Winding Down...

The 2013 flight season is very much winding down - today's torrential deluges will not have helped at all (though mercifully the downpours were not accompanied by strong winds, which kill off adults mercilessly). 

Yesterday, Neil and I visited our new mega site in Sussex but saw less than half the numbers seen the previous Sunday, including this old, battered and tired female (she did not, I hasten to add, seek to lay on that exposed yellowing small-leaved sallow - had she done so I would have kicked her, and taken the egg for captive breeding) -

NB  This blog functions all year round, not just during the flight season.  Keep visiting, keep posting.

Female behaving badly

Today, 29th July, found an egg in  a naughty spot: see picture.
1] Sallow too small with exposed sprigs: normally, bushes with lots of foliage are chosen
2] Egg laid on south-east facing part of bush: the north or north east part is usually chosen so that the young larva is not exposed to the afternoon sun because they can quickly dessicate.
Clearly, a poorly educated female, or, as Matthew has been known to call errant females: 'a vixen'!

Final flurry and some thoughts

I have now seen HIM every day since the 9th July so that is twenty consecutive days - a tribute to good weather for once, a good emergence and locating himself at a couple of woods close to home meaning I could make short evening and lunchtime visits - off on holiday today so it is probably the end of my season.

I visited Queen Elizabeth Country park today to see if could paint it purple for Ashley. This is a very  large wood of several hundred acres on chalk downland to the south of Petersfield. Due to the size i took my bike and spent four hours scouring the rides.

 It was a bit of butterfly dessert unfortunately, with very little seen at all. The woods are mainly beech and the rides are very enclosed and dark. Not much sallow - only counted twenty or so, although it was good quality. 

It  may be here but i think there may be better, and easier, prospects elsewhere.

Took myself off to Straits to get probably my final fix and despite Matthews assertion the gates were open.

Saw five males all oak edging and one female trying to avoid attention.

Pleasingly I have begun to join some dots, and have seen HIM in four small adjacent woods locally adjoining the A3 and identified a dozen or more small patches of wood that will be investigated next year. I really think the A3 between Portsmouth and Guildford could hold significant numbers as there is good amounts of sallow all the way along - not a particularly relaxing place to watch for HIM though :)

Couple of observations for comment:

1. At Straits this year there has been very little grounding compared with previous years - in fact I have only seen them on the deer tower and one on my field bag. I note  in 'Notes and views' that Heslop also noticed a similar change had occurred in the early part of last century stating "Whereas the collectors one hundred years ago stuffed their collection with hundreds of bait caught specimens; by 1920 the only sort of bait that seemed in any way effective was stinking mud from the bottom of a pond and even this attracts infrequently now." Could it even be cyclical? I saw numbers of groundings in Surrey, and obviously at Fermyn, so it was local to Alice Holt (only one grounding for me at Abbots). Has anyone else noticed similar changes on their patch? It will be interesting to see if it continues next year?

2. One day at straits, recorded in a previous post,  I saw over 50 males in about 90 minutes after walking the whole ride just once.  It was so incredible i am beginning to think i dreamt it! On every other visit this year, before and since, half a dozen was the norm. Whilst I inevitably recorded some twice there were undoubted large numbers and saw two chases of four males, someting i haven't seen since before the sallows were destroyed. Some were fresh and others were very worn with pieces of wing missing. Why had seemingly all the males in the wood descended on this ride?

Mark

From Ashley Whitlock

 

I went to a new site today called King Johns Hill, the wood there is sat on a very steep hill and at 1115 I saw a male Emperor flying in and around a very high Ash Tree. The wood has great potential as an Emperor Wood, with many areas of good Sallow, and the King John Hill is potentailly a good Assembly Point, which will need investigating in the future.

I then moved on to Alice Holt Forest for the last time in 2013 probably, the weather wasn't great with very cool cloudy conditions mainly, but when the sun did shine then it was for long periods, and the temperature really shot up. At Abbotts Wood Inclosure I saw (4) males oak edging at 1200, near to the small car-park, another was seen flying north at 1215, another a minute later at 1216 oak edging towards the car-park, another male at 1232, near to the cross-ways, then another male at 1240 seen flying onto an oak sprig at the 'T' Junction on the main ride. There was one male on station at Alice Holt Forest (1) and two across the road doing battle. I think it was far too breezy at Alice Holt One as this is the highest point in the wood. There wasn't any males at other assembly points except Goose Green where only two were seen occasionally chasing down the wayleaves at 1342, despite the cooler cloudier conditions. Ive noticed this year there are several Assembly Points not occupied, yet there has been far more activity in the wood, with well over (30) males seen on a good day a few weeks ago. There certainly hasn't been this many up at the Assembly points, which suggests to me there must be other Assembly Points we don't know about, or many males don't visit these sites?

High Altitude Nocturnal Emperor

A great record received from Steve Vaughan:

"I thought you might be interested in this sighting and photo which I took last night (27th July). I was looking over the moths attracted to the lights at the window around 10.30pm and noticed a large Nymphalid butterfly roosting on the window ledge. After some effort I took the attached photo of a rather fine Purple Emperor. Despite several efforts I couldn't get a good view of the upper surface of the wings, but the butterfly was clearly alive and had flown off by the morning. We live right on top of Blackdown (grid ref SU920310), altitude 238m, mixed broad-leaved woodland with oaks, sweet chestnut and the odd willow. Heathland nearby, but we are definitely in the woods. Although we have Silver-washed Fritillaries here every year (on the wing for a week or so now) I have never seen a Purple Emperor here. The nearest site I know of is Ebernoe woods, which must be 5 miles away at least. I don't
know of any sightings around Blackdown, never mind on the top - do you?"

Congratulations Steve. 780' (238m) amsl beats my own record for Sussex, set at Heyshott Down in 2009 at an altitude of 745' amsl.

83rd Sussex Tetrad (2 Km Square) Turns Purple Since 2010

News from Sussex stalwarts Michael & Clare Blencowe:

We took a hike today (28th July) from Horsted Keynes to Kingscote. A great walk through some lovely Sussex scenery. We recorded butterfly species along the way to fill in some gaps for the Sussex Butterfly Atlas. At Kingscote we jumped on the Bluebell Railway and headed back to our starting point. The sallow-lined network of fishponds just north of Horsted Keynes looked like a likely place for Purple Emperors so I kept an eye on the canopy as we passed by. Sure enough I had a brief glimpse of the Emperor high above the anglers - another purple square on the Sussex Butterfly Atlas. We now have 83 tetrads in Sussex where Purple Emperor have been found since 2010. Can we get to 100?

Dorset Remains Purple

Having spent the first half of silly season going back and forth to guaranteed sites such as Fermyn , Finemere , Bentley and Surrey , i can only agree with other enthusiasts of HIM that it has certainly been the best Emperor year that i have experienced . With this in mind for the remainder of the season i decided to concentrate my search more locally in Dorset . This has also allowed food rationing in my house to cease as i don,t need as much diesel :-) . With several surveys having been made by BC Dorset over the last few years , several areas of likely habitat were identified and HIM was indeed discovered in a wooded complex which straddles the Wiltshire/Dorset border east of Tollard Royal . I went there this weekend having been tipped off by a friend that the Emperors were there as he saw several whilst on an early evening walk mainly drinking from the ditches . The wood was alive with White Admirals and SW Frits in fantastic numbers including several valesina . Everything about the wood felt right although it was obvious that it is sparsely planted with broad leaved sallow , only finding 4 trees in the walk i did however they were all in good condition and in ideal locations for egg laying . It must be known locally as an Emperor wood as evidence of " baiting " was scattered along the rides . Finally after an hour of searching a Emperor was  spotted on the ground feeding on horse poo . It took off as i approached flying straight towards me circling twice , giving me clear flashes of purple then went up to the oaks . A minute later it was back and did exactly the same thing as if to confirm his presence in these woods . HIM is alive and well in Dorset albeit only just inside the border . I suspect the numbers have always been low here judging by the lack of sallow , but the four trees i have found so far will be worth a search in a few weeks as they may well act as magnets to the females .