The Peak in Northants

The peak was probably even more condensed in Northants, with 10th to 12th July providing 40-60 sightings on each day, poor by Fermyn's recent standards. The first sighting was on the 3rd and numbers were slow to build and have tailed off since the 12th, though the weather has been very changeable. Few females have been reported. A maximum of six were seen on a field trip in Salcey Forest on 11th. Adults seem to have been reluctant to fly and have been hard to find in woods where the colonies are smaller. Most other sites have only yielded single butterflies, though three appeared in Yardley Chase today, two sections here visited in previous weeks drawing a blank after good showings last year. It ha sbeen recorded for the first time in Fineshade Wood in the very north of Rockingham Forest and Everdon Stubbs in west Northants.