Since I got home from ten days in England I've been almost too busy to get out and have been grateful for cloudy days when the temptation hasn't been there! I did get down to the Valley once, on 2nd September, to look for brown hairstreaks again (unsuccessfully). It was quiet, but there were butterflies going about their business quite purposefully.
This is a female Provençal short-tailed blue busily laying eggs for next spring's flight:
Unlike female short-tailed blues, these are all brown above:
Adonis blues were still fresh and new:
But most other blues were coming to the end.
Silver-washed fritillaries are still common, if very worn, and Queens of Spain are in evidence. In addition to these, a few spotted fritillaries and violet fritillaries were all that was left of that group.
Here is a very delicately marked green-veined white:
The very weakly marked underside is typical of late broods.
Tree graylings are now extremely common. In recent years they have been on the wing into November but I feel this year is closing down more quickly, just as it booted up earlier than most years.
The day after this valley trip I was caught by a heavy rainstorm while returning home with a backpack full of Greene King IPA bottles. Zooming round a bend coming down the hill into Huémoz the bike lost purchase on the road and I spun off, hitting the tarmac with enough force to dislocate my shoulder and generally mess me up! I put the shoulder back (a recurrent injury from my youth, playing inside centre) and got home but the damage was done and if you see me from the right hand side my body looks like something out of Avatar.
If I don't post much in the near future, or respond to others' posts, it is because this little accident has got me rather behind again on all my work!!
Guy
PS - The IPA was completely unharmed by the incident. I never visit doctors or take medicines, so this has played a very important role in restoring my health.
Seriously - we know such apparently-insignificant events have one hell of an influence on small children and that has made my day; I think I was more pleased than they were!
Hope you are back up and running soon. We need some European butterfly news to keep us going. Here is some cycling inspiration for you: 