Rejoice, and Be of Good Cheer

for that which was lost is found...

Two of the six 'pillars I'm following in the wooded valley four miles from where I live (near Daneway Banks on the UK Butterflying Map) vanished during Storm Darragh. I feared an early winter titmouse strike.

However, one of them reappeared yesterday, in a branch fork 1m from the bud spray he'd been in - 

I spotted him from the path. The interesting thing is that he wasn't there on Mon Dec 9th - and I wouldn't have missed him in such an obvious spot. He must have been on walkabout, disturbed by the three-day storm.

The other one, sadly, is still absent, officially listed as Missing In Action. He might have been rubbed off by clashing branches in the storm. A titmouse strike is unlikely this early in the winter, even more so given the paucity of tits in the Emperor woods this winter...

 

  

Searching Storm-blown Sallows...

Storm Bert raged for almost three whole days over the Purple Empire. It and its predecessor felled a number of older sallows.

Some of those sallows will resprout from their root plates, or even from branches rooting into the ground (as 'walking' trees). Many, though, will get chopped up and cleared away. 

Crucially, larvae do NOT fall off their silk pads when the tree crashes down, even if a fallen tree is bulldozed.   

I searched a number of windblown veteran sallows during the stormy winter of 2013-14, when larval numbers were high. I found larvae at the rate of one per 45 minutes, by searching buds and nearby forks. 

It's hard work, but is our only chance of gaining data from tall sallows - and most eggs seem to be laid high up, under or amongst tall sallow crowns. It's best to work as a small gang.  

Sub-canopy sprays, with medium-sized buds, are best. Old, lichenised growth with big buds tends to be unproductive.

Obviously, larvae can either be brought home for rearing in the garden - 'pet rescue' - or transferred to living sallows nearby (using wire fasteners).  

Tell nosy dog walkers that you're looking for biodiversity... 

Here are my colleagues Gary & Sarah searching fallen sallows last weekend. We didn't find anything, but at least we know no Emperor larvae will perish on them - 

 

Dangle Leaf Season Ends - Bud Scanning Season Starts

 I don't believe that any dangles would have survived Storm Darragh, which rampaged for three full days over the entire Empire, and beyond (except possibly in the deepest and most sheltered E-W valleys and along E-W rides through dense thicket stage conifer plantations, feel free to prove me wrong).

If so, then the last dangle + caterpillar was found by Mark Tutton in Alice Holt Forest on Mon Dec 2nd (having survived Storm Bert).  

Incredibly, it appears than only ten people have found Emperor larvae by the Dangle Leaf method in the UK. Book yourself in for the 2025 Dangle Leaf season, and join the club. It works! 

With Emperors, when one party ends another starts, so welcome to the Bud Scanning season: on a bright day, scan buds and nearby forks (working with the sun, not into it) through binoculars. This lovely 'pillar was found last week by Bud Scanning.

Dangle Leaf Season Ends

Sadly, and annoyingly, Storm Bert (what a horrid name!) hastened the end of the 2024 Dangle Leaf season. 

I found this larva by Dangle Leaf on Thurs Nov 29th - a lone spinning leaf, which had fallen off by the following afternoon -  

In Savernake, the storm blew the foliage off nearly all of the 'late leaf fall' sallows, and removed any dangles those sallows might have held.  

All larvae are now firmly in hibernation.  

The good news is that woodland titmice populations seem very low indeed, with no rampaging flocks. We'll find out for sure when the Great Tits start setting up territory in the New Year...  Titmice are serial predators of hibernating Emperor larvae... 

Storm Damage & Pet Rescue

Storm Bert will have brought a number of older sallows down in the woods. Most of them will regrow, if left alone, as 'walking trees' (as in ' "Narnia awake! Be walking trees..." '). Few of them will be left alone, though.

Fallen sallows present a good opportunity to find and rescue Emperor larvae (either by rearing them in captivity or by tying snipped off larval twigs back on to safe sallows - old-fashioned wire plastic bag fasteners work well).  

A fallen sallow like this is likely to produce a couple of larvae, in or under the crown, at a rate of one every ~45 mins searching -

Crucially, few if any larvae fall off when the tree comes down - their feet are that well attached to the silk pads. Don't underestimate an Emperor caterpillar, just rescue it...

 

New Method of Finding Larvae...

Today, in the steep-sided wooded valley of the River Frome between Cirencester and Stroud, in it's-not-supposed-to-be-Purple-Gloucestershire, I became the first person (surely!) to find an Emperor caterpillar whilst having a pee! Completely by accident, but I always say: Look and thou shalt find, and I looked...

Here, he is, on a twig scar. He's called Willie -

So, never mind Dangle Leafing, we now have Dangle Willy....

The ultimate Purple micturation experience, though, came in 2011 when Neil Hulme was in midstream in the middle of one of the Fermyn rides, baiting, when Apatura iris ab. afflicta flew between his legs. Here's the offended butterfly -

On a more serious note, Storm Bert (what fool named it that?) could well end the 2024 Dangle Leaf Season prematurely.

 

Dangle Leafing Update...

Yes, the blog that brought you 'Dangle Leaf' now brings you 'Dangle Leafing', a term covering the art of looking for Emperor larvae using the Dangle Leaf Method... 

It's a bit like dry fly fishing for specimen Brown Trout on a southern chalk stream: a lot of wandering about, intense observation skills - and the last thing you do is cast...

Here's a particularly silly Dangle, but it is 100% Apatura iris -

But it was there one day, gone the next.

It is now half-time in the Dangle Leaf season here in the western reaches of the Empire: the leaves and dangles have come off the early leaf-fall sallows, and have all but gone from the mainstream leaf-fall sallows (more Emperoring terminology here...)

but the late leaf-fall sallows are still quite green. They are late to drop their leaves because they came into leaf last. 

These late leaf-fall sallows are likely to hold more larvae, because they were more attractive to the laying females, being thinner leaved in July... Crucially, they haven't started to reveal their dangles yet.

So the second half of the Dangle Leaf season here could be quite interesting... Of course, much depends on the weather - wind and rain take the dangles off, and the first half of November was marked by calm days.  

Most Emperor larvae are now in hibernation - apart from those on late leaf-fall sallows, many of which are still on leaf tips. So, to the woods, for the late sallows! You probably have until mid-December.

The best thing about the Dangle Leaf Season is that it takes the pain out of November! I used to dread this month...

Another story, this 'pillar was in hibernation on a curled terminal leaf back on Oct 19th - 

However, in mid-November s/he moved 3m to a bud, and changed colour. Don't underestimate a caterpillar, let alone an Emperor - 

It took me half an hour up a ladder to find it...

Numbers remain very low in and around Savernake, but Ben Greenaway is finding good numbers in mid West Sussex, mainly through Dangle Leafing. 

Happy dangling!