Padfield

[Padfield]

Hi Wurzel. Switzerland's an expensive place to visit, too, especially if you have a family. But I look forward to showing you some of our specialities one day!

Hi David. This season is by far the worst I have known, in 35 years of Swiss butterflying. Admittedly, when I first came out I knew much less and my records are not really comparable, but this year can only be described as une catastophe ! Butterflies are resilient creatures, but week on week of snow, torrential rain, thunderstorms and cloud will break the spirit of the toughest invertebrate.

Yesterday, I renewed my membership of the christi club. Last year, my application was rejected by the mountain gods, who sent heavy rain on my chosen day. This year, they tried their best to stop me, but failed. First, I realised when I got to Aigle that although I had packed most of my christi kit, I had forgotten the small observation box I use to cool and observe butterflies. So I popped into the Co-Op at Aigle station and bought a pot of hummus and some bread. I ate the hummus with the bread, cleaned the pot carefully on the train and voilà - a butterfly observation box. Next, when I reached my chosen christi site, I found the bulky hummus pot had fallen out of my pocket along the way. So I popped Minnie in the backpack (she was already tired) and retraced my steps until I found it. I eventually arrived at my site at about 11h20.

I could see immediately that things were late. There were lots of Erebia flying around, but no melampus, montana or epiphron, normally constant companions when I'm looking for christi - and I usually look earlier in the year too! The commonest species was euryale, closely followed by alberganus, but there were still lots of medusa and triaria around - typically early species. Nevertheless, within ten minutes of arriving, I spotted a male christi crossing the track. I quickly netted him and transferred him to my cool pot for ten minutes, before releasing him onto some thyme for a photograph. Here, the gods were still against me, as he emerged still warm and active. I think the much bigger hummus pot insulated him against my cooling system! He dived into the thyme, nectared avidly, moving about constantly, and then flew off. Normally, they sit around, open their wings, warm up and bask in my admiration!!

Anyway, here is the best shot I got of what is arguably Europe's rarest butterfly:



This, tragically, is the best upperside shot I got:



Between 11h30 and 12h00 I saw a further two males, both in flight only (I can only photograph them if they choose to cross the path when I am within netting distance - I've never seen christi stop and pose of its own accord!). Then the clouds came over for an hour, and then between 13h00 and 14h00 I saw no more. I might go back early next week and see if I can do better.

Other Erebia species are much easier to photograph. Euryale, for example, can't leave me and Minnie alone. This one liked to sit in Minnie's backpack ...



... while this one preferred mine:



Here, I have one euryale on my hand and one on my camera! What is a man to do? I took the picture with my iPhone, with my left hand ...



This is one of the many medusa still flying:



And this is triaria:



Here are a few more butterflies from the same site:


(Darwin's heath - poster-child for ongoing speciation, being most probably an interglacial hybrid of pearly heath and alpine heath; 'pure' Darwin's heaths, like christi, are only found south of the Simplon Pass, where alpine heath doesn't fly and pollute the gene pool!)


(purple-edged copper of the subspecies eurydame - essentially, lacking any purple edges!)


(large blue - looking much more like what I expect alpine large blues to look like!)


(alpine grayling - this species was abundant yesterday, so at least one butterfly is happy with summer 2024)


(I didn't expect a southern white admiral to fly through ...)

I then headed down the mountain towards Brig to catch up on a few more species. Here is a dusky meadow brown, caught with its wings slightly ajar (this species never settles with its wings open like a meadow brown):



I was a little surprised to find Swiss Zephyr blues (Plebejus/Kretania trappi) still fresh and full of the joys of spring:





Rock grayling was another species I had hoped to find here. It usually appears in June but seemed just to be beginning now:



Did I mention it was tough work this year? But little by little the butterflies are showing themselves. I feel a high mountain expedition coming on ...

Guy

[David M]

....This season is by far the worst I have known, in 35 years of Swiss butterflying....

...Did I mention it was tough work this year? But little by little the butterflies are showing themselves...

Whilst I have no doubt you are right comparatively speaking, Guy, it's still wonderful to read about Alpine Grayling being "abundant"

As you say, things are slowly coming round as I found last week in the Hautes Pyrenees, but numbers are very poor in western Europe this year and we really need two good years just to see things recover to normal (whatever 'normal' is these days!)

[Wurzel]

"But I look forward to showing you some of our specialities one day!" I'd love that
Reading that information about the Darwin's Heath has led to me identifying the butterfly I'd most like to see Fascinating

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Hi David. I probably exaggerated with 'abundant', but there were lots of alpine graylings around - more than usual. This is one of the earlier high alpine butterflies and it is probable I normally miss its maximum. It's a great butterfly!

Hi Wurzel. It will be a pleasure! And we'll make a point of finding some pure Darwin's heaths - as well as some of the many mongrels (hybrids with alpine heaths) to be found in most of Valais!

I went up my local mountain today. Last year, on 15th July, I found Piedmont ringlet at what was to become my top Erebia spot. By 17th July there were manto ringlets and common brassy ringlets too - and I saw my first lesser mountain ringlet on 14th July. Today, none of that! The only Erebia at altitude was bright-eyed ringlet, E. oeme:





There are still no shepherd's or mountain fritillaries flying!

When I reached the top of the mountain, the first thing I saw (after a single geranium argus) was in fact a golden eagle - of a rather mottled appearance:





Then I spotted a large group of griffon vultures in the distance, flying over the Tour d'Aï:







Other butterflies from today:


(this marsh fritillary was at about 1900m)


(the first chalkhill blues are now flying - this was at about 1650m)


(this is an Adonis blue)


(the same Adonis blue - very unusually, it lacks a cell spot)


(at about 1800m I saw my first Scotch argus of the year)


(this fresh red underwing skipper was at about 1650m)

GUy

[Wurzel]

Cracking images of the Eagles and Vultures Guy Also really like the Red-underwing, another happy memory prompt that one

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Thanks Wurzel. You don't think of griffon vultures in the Alps, do you?!

Yesterday we went high, with Cynthia's fritillary as our notional target but happy to find whatever we found. This is Minnie at 2550m - Queen of the Mountain!





There were, indeed, male Cynthia's fritillaries parading at the top of a high gully:







I pointed out one to a woman we had passed on the way up, who wanted to know if we had found what we were looking for. It landed on a rock and she was able to view it through her binoculars:



She was delighted to see it and learn a little about the damier de l'achémille. I explained how the males come up the gully to lek and how the females come to join them when they are ready to mate. Many people don't know what fascinating lives butterflies have!

Other species were dramatically absent. Most notably, there were no Grisons fritillaries at altitude and it wasn't until I got down to about 2000m that I finally caught up with one:



Mnestra ringlets were very common ...



... sometimes gathering in numbers with large ringlets:



And finally, the lesser mountain ringlets are out:



Dewy ringlets are still very thin on the ground, though. I think I saw two or three yesterday:



I caught up on some of the high blues at last, including ...


(cranberry blue - here with an Idas blue)


(glandon blue)


(a female glandon blue, searching for a place to lay her eggs)


(Eros blue)

Shepherd's fritillaries were out, but in very small numbers. They didn't look fresh, so I think it's just a very bad season for them. This is a female, probably skulking around for a place to lay:



I didn't confirm any mountain fritillaries, though I think I saw some.

Here's another alpine grayling - again much commoner than usual:



And to close, a small and rather lovely moth, that I haven't identified yet, here with a little blue:



Guy

EDIT - the moth is Metaxmeste schrankiana, a Pyralid

[Wurzel]

Those Cynthia's are sublime Guy That final moff is doing quite a good impression of a Dingy Skipper, a much better job in fact than the Burnet Companion that turns up in a lot of books as a 'confusion' species

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Hi Wurzel. Fresh Cynthia's fritillaries are very smart butterflies - a beautiful combination of red and black and white. And I agree - that moth does have something of the dingy skipper about it! It's smaller, though.

Up my local mountain things are looking properly alpine now:



That's a great yellow gentian - one of my late mother's favourite mountain flowers. She would have loved to have visited Leysin but we never came up here while she was alive.

Finally, the shepherd's fritillaries are flying here:



I was hoping for Piedmont ringlet, Erebia meolans, and saw what I thought in flight was this, but when it eventually settled high up a rocky slope, it turned out to be my first marbled ringlet, Erebia montana, of the year instead:



And I got my first manto ringlet, Erebia manto of the year too - much later than last year:



Still no common brassy ringlets, Erebia arvernensis - one of the few Erebia that is easy to be confident of in flight, if you know it flies in the area. With very few exceptions, there is just one species of brassy ringlet at each locality. The exceptions, annoyingly, include the places where de Lesse's brassy ringlet, Erebia nivalis flies, making it harder to get a firm record of that without a net. On my mountain, as well as over the valley in the Villars region, we have common brassy ringlets, but if you jump another valley to the Massif du Muveran you start seeing Swiss brassy ringlets.

The genus Erebia is one of the great joys of alpine butterflying. So far this year I have seen 12 species: triaria, oeme, euryale, ligea, christi, medusa, aethiops, tyndarus, mnestra, melampus, montana and manto. There are plenty more to come.

As we came back down the mountain, bad weather loomed, and before we got home it was raining.



Guy

[Padfield]

It was very hot today, so I cycled Minnie around some local woods, where she could walk in the shade. I visited my white-letter hairstreak master tree at about 16h30, to see if they would still be flying - I've dropped in occasionally recently to establish that they're up there.

Answer - yes, although it was now roosting time, a few hairstreaks made themselves apparent and one actually settled in the sun, high in the ash next to the elm:



To put that picture into context, here is the same scene, photographed from the same place, without zoom. The arrow shows where the hairstreak is:



I've never seen a white-letter hairstreak come down at this site. They are always high in the canopy, hidden from view to all but the most dedicated observers. I suspect most of us live close to a white-letter hairstreak colony - it's just a matter of finding it!

Guy

[Pete Eeles]

I suspect most of us live close to a white-letter hairstreak colony - it's just a matter of finding it!

I think I should put more effort into this - thanks for the inspiration ... small dark triangles it is!

Those Cynthia's Frits are phwoar and thanks again for showing me my first every specimen in your adopted home country!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Padfield]

I remember it well, Pete:



The site I took you to then is in fact the site I visited on July 5th this year and found devastated by the rains. I don't know if it is yet accessible by public transport, so chose a different site to get my annual cynthia fix this year. But the principle is the same: you go high, then look on yellow flowers at the upper end of gullies!

Yesterday, I spent a long time studying the dragonfly books trying to string a teneral male ruddy darter, Sympetrum sanguineum, into something more exotic:





I have no doubt it's sanguineum. But one of the potential exotics I was looking at was Sympetrum depressiusculum, the marshland darter, which also has black legs. And by happy chance I came across a little patch of these today, while I was looking for pale clouded yellows. What the books don't tell you is that the wings of depressiusculum gleam golden in the sunlight. They do tell you about the tear-shaped black marks along the abdomen, which make this a very striking and distinctive Sympetrum. Here are some piccies:













This is apparently the most local of the European darters and I think I've never seen it before - I always look at Sympetrum species carefully as they have the helpful habit of settling quite frequently.

Guy

[Padfield]

We went above the treeline again yesterday and had a very pleasant day. I think the highlight was again not actually a butterfly but this male snow finch with a bill crammed full of grasshoppers or crickets for his babies!





The butterflies were nice too, though the only year tick was this Niobe fritillary, sitting here on a martagon lily:



As usual, my backpack proved a great attractant to many species. Here are a lesser mountain and large ringlet (melampus and euryale) posing together ...



... and here a cranberry blue with a silver-studded blue:



The false heath fritillaries were more keen on living perches, though they also came to my backpack and net. Here is one on my hand ...



... and here is one on Minnie:



Mazarine blues and little blues were also coming to my backpack:





Here is a typical, alpine large blue:



It has been very hot recently and I think the alpine butterflies are finally catching up - though they are still behind schedule. The Boloria are still dragging their feet. This, I am fairly sure (but not 100%) is a male mountain fritillary:



I didn't see any females, but there were so few of this group about at all I suspect it is just the beginning of their flight season here.

Guy

[Wurzel]

That's a great shot of the two blues - Cranberry and Silver-studded Guy I don't know why but in my mind that the Cranberry was smaller than the Silver-stud Mind you I could do without seeing the Niobe - still one that evades me

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Hi Wurzel. I shouldn't read too much into the size difference - blues are very variable as you know. It's true that silver-studs at altitude are typically smaller than their cousins in the valley (and idas are much smaller, being different subspecies in mountain and valley) but I don't think it's a hard-and-fast rule.

Since my last post I've restricted my activities a little, as it's just too hot for Minnie to do much. I carry her a lot and cycle her, and she enjoys the trips, but she can't do 20km walks in the heat any more! Even at altitude it's often been in the 30s°C. I've also wasted some days waiting for a DHL pickup, which finally happened this morning (it wasn't DHL's fault). Up the local mountain, common brassy ringlets and water ringlets are now flying, though I haven't found Piedmont ringlet yet. In the valley, the cardinals have returned and are in breeding mode. The males spend all morning zooming around the Buddleia, duffing everything up and generally being bullies. I think they might be the model for Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged (Douglas Adams), who having been granted immortality, got bored and decided to travel around the universe shouting insults at every living being, in alphabetical order. The females appear later - usually after midday - and behave much less aggressively. I've yet to see any significant interaction between the two, though, let alone copulation.


(a male, taking a brief pause between bullying)


(a female, resting in the half-shade near the vineyards, possibly between bouts of laying)

At this site there are forests of Buddleia, so I can watch butterflies while Minnie lies in the shade with a bowl of water:



Nearby there is white clay, where many butterflies were taking minerals, including my first damon blue of the year:



I wonder what Minnie thinks when we go on our expeditions. Here she is, embarking on the climb up to La Riondaz, on our local mountain:



And here is La Riondaz, in front of the Dents du Midi:



On this occasion, I took the contour walk beneath it, as it was already too hot for Minnie to climb it on the sunny side. She has no idea why we do what we do, but she goes everywhere I go, with enthusiasm and as much energy as she can muster. It's the only life she's known. There's no friend like a dog-friend!

Guy

[Padfield]

Since finding Sympetrum depressiusculum for the first time on 30th July, I've since found it in several places along the Rhône. And now I am seeing bright red, mature males, rather than the teneral colours of two weeks ago.







For comparison, here is a common darter, caught in flight:



Today, shortly before the thunderstorms struck, I checked my local white-letter hairstreak tree. It is clearly end-of-season now, but at least three were up there, mostly sitting around on the ash and very occasionally flying up singly or sparring in pairs.



Guy

[bugboy]

If I saw one of those Sympetrum"s my mind would head straight for Ruddy Darter with those solid black legs, but they're definitely distinctive enough for me to quickly do a double take on them.

[Sylvie_h]

Hi Guy,

I am glad you mention this, i see a lot of darters in the Rhone valley in France which i assume are Ruddy darters. I will look closer now....
Sylvie.

[Padfield]

Hi Buggy and Sylvie. Yes, this species is closely related to ruddy darter. I'm sure you've both got the books, so you can look up the details, but just in case you haven't, Sylvie, the distribution appears to include the French Rhône Valley. A characteristic in flight, from the right angle, is the golden sheen on the wings. I caught it here on a posed individual:



I saw a few Perseids last night and was hoping to see more tonight and perhaps film some. It's not looking hopeful right now:



That's how fires get started, though tonight it is raining so hard I doubt anything caught.

Guy

[Wurzel]

That is some view Guy (from a few posts back) And the Damon Blue don't look too shabby either

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

....I saw a few Perseids last night and was hoping to see more tonight and perhaps film some. It's not looking hopeful right now...

Clearly not, Guy, but at least the butterflies have become more visible lately.

A couple of great mixed duos from your earlier post.

Nice to see Cranberry Blue especially.