Padfield

[Benjamin]

How fantastic to be in the snow one day, and down amongst the last butterflies the next. I was wondering if you’d yet been to the woods where you monitor PE cats? I’m sure you’ll have been looking out for them if you have - it is of course impossible to stop this practice once a few seasons of monitoring are under your belt. I can’t walk through an iris wood in winter without almost constantly contemplating that most absorbing question - how close am I to the nearest iris cat?!

[David M]

Great to see Minnie back cavorting in the Alpine snow, Guy....in fact, it's good to see snow there at all after reading how much by way of glaciers Switzerland has lost in the last 20 years or so!

As you say, you can effectively change climate merely by going up or down the mountains and I'm sure after an absence of a few years you are looking forward to reacquainting yourself with such a precious experience.

[Wurzel]

Cracking read and images Guy Really good to see the Chapman's Blue - with the the clearly separated orange lunules and black spots on the under wing

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Hi Benjamin. I've actually spent my PE time looking for potential areas in my new local patch. I want to be able to use UV to find the wandering cats and pupae (following your experiences with PE and UV), and in high summer that means finding somewhere close to home. So far, though I've found plenty of sallow, I haven't found any solid evidence of PE. I'm higher up the mountain here, at about 1300m rather than 1000m, but in the Pyrenees I've found PE higher than this. I'm confident of finding WLH here, and I've already found brown hairstreak, so I'll certainly be dusting off my UV light whatever.

Hi David. You're right about record glacial melt, but to be honest, this is not something I panic about. I expect the glaciers to melt - we're in an interglacial. The empirical record of butterfly loss in Switzerland is that the vast majority of it has been in the valleys and plains, not due to climate change but due to habitat loss and direct human competition for resources. From 1900 to 1987, lowland Switzerland lost 99% of its butterflies, in terms of actual numbers (not species, obviously). Upland Switzerland lost practically nothing. I'm not saying climate change isn't important, but it isn't the main driver of current extinctions. Yellow-banded ringlets and Cynthia's fritillaries still thrive on the mountain tops where they have for centuries. But large heaths and hermits, creatures of the Swiss lowlands, are practically extinct.

Hi Wurzel. Good spot! The discrete orange and black submarginal markings are a really good indicator of Chapman's - particularly useful where icarinus is a possibility. The upperside is also usually distinctive, with its androconial hairs. Sometimes you have to take views from several angles to see them, but they are always there (in males), unless the individual is particularly world-weary.

Back home, at 1300m, the only species on the wing is red admiral. I saw several yesterday (not today, as I leave before dawn and get back after butterflies have gone to bed).

Guy

[Padfield]

Since my last post, the snows have come and gone at my altitude (c.1300m), though they have remained higher up and on north-facing slopes and are forecast to return this week. The choughs came down a couple of weeks ago and have been soaring on thermals over the town (that is, over the least insulated rooves!):





Clouded yellows and Berger's clouded yellows flew very locally near my house as late as 12th November but I haven't seen them here since:


(Clouded yellow on 12th November)


(Berger's clouded yellow on 12th November)

Down in the valley, this female Berger's was still laying eggs on 13th November:



The same day, painted ladies were around in good numbers ...





... as well as red admirals, clouded yellows, walls and Adonis blues (the only blue I saw that day):









Very surprsingly, there were no Queens of Spain there: it was quite a chilly, though sunny, day.

Still more recently, just this last Saturday (26th November), numbers were right down and I only saw one blue - a female Adonis - a couple of walls, a few clouded yellows and a handful of small coppers. This clouded yellow posed beautifully for me and it was worth going down just to get this shot:



Here is one of the small coppers, proudly sporting its blue badges:



There was still some rumpy tumpy going on, though this encounter never came to anything:



Here is a late-November wall:



In short, the season is grinding slowly to a halt. On sunny days in December and January I will probably find some Queens and clouded yellows, and maybe a few walls, but I may have to start going back to the Papiliorama for my winter butterfly fixes very soon ...

Guy

[Wurzel]

Crackings set of shots Guy
"On sunny days in December and January I will probably find some Queens and clouded yellows, and maybe a few walls..."If only the same could be said here

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

...and here's me thinking we'd had a great month of November for butterflies!!

Been a few years since you've lived through a Swiss winter, Guy. I look forward to your occasional lifts to the spirits over the next couple of months.

[essexbuzzard]

Me too. I always find your winter updates fascinating, Guy. And at other times of year, of course. It’ll be interesting to see what sort of winter you get over there, and how it compares with ours.

[Padfield]

Thanks Wurzel, David and Buzzard.

I didn't get any opportunities to look for butterflies in December until today. For the most part this was because I was too busy, but the weather hasn't been good either (cold and snow or rain) and I've also had a bad cold for the last week. Anyway, today, finally, good weather was forecast in the valley and I decided to go down.

When I got up it was -8°C. This is a view from my balcony in the direction of the rising sun:



Sadly, in the other direction - looking out over the valley - thick cloud belied the forecasts:



That should be a view down to the valley floor. I went down anyway, but it turned out the forecast was wildly optimistic. It didn't get properly sunny until after midday, and the temperature never rose above 3°C. This picture, taken shortly before midday, gives the feel of things:



We had a great walk and it was good to be out, but I pretty much gave up on seeing any butterflies. On the way back, as I still had a beer in my backpack, I decided to sit at a picnic table where I often see aseasonal clouded yellows, just in case the beer would bring one out. There was another man there, who I quickly established was doing exactly the same thing - waiting for clouded yellows. In fact, by strange coincidence, it was a man I had met for the first time back in May when I had nipped out to Switzerland to give some lectures, so we set to talking about the butterfly year since then. And sure enough, as we chatted, a clouded yellow flipped down the hillside, paused briefly for photos, then carried on. Half an hour later, another (or the same one) appeared, proving even more amenable. My new friend was even able to take photos of it with his phone:





Here is my best photo of it - a lovely, fresh male:



I had only caught the first one from the other side, so I can't be sure whether they were the same individual, but they probably were:



Very pleased with that, Minnie and I set off for home again, where the sun was now setting over a cloud-shrouded valley:



Guy

[Padfield]

It will be cold tonight. Winter stars above Leysin on our evening dog walk:



Orion is rising over the Grand Chamossaire, with Gemini to the left, Taurus above (with Mars) and Auriga to the left of Taurus. In 2019 we scattered my mother's ashes right at the top of the Grand Chamossaire and next year we will scatter my father's there too.

Guy

[essexbuzzard]

Your Clouded Yellow is in fine condition, too. What a great combination. Snow on the mountain, and a butterfly in the valley. Switzerland is a great place. As if you didn’t know!

[trevor]

Wonderful snow scenes Guy, and view from your balcony!.
Well done with that hardy Clouded Yellow too.
Had some good sightings of them over here this year, nearly all in good nick.

QoS from you soon I shouldn't wonder.

Trevor.

[Wurzel]

Crickey Guy - 3 degrees and the Cloudies are still flying Sitting and waiting with a drink is a good trick that I've used many a time. There's nothing about and the minute my hands are full with sandwich and coffee up pops the butterfly that you were waiting for

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

It's near impossible to comprehend how you can wake up in such freezing temperatures, head down into the valley and see a Clouded Yellow when it's just 3c!!!

Maybe a few are capable of surviving our cold snap that's just come to an end in the UK?

Love the image of Orion rising above the mountain, Guy. You must be so happy to be home.

[Padfield]

Thanks Buzzard, Trevor, Wurzel and David.

2023 began with a bang. Warm air is flooding through Switzerland and sunshine was forecast for the valley, so Minnie and I headed off the the vineyards to look for a New Year butterfly:



I wasn't sure how hopeful to be, but shortly before 11h00 a first red admiral flew, making my day:



Her wings are a little the worse for wear - or more likely, the worse for hungry lizards and chats - but she was beautiful to me. I saw a further three red admirals during the morning, though none of them stopped.

While I was waiting at one of my favourite butterfly spots, a clouded yellow drifted down the rock face, stopping briefly on leaves at the bottom:



Again, this was the first of four individuals. Here is another:



Here is the January sun shining through a kind of outdoor stained glass window ...



... and here some 'strawberries' on a strawberry tree:





We hoped to get back early, but tragically the trains were halted by a presumed suicide on the lines ('un accident de personne'). Minnie curled up on her carry bag and went to sleep while I debated whether to cycle with her to Bex, where I needed to return a lead to the kennels:



In the end, the trains sort of resumed: the accident was on the Sion side of Martigny and I was going in the Geneva direction, so trains from Geneva were able to stop at Martigny and go straight back. I got off at Aigle, cycled Minnie to Bex to return the lead and finally headed back home. It was a great day for Minnie and me but someone else lost his or her life.

Guy

[David M]

The record high January temperatures in central Europe have been in the news over here, Guy. 20c widely recorded in a number of places and by the look of things, the winter ski season is at serious risk due to lack of snow!

With all that, it's not really surprising that you saw a few butterflies, although one wonders whether this is a good thing in the long run.

Shame you had transport difficulties, but nice (as ever) to see Minnie taking a nap and being routinely unbothered by the whole experience.

[Roger Gibbons]

Orion is rising over the Grand Chamossaire, with Gemini to the left,

There was me, looking for the Chequered Blue....

[David M]

Further to the abnormal warmth in central Europe this month, the BBC have used Leysin to illustrate the point:

Incredible that Scottish ski slopes have snow but many Swiss ones do not:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64176020

[Padfield]

Roger: It leads to confusion in my picture cataloguing too!

David: Yes, New Year temperatures were indeed record-breaking this year, and this is by definition unusual. But in general, a lack of snow in January is not. I remember the winter of 1990, when I lived in Gstaad. Cross-country skiers were training on wheeled skis on the roads, because there wasn't enough snow (snow machines and artificial snow were less common then). I can't remember when the snow eventually came that year - I'd have to dig out my physical diary for 1990. More recently, in the winter of 2006-7, it was warm and sunny until 23rd January (I have this year in my online butterfly records) so can check. Météo Suisse reckons the real snow is coming in the second half of January this year too. It will snow next week, but temperatures will still be quite high and it won't help much.

For the locals, this uncertainty is just something they are accustomed to living with. For holiday-makers, it can be more disappointing. If you have spent thousands on a family ski holiday, booked up in advance at one of the lower resorts, and then you find they're laying on mountain bikes instead, it must be a bit of a dampener...

Guy

[Padfield]

Today was sunny enough to expect butterflies in the valley, but I stayed in Leysin because I had work to do. Earlier in the winter I had found brown hairstreak eggs on blackthorn in the town itself. This afternoon, walking across fields just outside the town (1240m), I found more.





Some were hatched eggs, so must be left over from last year:



It was a good patch of blackthorn, easily accessible beside a track (unlike the blackthorn in Leysin itself, which was behind a barbed wire fence), and there were plenty of eggs. But sadly, at one place it had been rather crudely cut down:



Some plants and branches were still rooted and living, while others were completely detached. This is one of the detached ones, that I extracted from the mess to check for eggs:



I found three eggs on it, including one hatched. So I broke off the twigs with the eggs and took them home to put in the fridge until spring. With white-letter hairstreak eggs, I've successfully bound twigs with eggs onto healthy twigs in spring and seen the cats through. This is probably what I'll do with these (except the hatched one). I'm wondering whether perhaps to buy a blackthorn from a garden centre and put it on my balcony - on verra.

Guy