A penetrating drizzle was falling from grey clouds as we arrived at Knepp rewilding estate in West Sussex, the flagship rewilding project in England. Not exactly the ideal British summer day for the planned picnic, but stiff upper lip and all that. It did, however, mean that we would have the paths mostly to ourselves all day.
We entered the go-down hut to orientate ourselves while we got out of the rain and dried off slightly, and serendipitously bumped into Matthew Oates, naturalist and nature writer extraordinaire. His book, His Imperial Majesty: A Natural History of the Purple Emperor, is about a butterfly we very much hoped to see at Knepp. His plans having been rained off, he very graciously agreed to guide us through the estate.
Considering the rather poor state of affairs with the weather, we decided to head to the farm shop and cafe first for a tea and a slice of cake, before heading out with the skies slightly cleared, though the rain would continue to make itself known throughout the day.
The profusion of wild, abundant and chaotically beautiful plant life at Knepp is something truly special, alive and humming with invertebrate life, food for the Chiffchaffs and Goldfinches that braved the inclement weather to treat us to their musical calls as we made our way through scrubby fields. Gatekeeper and Marbled White butterflies drifted gently among the profusion of plants, and we spotted a Purple Hairstreak or two by some giant Oaks.
We huddled under a shelter for lunch, where we met Erica McAlister, a senior curator for flies and fleas at the Natural History Museum, London. She regaled us with a very amusing and slightly nauseating tale about the mating habit of ticks! Despite being soggy, we made a good show of a picnic and chatted nature, politics and insect sex.
Dripping wet, but full of cheer, we made our way back out, and there we spotted it - a Purple Emperor! High up in the honeyed crown of a king Oak, darting in and out of sight, we spotted this rare butterfly, which Matthew Oates has likened to those particularly heinous Roman Emperors, Caligula and Nero. A very special moment for all of us, straining through binoculars to catch a glimpse as the butterfly silhouetted himself against the sky, before disappearing among the undulating leaves again.
On the way back we diverted past a White Stork nest and saw close up these magnificent, huge birds, the first to breed in this country in over 600 years. The nest was massive, at a scale that’s hard to believe until you’ve seen it. Watching these slender giants soar and circle overhead, riding the thermals over a land that was once their home, is a truly inspiring sight. Hopefully it is not long in the future that they are so successful and populous that we will see them nesting on rooftops and telephone poles all across the country.
Mesmerised for a while, we had to move on, just as the sun really broke through the clouds. Typical. We were in for one more treat through - we had almost completed our trip back when a proud Tamworth sow and her five rambunctious piglets stopped near us. Covered in thick ginger bristles, they’re quite a sight to behold. The piglets were full of mischief, running and chasing each other around while the mother rootled contentedly. I imagine she was happy to have a few minutes to herself.
It was a wonderful day, and an especially big thank you to Matthew Oates from the Curlew Action team for showing us around.
Photos by Megan Shersby