Last of the summer wine... oh gawd

[Paul]

We have three aged gentlemen visiting a small corner of beautiful Switzerland to see Guy and the local lepidoptera, arriving today into heat and blue skies..



White Admiral


Purple Hairstreak

Lesser Purple Emperor


Into the mountains tomorrow.

[Padfield]

A scarce large blue:



Guy

[Pete Eeles]

Clearly past its best, showing definite signs of wear and tear.

The butterfly looks lovely, though

Can't wait to see the full report!

Cheers,

- Pete

[NickB]

Left Roger and Paul waiting in Geneva airport following the cancellation of their flight, as SwissAir quite neatly demonstrated the difference between Switzerland and the UK by leaving on-time......
We were all still reeling at the number of species we saw and the places which Guy took us - from the Rhone valley floor to alpine meadows under glaciers. Guy is just awesome in his knowledge of species and habitat and we can't thank him enough for all his help; our trip species count was approaching 100 and I leave you for now with a little taster of the scenery and one of the more common species over there...

Dawn, looking SE over the Rhone Valley

(to be continued....)
N

[Padfield]

...our trip species count was approaching 100

I totted up last night: it came to 108. It was a most enjoyable few days and I was delighted to meet you all. I'll leave it to you lot to post butterfly photos (my compact was well put to shame over the last few days!!), but you might like this one of you with a cranberry frit, Nick!



I'm sorry the flights were cancelled. At least they had plenty to think and talk about in the airport!!

Guy

[NickB]

I'm sorry the flights were cancelled. At least they had plenty to think and talk about in the airport!!
......."I totted up last night: it came to 108"
Guy

Thanks, Guy. I'm sure they must have considered turning straight around and knocking at your door again!
It was a real pleasure to be part of such an easy-going and amusing "band of brothers".
Roger also came up with that number....
I hope they made it OK too!
Thanks again,
N

[Padfield]

I'm writing up the trip right now for my own online diary and will post the link as soon as I've done it. I was keeping the records as we went along and I think it will be helpful for you all to use my notes as you process and catalogue your pictures.

Guy

[Padfield]

Here's the link:

http://www.guypadfield.com/butterflyyear.html

I shall add what few pictures I took in due course, but I really didn't take that many, so I didn't steal the butterflies from the guests!!

Guy

[Jack Harrison]

Paul

How will those Monday morning skivers with hangovers get their sick notes signed by their GP? Sounds a pathetic excuse to me. Failing to report for duty because of a cancelled flight!

Seriously, in my long career as an airline pilot, cancelled flights were surprisingly rare. But I do remember one extremely embarrassing occasion when I was due to work a short day with flights from Newcastle to Amsterdam and back. I was incubating some bug or other and beginning to feel a bit rough. At the last minute, I had to conclude that I was not fit enough (Well, my co-pilot did say: “I not flying with you in that state!”) I trudged back through the Terminal – in full uniform – to the strains of the public announcement: “.....Air UK regrets to announce the cancellation ...... due to Operation Reasons.” Did I ever feel small!

Jack

[Rogerdodge]

Jack
The flight was not cancelled, just delayed by 2 1/2 hours.
I already had Monday booked as holiday - and a jolly good thing too as I have 4gb of photos to trawl through.

I have to say that I have just had the most amazing trip to Switzerland.

We had 3 full and 2 half days and crammed in so many sites that my head is now spinning trying to remember which pictures were taken where!

The butterflies were, of course, amazing; but so was the scenery, flora, company, weather and food & drink.

I shall put some photos up in a day or so.

I have to comment on Guy though. He is just the most exraordinary chap. His knowledge of buterflies is peerless - he will spot some little brown job flitting 30 metres up a 45 degree slope and identify it to species level before bounding up the slope, netting it, and bringing it back for us to see. He was invariably correct - extraordinary when there may be up to half a dozen erebia at the same site.
He is also a thoroughly nice, and fascinating man. I am glad to have met him.
Without Guy I doubt we would have seen (confidently) a third of the species we saw.

[NickB]

Hi Roger
(Things changed after I left then - I'm sure I heard that the flight was cancelled and passengers were to contact slEasy Jet to re-book.....Glad to hear you didn't have too long to wait). I have 8Gb of pictures to trawl through too but no time to do it....a delay may occur before I can get round to posting too many more as Erja arrives in the UK tomorrow and I have a whole house to clean before that...!
N
And Jack, don't worry - Paul is on leave, so no doubt those invaluable sick-notes will get signed by someone else.....

[Padfield]

You exaggerate, Roger, but it's nice exaggeration. And I think we must all agree that with the possible exception of the demise of poor Diocletian things could not have gone better nor the company have been more congenial.

Of course I'll help with sorting out any pictures you can't place - and I'll send you by e-mail the day lists in due course (I've already sent the trip list). If you e-mail pictures, please compress them, as my guypadfield.com server has limited space! The only difficulties I foresee for ID are with Boloria undersides. Boloria napaea and Boloria pales palustris are confusingly similar in the male, and variable, and we saw no females as they were just recently on the wing. I know Nick has at least one ups shot of pales and I know Paul has at least one ups shot of napaea. Both were flying at both high sites.

Thanks for coming!

Guy



(What's the collective noun for dusky large blues? Not something you need to know that often...)

[Jack Harrison]

Guy:

(What's the collective noun for dusky large blues? Not something you need to know that often...)

A "crikey" of Dusky Large Blues perhaps?

Jack

[NickB]

Already having some difficulties with the Frits...and I've only looked at 2 pictures...
This one is from the 2nd day 1/2way down from the cynthia site...

pales ? N

[Padfield]

Definitely! It's not even the palustris form/subspecies (not quite sure what the status of palustris is).

This is napaea from the same site, the same day:



For contrast, this is palustris from my local mountain, taken just before you came out:



Guy

[NickB]

Sifting through, I found one of my personal favourites ...
Marsh Fritillary, alpine form debilis....... found and ID'd by Guy again

N

[Rogerdodge]

Well- here are a few of my favourites from the trip.
My list of "keepers" is just under 100 - not bad for 4 days work.

[Pete Eeles]

Ooh - lovely shots Rog

"Spotted Frit, backlit and gorgeous."
That's no Spotted Frit, but I hesitate to suggest what Guy might have shown you - Heath, Assmann's, Nickerl's, Knapweed etc. etc.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Padfield]

You're right Pete - that one was a knapweed. But Roger did photograph spotted fritillary too - it will be among his 'keepers', I hope!!

Yes, we did well for fritillaries! In the Melitaea/Mellicta group we saw knapweed, spotted, false heath, Provençal, heath and Grisons (Nickerl's over by now, and meadow between broods, I think). I completely understand it is a little overwhelming to be shown so many things in so little time! Partly it was my own selfishness - I'm not going to Spain this year, because my cat is ill, so I exploited the boys to help me reach my twitch target of 200 for the year, hence the zooming around my favourite sites. I reached 190 today...

Guy

[JKT]

I don't want to hear about Melitae! I know I saw many species, but can't tell which was which. Well, there were two certain M. phoebes, plenty of M. diaminas, but the others fell under M. athalia look-alikes. I would have needed a guide too!

Edit: Well, I DID recognize M. cinxia as well...