Last of the summer wine... oh gawd

[Paul]

That's the Cranberry Blue photo I didn't get love it!!

[Padfield]

And yes, that was a well-worn large blue from the last day. I got what I thought was a different one at the top of the slope, but looking at the pictures it seems to be the same individual:



That cranberry blue is a great shot!

Kitten Cat is fine now. I totally agree with your other posts about cats, Nick - as you know, KC is an adopted stray. He's lost most of his killer instinct and has recently been quite happy to sit around in one room with mice playing in the next. But yesterday he did fly into action when I was in the bath and a mouse climbed down the stairs and jumped into the middle of the living-room floor. I leapt out of the bath like the Bubble Monster and managed to avert any bloodletting by sweeping KC up into the air as he zoomed around the floor after the mouse.

Guy

[NickB]

...and Guy DOES remove the moths that fly in to his house too!

[Rogerdodge]

....and Guy DOES remove the moths that fly in to his house too!

and the Great Green Bush Cricket! (Tettagonia Viridissima)

[NickB]

..and still I find more...
Scarce_Large_Blue.....(I think...)

...and is this Titania?

...Purple Edged Copper...?

N

[NickB]

...and more....
Which Grayling is this?

Great Sooty Satyr female...(Guy)

...but even I can get this one

Meleager's Blue...?

Knapweed Frit? - (best I got - they were busy!)

...I wonder whether Paul DID get his Peak White shots.......?
I think we may have still been sitting in that car-park waiting if we hadn't dragged him away (not literally - Paul's just too damn big for that... )
N

[Jack Harrison]

...Paul's just too damn big for that...

Paul told me that he is a very popular doctor with his well-built patients – he doesn’t tell them off for being overweight!

I live in Cambridgeshire. Paul. Can I register with your Practice in Yorkshire? It's a long way to go I know but it would avoid the biannual lecture from my own GP!

Jack

[Padfield]

You were certainly shooting away, Nick! A month later and happy memories are still flooding out of your camera!

The grayling is a female great sooty satyr. And yes, that is a Meleager's blue - I remember it well. There were two or three freshly emerged males there.

I'm pretty sure Paul just wandered around after those peak whites in the car park like a lovelorn teenage girl and came back empty-handed. I felt quite paternal towards him: 'Come on Paul, in the car now - they'll still be there next year...' But he did get a shot right at the top, near the Cynthia's frits. Beautiful butterfly.

Guy

[Paul]

hmmmmm.... a fat teenage lovelorn girl who let's her patients be unhealthy ..... what a dangerous combination at least I know what my friends think of me
Didn't post the calladice as it was poor.... but here it is.... Guy has much better pics from the past.

[NickB]

You were certainly shooting away, Nick!.....
Guy

There were so many that I missed too!...

Purple Edged Copper

...not sure of this one....

Lesser Marbled Frit - thanks JKT

..and is this another Purple Edged Copper uns...?

Purple Edged Copper uns - female I think...

(Ah well, Paul, next year.... )

[JKT]

As Guy overlooked it, I'll confirm the titania ... and I'm pretty sure the frit in the previous post is B. ino.

[NickB]

Thanks JKT. I'm getting a bit better with ID's
...and now I blow it...
is this an old titania ...?

...and opinions on this Alpine Heath, Guy...

I still have it as gardetta...?

N

[Padfield]

Brilliant! Another tit frit and I think you can call that darwiniana, given those very clear yellow rings!

Keep 'em coming, Nick...

Guy

[NickB]

Thanks Guy.....a darwiniana at last! And, given where we were on the day-before-last, it certainly fits the overlapping distribution you mentioned earlier...
Not sure that many more are worth showing, Guy; I'll have to come back....

[NickB]

Not sure that many more are worth showing, Guy

a few
...Marbled Frit? (first day)

and a Small Heath....(all on last day)

..and is this icarus ....?

..and this one......? I have it as Brown Argus...but I think it is a female Blue of some sort....

That is definitely it!
N

[Padfield]

Definitely marbled, probably icarus and probably artaxerxes for the last one. It's definitely Aricia, and the wingshape suggests artaxerxes. In fact, artaxerxes/agestis is a difficult complex in Switzerland, and in Valais especially, and a lot of sightings are recorded as agg. (though we were, of course, in Vaud on the last day). I know for a fact that artaxerxes flies at that last site.

You're welcome back here, as you know, Nick, for a second helping!!

Guy

[NickB]

Thanks Guy - I posted one of artaxerxes ups from that site earlier, so I have the pair!
Will definitely be taking you up on that sometime, Guy; if I see half the species it would still be a fantastic trip....
oh...one I saved for you.....erebia....on the penultimate day....

N

[Paul]

looking forward to what Guy thinks about that erebia ( throw away guess... melampus )

I stated before I would photoshop the unsightly stems off the pandrose photo... what do you think....

before...


and after...


I'm definitely no expert but think the result was worth the effort.

[NickB]

looking forward to what Guy thinks about that erebia
I stated before I would photoshop the unsightly stems off the pandrose photo... what do you think....

Me too! (That's why I saved it ) tho' he is..
... Guy, Padfield of Erebia....as we know!


Don't worry Paul, I too have spent hours removing bits from some of my pictures ("....you'd never know" - cruel lot )
and it always looks better, to my eyes at least! It also make you wonder: if only I had managed to catch that "one" which was perfectly posed - until my finger moved to press the shutter, that is; then it flew away, again....
Like ID; so much easier to get it right in the field - if you can take the opportunity!
N
Edit: If it helps, Guy - By the car-park 1800m and it does have light coloured tips to the antennae, I think....
...throwaway guess....looks more like pluto (maybe too small...)...or even aetheria given where we were on the 10th?
But I think I will probably go for mnestra - it's just simpler!

[Padfield]

Hi boys,

I'm still enjoying all these posts, though now from Suffolk, where the sun is shining this morning (so might get my gatekeeper year tick!! ). Funny thing - I bumped into Pete Eeles in a pub near Victoria station yesterday and we had a good old chin wag. Young's bitter and chips - two other things (apart from gatekeepers) you can't get in Switzerland (with any luck I should be able to see Pete Eeles on migration there next summer).

I think that unidentified ringlet is quite possibly aetheria (that is, E. epiphron aetheria). It looks as if it has an ocellus in the forewing, which would rule out the other two species you mention. As you know, mnestra does fly there, though I've only found it higher up. The other possibility is (at a pinch) euryale. Males of this species in the Alps can be entirely without markings on the unh - not even the 'tooth' mark, and this species certainly flies where you saw it. The shape of the hindwing is hidden by foliage so I can't get the full jizz of that. But on the whole, I'd go for epiphron.

I think you've done remarkable work on that dewy ringlet, Paul. I have to say, though, that the stems didn't distract me in the slightest! I only looked at the butterfly...

Guy