Padfield

[Padfield]

Thanks, Vince.

And thank you Nick M for that amazing video, too. I very much enjoyed all the videos. Nick B's had easily the most entertaining commentary, Susie's was the most insane and Nick M's was the most artistic.

Next time I teach acceleration, air resistance and lift I will certainly pull out Susie's video, though how anyone with balls that big can fly is probably beyond the comprehension of today's physics.

Guy

[NickB]

Thanks....
Next time I teach acceleration, air resistance and lift I will certainly pull out Susie's video, though how anyone with balls that big can fly is probably beyond the comprehension of today's physics.
Guy

..perhaps you can get your students to work on a butterfly-glider, like one of the gliders - flap-flap-glliiiiiiide.....
I can just see you, Guy, soaring over the tree-tops as you launch off the bridge next to the school...
You'd have to trust their teacher then...
N

[Padfield]

I finally got out along the Rhône Valley today, for the first time since my accident. I can't take the bike yet, as my arm is still getting its strength back, and so I could only visit one site; but it was a great pleasure to be among the butterflies again!

It is the vendange and the valley reeks of musty grapes. To the locals, this is a time for celebration and indulgence - and by 'locals', I mean, of course, the tree graylings. In Spain this species is a July insect. In the Rhône Valley the emergence is timed so the butterflies can spend their entire life imbibing.

I reached this point of my walk while the day was still cool:



Even so, there were at least 25 tree graylings already flitting around the piles of grapes and sitting on the track and rocks nearby. There is no doubt in my mind the smell drew them.

I didn't hang around, because I wanted to get to my target field early, before the butterflies got too lively. There, the graylings were forced to take unfermented nectar, as the apple tree which usually leaves rotting fruit lying around appeared to have produced nothing this year (or someone had taken all the windfalls).





But they knew what they really wanted and when I inadvertently left my beer unguarded for a few minutes I came back to find a tree grayling thirstily gulping it down:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaYWP7Q29Zc[/video]

Apologies for the shakiness - tree graylings are very touchy so I filmed that from some distance, hand-held, at 12x zoom.

In the interests of science, I finished that beer and opened another, leaving the can in another part of the field, near where butterflies were nectaring. It took less than a minute for another tree grayling to find that one.

Meanwhile, the ordinary graylings (semele) seemed to be enjoying elderberry wine instead:



Not surprisingly, armed with all that Dutch courage, the male graylings spent much of the early afternoon chasing females. This one seemed to have hit it off with his mate, though she is no young virgin by the look of it:



The female is on the right, with her wings open. She made no attempt to avoid his attentions and even engaged in some apparently friendly face-trampling for a while:



Elsewhere, this male Berger's pale clouded yellow met a stonier reception:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRRd48HHx4w[/video]

The only 'premium' species I found today was rosy grizzled skipper - a single individual, which didn't hang around for long. But it did stay long enough to get the necessary proof shots:





Here are a few other shots from today:


Plenty of small coppers around...



... and a few small heaths.

Seven species of blue were flying, including:


(Adonis)


(Turquoise)


(Northern brown argus)


(Chapman's blue)

That last was a crumpled little chappy but he was quite able to fly.

Violet fritillaries are still about:



Walls are common:



And here are a couple of Berger's pale clouded yellows, which were around in good numbers too:


(Female)


(Male)

Despite really enjoying today, my feeling is that things are closing up earlier than usual. Last year there was almost this much still flying at the beginning of November and I don't think today's butterflies will hold out that long.

This world-weary chalkhill blue, against a rather bleak autumnal backdrop, says it all:



Guy

[Lee Hurrell]

Good to see you back in action, Guy!

Lovely report - and in the interests of science, I might open a beer too now

Best wishes,

Lee

PS - Your Berger's video is marked private though, and I can't view it?

[Padfield]

Thanks Lee - you should be able to see that video now. I thought I'd checked 'public' but it turned out I hadn't.

You can see the bright orange spot on the male hindwing when he flies around - pale clouded yellow has a less intense spot. But in this case there's no question about the ID.

G

[Padfield]

Meet Aurelian:





He looks exactly like a mature purple emperor caterpillar but is actually just 6 mm long (and as he was perched at head height, in half-shade, he was very difficult to photograph - my little compact is not good in bad light). I presume he is 2nd instar - perhaps Kipper or someone else with experience can confirm that.

He was on the same branch as the last egg I found (see a couple of pages back) and I was surprised to find him as I searched that branch in vain for first instar caterpillars in August, after the egg had hatched.

I hope to follow Aurelian's progress into the winter, as he goes into hibernation, and perhaps watch him continue feeding in the spring.

Guy

[Paul Wetton]

Good to see you're back out amongst the butterflies and even sharing your beer with them.

Some great photos and interesting video clips.

Hope you manage to get back on the saddle soon.

All the best.

[Padfield]

I'm happy to say I cycled to the woods, Paul! Aurelian lives in the woodland brown ride, where we bumped into Matt Rowlings's Dad, if you remember. I think we saw a male purple emperor that morning, didn't we? Maybe Aurelian's Dad...

Guy

[NickB]

Nice to see you managed to find him...
Here's to a better outcome for Aurelian than his name-sake....

N

[Paul Wetton]

I remember the spot Guy. We got soaked there the following week.
He could well have been the proud father.

[Neil Hulme]

Hi Guy,
Good to see you back in the saddle . Aurelian will be early third instar and will over-winter in this stage. A post-hibernation colour change and spell of gluttony will precede his next change of clothes. Glad you are finding them on your patch. The Emperor had such a poor year across most of its UK range that cats are very hard to find here. I've just spent an entire day with Capt Oates searching sallows - result .
Neil

[essexbuzzard]

Guy, what was the summer like with you in CH? As Neil says, it was rotten here! It wasn't particularly wet-just dull and chilly, and most of us feel that summer butterfly numbers were low as a result. We are currently experiencing a few sunny warm days,probably the best weather since April!
Regards,Mark.

[Padfield]

Thanks Kipper - early third instar it is then. I'm sorry (and surprised) you and the Cap'n had an unsuccessful hunt. I was reading his pages earlier this evening and wasn't unmoved by the 141 early stages he found in 2009... I trust the species will bounce back after a poor year.

Nick - if I only named iris caterpillars after Roman emperors who lived a long life and then died peacefully at home surrounded by their family I'd soon run out of names!

Guy

EDIT: Mark - we had an excellent year, with the exception of July, which was mixed in the first half of the month and apparently awful in the second, while I was away in Spain.

[essexbuzzard]

Hi Guy
So that's where all the sunshine went then!
I'm jealous, wish i had gone to CH for my holls now!
Hope you are mobile enough to enjoy the end of the season!
Regards,Mark.

[NickMorgan]

Guy, Fantastic pictures. Thank you for sharing them with us. They cheer me up considerably after a period of miserable weather here. At least the sun was shining today, but there aren't many butterflies left!

[Padfield]

We're basking in something like the mini-heatwave you're enjoying in the UK. I found 21 species flying in the Valley today - not a huge tally but enough to make it a very rewarding start to October.

I began at the same site I visited last week, mostly to see if I could get an October rosy grizzled skipper. I could.



This individual looks sufficiently fresh to make me wonder if the species has put in a third brood. If so, I might be seeing rosy grizzlies for a week or two more.

The only other skipper flying was mallow. Here is one obligingly nectaring on mallow:



Both autumn graylings (tree grayling and the British grayling) were common:





Most of the species I saw last week were still on the wing too. Here are just a few piccies:


(Berger's)


(Adonis)


(Small copper)

Instead of violet fritillary, which I saw last week, a single spotted fritillary flew through:



Because I had my bike, I left that site early and headed off to see if I could find a brown hairstreak. Having been out of action most of September I've completely dipped out on this species this year. Or, I had dipped out until today...



I won't win any prizes with that photo, but it was a real delight to find her. In fact, after getting that record shot I didn't even try for more photos but just watched from a distance as she flitted around some low blackthorn laying eggs in carefully chosen spots. Here is one she laid. Eggs don't come much fresher than this:



Finally, as everything seemed to be going so well, I decided to try for marbled ringlet at an overgrown rubble quarry where I often see them in August and September. It was a long shot, as I've never seen one before in October, but the day was still warm and it was worth a try.

The quarry had been recently worked by a large digger (that was still there) and initially I thought my luck had run out.



But on closer inspection I found a lot of butterflies taking minerals from the newly exposed surfaces. One, which didn't hang around at all, was a marbled ringlet. There were no photo opportunities but at one point I simply pointed my camera where I thought it was and took a shot on full zoom. The ringlet is there in the picture, though you might have to take my word for it that this is Erebia montana!!


(a heavy crop!)

Guy

[NickB]

Keep 'em coming, Guy! Good to see you are back in the saddle and on-form too.
I never tire of seeing the variety of species you can present on your little hunches...

N
I love those Spotted Frits...

[Padfield]

Aurelian is still happy with his resting leaf. I understand he is likely to go exploring in the week before hibernation, but it will help if he stays put until then - I might have a chance of finding him in the winter.





I searched in vain for any brothers/sisters/cousins.

The only butterflies still around at my altitude are red admiral, small white and Berger's pale clouded yellow. In fact, I found a road kill today that might be a pale clouded yellow - I'll examine it carefully.

Here's a red admiral from the woods:



And here's one from my village, showing a great interest in a bed of nettles. It looked like a female, but surely any eggs laid are doomed.



Guy

[Padfield]

The hot weather broke today and snow is descending. Tonight it's forecast down to 1300m and it's supposed to come lower by the weekend.

Aurelian is still happy on his increasingly autumn-coloured leaf (this photo taken yesterday):



Either I misjudged his length before or he has grown, as he is now 8-9mm long.

In a different part of the wood I found this leaf, which looks as though an iris cat has been there:



There was none to be found anywhere nearby, though.

Guy

[Padfield]

Yesterday it rained all day at my altitude, with snow falling just a little higher up the mountain. No hope of seeing the meteors last night!

I braved the rain at one point to check on Aurelian - he was still there, in a blob of water on the end of his leaf, but photography was unsuccessful. The only danger would be that the much heavier rain in the evening would dislodge his leaf, but his to-ings and fro-ings have probably created a silk bridge that will secure it if the stem is broken off.

This morning:



Guy