Winter arrived about a week ago, much to the relief of anxious ski operators. Nevertheless, a break in the cloud was forecast for today and I headed off to the valley on the long-shot that I could find that elusive December Queen of Spain.
With morning temperatures well below zero and a high risk of black ice, I didn't cycle down the mountain but instead cycled up to Villars and caught the train down. Crossing the valley by bike at about 10.45am I had to zip up my jacket and my hands were numb with cold - so I assumed butterflies were off the menu for the day. How wrong I was!
Before 11.00am, my first wall appeared. It was very flighty and I didn't chase it, but did get this shot:
Higher up the hill another, equally flighty, wall was flitting about and sunning. It boded well...
At about 11.45am I found what I had come for - a Queen of Spain fritillary. What's more, it was a lovely, fresh male, not long on the wing:
After I got those record shots it flew some distance away and I left it to its own devices, sunning itself up on a hillock. This is quite probably its last day of activity in 2011, as snow is forecast for the valley tomorrow and rain and snow for the week ahead. It needed to warm up, nectar a bit, and find somewhere appropriate to go dormant for the rest of the winter, not be chased around by a photographer. It was the only Queen of Spain I saw.
Here's the scene in the vineyards today:
It looks cold, and it
was cold - but even the winter sun carries some strength this far south and there were local warm spots. Here's a clouded yellow enjoying one of them:
It was a pleasure to watch him feeding avidly, oblivious to the fact today was quite possibly his last altogether, as clouded yellows very rarely make it through the winter.
A red admiral flew by and at about 1.00pm I saw another clouded yellow. While we're on the topic of 'lasts', this is probably my last butterfly of 2011:
By coincidence, Matt Rowlings was in the same region today with his family (he e-mailed me after we were both back), and although he missed Queen of Spain he added Berger's pale clouded yellow to the list, bringing the total species count between us to 5. Not bad for December 11th!!
After 1.00pm the sky progressively clouded over and I headed home:
Here are a couple more pictures you might not expect to have been taken in December, just 10 days before the solstice:
Guy