Padfield

[Susie]

What a stunning view!

[Padfield]

That's the Dents du Midi, Susie - a lovely thing to wake up to!

I had an afternoon free today and so checked up on Aurelian. He survived the torrential rains of last weekend and is still happy on the same leaf. Now over 1cm long, he is definitely growing - and filling out too, I think.





Red admirals were present in the woods and I saw an Adonis blue male and a female Berger's clouded yellow as I left.

Next stop was the field where I photographed so many red admirals in February this year. I thought it would be interesting to get a mugshot of as many as I could before they went into hibernation, to compare them with any I see in the New Year. I managed to photograph seven different individuals today:

FLASH will be the easiest to recognise again after hibernation, with his distinctive white insignia:



He looked strong and vigorous.

NORMAN was fresh and undamaged:



SLASHER and GNASHER were part of a little group that were constantly battling it out in the skies and were pretty damaged:


(Slasher)


(Gnasher)

This is BASIL:



I couldn't get very close to DOUGALL because Flash kept upsetting him:



Finally, JIM was another pugnacious one:



Some of those probably won't make it as far as hibernation, given the extreme aggression in evidence on the site. But maybe I'll be able to show the (Pyrrhic) victors again in February next year.

At the same site were several walls, a few clouded yellows, a probably pale clouded yellow and a couple of common blue females.




(the same individual)

Guy

Whoops - I forgot to post the last shot of the day - the Dents du Midi seen through a pint of beer at the station bar!



It was a really beautiful day today - T-shirt and sunglasses.

[David M]

That last shot sure encapsulates that rare and precious event - the dying embers of the summer/autumn's mild weather before it all goes pear-shaped and nature shuts down.

Thankfully, unlike butterflies, beer is still freely available through the winter!

[NickB]

Good luck with the RAs; do you think they are part of a group heading south or will hibernate in your area?
Aurelian looks good; as it is to hear of others on the wing.
That beer looked good too! you surely deserved it...
N
My nearest to butterflies recently was a stained-glass window in Wilbraham church..

..have fun!

[Susie]

Good luck with the RAs; do you think they are part of a group heading south or will hibernate in your area?
Aurelian looks good; as it is to hear of others on the wing.
That beer looked good too! you surely deserved it...
N
My nearest to butterflies recently was a stained-glass window in Wilbraham church..

Church_glass_1a_low_Wilbraham_28th_Sept_2011_CCC_500x400.jpg

..have fun!

Where is the butterfly? I can't see it.

[Padfield]

You're right David - things are turning colourful and closing down. The weather is set fair for the weekend though, so I do expect to enjoy the embers a little longer.

I don't know whether these RAs are going to bed down here or move on further south, Nick. It will be a fun exercise for me, if we get a warm patch in February or March, to see if any of these turn up then. Sadly, I don't expect any to go on to breed, especially if they do get up in the middle of the winter for a few more wargames.

Beautiful window. I think he means the angels, Susie... But hey, angels are for the dead. Butterflies are for the living!

Guy

[NickB]

..you have to use your imagination to see them....

[David M]

..you have to use your imagination to see them....

Harder to find than an Essex Skipper sex brand.

[Susie]

Ok, thanks to you both (but I still can't see it or even imagine it!).

[Jack Harrison]

Harder to find than an Essex Skipper sex brand.

But not harder to find than sex in Essex - or so I am led to believe

Jack

[NickB]

..you have to use your imagination to see them....

....or Photoshop to put them in!

[MikeOxon]

Beautiful window. I think he means the angels

I can see Red Admiral hindwings in the top corners of the window!

Mike

[David M]

Beautiful window. I think he means the angels

I can see Red Admiral hindwings in the top corners of the window!

Mike

Me too. Think they landed there just before 10 last night.

[MikeOxon]

I didn't look closely! This should now be in the 'digital manipulation' thread!
Mike

[Ian Pratt]

Just spent some time reading the early part of this year's diary. Very interesting and superb photos. My last visit to Switzerland was in 1997 to Fiesch (Valais) but I was not in to butterflies particularly then.
Thanks for all the wonderful photos.
By the way is there a difference between Bergers Pale Clouded Yellow and Bergers Clouded Yellow?

[Padfield]

The fat lady cleared her voice, then went back to the dressing room.

16 species were enjoying the sun in the Rhône Valley today. In a year where everything happened early, many of these were third brooders.

I arrived at my favourite autumn site at my usual time to find frosty dew on the ground and only walls on the wing (I saw a single red admiral and a single tree grayling on the way). It was 10.45 am and a glorious, sunny day, but the shadows were long and the air cool. Nothing more happened until 11.05, when the first Adonis blue flew in; but by 11.30 I had seen half a dozen species and by midday the site was heaving with butterflies. It is essentially a nectar hotspot, where the last dandelions of the year flower, as well as several other nectar species, and I think butterflies come in from all the surrounding region, as do the black redstarts, fattening up on Lepidoptera for their long flight.

Here is a Queen of Spain:



These were common today, giving hope that I will still be seeing them in November. December is the only month of the year I've never seen a QoS.

This is one of three rosy grizzled skippers I saw:



I've never seen the third brood of this butterfly before this year. That's a female, as were both the others I saw today, which meant good photographic opportunities were limited (they don't sit around defending territories).

Ian asked about identifying Berger's pale clouded yellow and pale clouded yellows (and thank you for your other kind comments, Ian). Roger, Tim (Cowles), Matt and I have been exchanging e-mails recently about this and the conclusion is that we all use slightly different criteria and end up disagreeing about individual insects. Sometimes, as today, the context is sufficient. In my experience, the wings are differently proportioned, making males separable most of the time; but my criteria led me to a different conclusion about one of Roger's butterflies than that reached by local experts (local to where he photographed it). So the short answer is: by visible characteristics we haven't got a definitive answer yet! Ecological and geographical considerations allow confidence a lot of the time.

This one is a Berger's female:



And here is a male clouded yellow:



Blues were on good form today. Here is a nicely autumnal northern brown argus:



This one is Chapman's:



And these are common blues:



Love was in the air for Adonis blues too:



Some walls looked very fresh - and this species will be on the wing a while yet, I think:



Many others showed signs of having been attacked by those predatory black redstarts that were permanently in the wings. This female had lost an 'eye' ...



... as had this male:



Many others had similar bites taken out of their hindwings.

Essentially, there were butterflies everywhere on the site, nearly always close to the ground because this is a grazed paddock and most nectar plants are very low. I wandered around being careful not to tread on them:


(QoS on the left; a wall and tree grayling on the right)

As I wandered back to the train I checked UK Butts and found Susie had lost a swallowtail. At exactly that moment, a swallowtail cruised past me! I can't recall seeing one in mid-October before so it must be Susie's, back where it belongs!

A single grayling appeared shortly afterwards (just a proof shot obtained). But by now it was the heat of the afternoon and the piles of rotting grapes were absolutely humming with wasps, tree graylings and insectivorous birds:







All in all, a really enjoyable Ides of October.

Guy

[NickB]

Great shots, Guy! Only RAs over here today, all heading south...
Love the QoS shot...
N

[Padfield]

Thanks, Nick. I was pleased with the colours in that QoS picture too. In some ways it's much easier to photograph butterflies at this time of year because they are not quite so lively and you can take a little time composing the picture. In other respects it's harder - because the sun is low and the butterflies are nearly all near or on the ground.

I forgot to mention that small coppers have put in a vigorous third brood:



They were among the commonest species on the wing today.

Guy

[Ian Pratt]

By the way is there a difference between Bergers Pale Clouded Yellow and Bergers Clouded Yellow?

Thanks Guy for the photos. My question above has not been answered as I thought there were only Bergers Clouded Yellows and Pale CYs not B Pale CYs?
Any comments?
Regards
Ian

[Padfield]

Oh - sorry, Ian - I didn't really read your question!! My bad. I assumed you were asking if it was possible to tell the difference between alfacariensis and hyale, on which question the jury seems still to be out. In answer to your real question, no - Berger only lent his name to one species of clouded yellow. I call it Berger's pale clouded yellow most of the time and just Berger's clouded yellow when I'm feeling lazy.

Thank you for your other kind comments on the diary.

Guy