spell is due to start next Thursday. That will see Peak Season period at most Emperor sites...

 

Sat July 1st

A rather too cloudy start to the month at Knepp in Sussex, but Emperors erupted there whenever the sun came out.

Good to see two mating pairs: one just finishing (they got busted up by a rogue male, as happens) in oak at 11.50; the other paired right at the top of a tall Corsican Pine tree at noon, we left them there - 

 

We are having serious problems with marauding hobbies at Knepp this season. Three of the wretched birds seen today. They took three Purple Emperor males, who attacked them. Here are some bits -

Finally, iterum atque iterum, in these westerly winds, go leeward: work east-facing edges.  Leeward, leeward, ever leeward, even if it's in shade. Emperors gather on the leeward side.