Vagrant Emperor - Hampshire (1 Viewer)

[Arsenal Birder]

Found this little beauty near Warsash on Saturday while doing a reptile translocation on a building site. Wondered if anyone knew how many records there have been for Hampshire?

 

[pdwinter]

I think this is the 11th or 12th for VC11 (South Hampshire) all but one of which has been in Hampshire.
1st in 1984, 2nd in 1990, all the rest 2011 onwards.
(Source NBN and iRecord prior to yours)

 

[Arsenal Birder]

I think this is the 11th or 12th for VC11 (South Hampshire) all but one of which has been in Hampshire.
1st in 1984, 2nd in 1990, all the rest 2011 onwards.
(Source NBN and iRecord prior to yours)

Thanks Paul

 

[Arsenal Birder]

Found another Vagrant Emperor this morning on the same site as last October.(Warsash, Southampton) No more than 200m away from previous individual. No pics but several good perched views although flighty when approached. This was at 7.35 am. Saw it again about 10 ish but again flighty. Must have bred locally, too much of a coincidence?

 

[pdwinter]

Must have bred locally, too much of a coincidence?

Adrian Parr would know much better than me but not sure he still looks at this forum.

I think there are two things which might point to this not being a locally bred individual
(1) The winter temperatures are probably not warm enough for your October individual in 2023 to lay eggs which would then successfully develop.
(2) Being an obligate migrant, the next generation disappears very quickly after emergence to seek out new areas.

Vagrant Emperor did successfully breed last year (2023) in Cornwall but it was from the spring influx with a teneral being seen on 18th September and an exuvia discovered on 22nd September.

Hope I'm wrong, though!

 

[Swindon Addick]

Found another Vagrant Emperor this morning on the same site as last October.(Warsash, Southampton) No more than 200m away from previous individual. No pics but several good perched views although flighty when approached. This was at 7.35 am. Saw it again about 10 ish but again flighty. Must have bred locally, too much of a coincidence?

Adrian Parr would know much better than me but not sure he still looks at this forum.

I've emailed the information to Adrian, in case he doesn't check here regularly. Do still put a record in on iRecord if possible, though.

 

[Phil Andrews]

Have posted the above news on Adrian's Migrant Dragonflies FB page so he may drift by.

 

[Phil Andrews]

Still need Vagrant Emperor - any more precise directions please?

One also reported over in Cambridgeshire at the weekend.

 

[Arsenal Birder]

Still need Vagrant Emperor - any more precise directions please?

One also reported over in Cambridgeshire at the weekend.

Apologies but it is on a site scheduled for development so is inaccessible/ private. I'm only there as I'm doing reptile translocations. There was one also reported (via Birdguides) at Farlington marshes which is 14 miles East.

 

[Phil Andrews]

Apologies but it is on a site scheduled for development so is inaccessible/ private. I'm only there as I'm doing reptile translocations. There was one also reported (via Birdguides) at Farlington marshes which is 14 miles East.

Absolutely fine AB