I returned to Savernake today, and managed to see 8 more males. It was sunnier but much windier, which meant that territories on higher ground were scarcely occupied. I found two new territories on lower ground, one which held two sparring males.
This might be my last Emperor of 2023 -
'In my end is my beginning...'
They are still going at Knepp, just. 4 were seen there yesterday, after a gap of several days.
A cloud-spoiled afternoon along Three Oak Hills Drive in Savernake Forest gave sightings of 9-10 males in four known territories. All bar one were torn and worn.
Ten minutes of sun at The Dead Beech Glade produced a squabble of three males, and I also saw three in a vista at another territory further on from The Column.
Incredibly, two perched 1m apart. Here's the pic, taken from some distance below (Sav's Beeches are 90-120' tall). Spot the Emperors -
And here's a lone male perching -
As usual, none was seen in The Column glade, which is only a secondary territory. Yes, that's where everyone goes to see iris in Savernake, and they occasionally do quite well there, but they walk past the best primary territory - the Dead Beech Glade at W3W gold.subtitle.applies -
PE seems to be over now at Knepp - no sightings there since Tuesday 25th.
The Emperor season was hit by another bout of rain on Sat 22nd. I managed to see an OAP male over one of the favoured feeder tree oaks at Knepp an hour before the rain began. Red Admirals were feeding on the sap bleeds there.
The Red Ad is, of course, staging a mighty bold bid to win Butterfly of the Year - and with a homegrown autumn brood to come...
Oddly, I spotted a male Brown Hairstreak perched on one of the favoured male perching sprays as steady rain arrived.
Since then, there have been single sightings at Knepp on Sun 23rd and Mon 24th, a sighting of a female in Bernwood Forest on Sun 23rd, and sightings on Billa Barra Hill in Leicestershire on Sun 23rd and Mon 24th.
The race is on for the last iris of the Great 2023 Season (which wasn't great in East of England region, but was just about everywhere else, and was stupendous in Central Southern England).
This Blog, of course, carries on all year round, covering adventures with the immature stages...
An unusually large number of eggs should have been laid this season, and larvae should be relatively numerous this late summer and autumn. Therefore, this is the year in which to look for new populations by searching for the immature stages. Herefordshire, here I come... ... ...
It clouded up at 1pm today, just after PEs had become active (late in their season they take the mornings off...). By 2pm it was very dull, by 3pm all species were grounded.
I watched a middle-aged female feed for nearly an hour on an oak sap bleed (the Hornets had stopped flying, too cool for them). Here she is -
She then fell off, before flying off upside down, careering across the glade and crashing onto a bramble patch, pissed. Her she is -
I struggled to see 5 PEs at Knepp this afternoon, though it was rather too cloudy: one male in reasonable condition, two geriatric males and two females, one very much in her final hours. Here she is -
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What do you do when the party's over?
Find another party, and the Brown Hairstreak is just starting. Here's Knepp's first of the year, a male high up on Field Maple, this morning -
The Purple Emperor season at Knepp, W Sussex, continues to slip slowly away, though there is still a few fresh-looking females around, and even the odd male, but they have become highly localised and intermittent in appearance. Here's one of today's males, active on the feeder tree oak in the SE corner of Bentons Gorse (for those of you who know the place) -
The BC Glos branch butterfly WhatsApp group today featured a photo of a freshly-emerged female being courted by a middle-aged male - in my home parish! The season is still going strong there...
As I feared yesterday, the 2023 PE season is ending rapidly at Knepp. It also sounds as though they're going over fast in Alice Holt Forest too, and probably elsewhere in central southern England.
Last weekend's gale was too much for them, and for the midsummer Hairstreaks... They roost in the canopy, not on trunks and limbs - and get shredded.
I struggled to see 24 at Knepp today, which sounds a lot but isn't considering how big the population is and also that I know exactly where to look (where the male territories and sap run trees are).
Just 8 were seen on the PE transect, down from 30 last Thursday.
The males now look like this -
Most females are equally worn and torn, though I was pleased to see these two middle aged girls sapping together today -
