New species for the year: Large tortoiseshell. Unfortunately, I have no picture, as I spotted it circling around the base of a chestnut tree just at the moment the sun slipped behind clouds. The butterfly flew up into the tree and never re-emerged. That was it for the day - a dense band of high cloud moved in from the west. Large tortoiseshells often rest on tree trunks, where they are brilliantly camouflaged.
Small tortoiseshells were ubiquitous and very common, especially over the Bulbocodium meadows, where it was easy to see five or six individuals in the same field of vision, sharing their time between sunning and nectaring. Queens not so abundant, but present all around my walk, looking small and darting compared with the tortoiseshells, and flashing silver when they spun round in the air and caught the sun.
Their favourite nectaring plant at this time of year is speedwell:
Rubbish picture, but it captures the moment.
I found a fallen oak branch and quickly located a healthy purple hairstreak egg on it. This is now in my fridge, following Pete's advice. I'll warm it up when the oak buds break, but at some stage I shall have to return it to the valley, I presume, to avoid bringing the Rhône Valley genes into the mountains.
When the sun went in it was easy to tell it was still winter. Here's my attempt at an arty shot looking over Martigny, with a mountain stream looking like smoke rising from La Batiaz:
Guy
