Hi David.
Consul fabius is a great butterfly. The cryptic underside is layered in violet silver but the upperside has the 'tiger' coloration of so many often unrelated tropical butterflies:
Today was cold still but sunny, so I set off for the Rhône Valley for wild butterflies instead of exotica. I thought maybe the first peacocks and commas might be flying, or even an eastern Bath white.
As I began my walk, at about 10h45, the temperature was barely 3°. Even so, small tortoiseshells and Queens were out and about, often pressed hard into the ground, spread out for warmth:
Next, a clouded yellow appeared. This will be a true 2023 butterfly, unlike the ones I saw at the beginning of January, which were really tail-enders from 2022:
Later on, the small tortoiseshells and Queens behaved differently, settling off the ground and engaging in other activities. This male small tortoiseshell was intent on the female tucked under the rock (but he failed to win her):
Here's a Queen resting well off the ground:
As the day hotted up, I began to see the odd large tortoiseshell, but only in flight today, so no photos. There were no peacocks or commas and the sallow was still only just beginning to flower, so I suspected I would see no new species today:
Wrong! As I set off back to the train, a wall settled briefly in front of me:
A few kilometres further on, I saw a second, indicating that this wasn't just one freak emergence:
This is the earliest I've ever seen walls in Switzerland. They fly earlier than this in Spain and even north Italy but don't normally emerge in Switzerland until April.
The next surprise, given that all the hibernators aren't out yet, was small white. I saw two females, both towards the very end of my walk:
That brings my year list to 8 species, all in Switzerland.
At the far point of the walk, I stopped to give Minnie water and a treat, and while we were resting a beautiful red kite flew right past:
And here's the statutory photo of Minnie doing her own bit for the cause:
I might pop over to Italy tomorrow morning, as the weather should still be good and I haven't been yet this year.
Guy