Thank you for your support, David!
Today worked out much as planned with some surprises thrown in. As expected, Aurelian was in the same place this morning and Provençal fritillaries were out in good numbers in the valley (when I last checked, two weeks ago, there were none). This is the Swiss subspecies,
berisalii:
It seems to be early still for ilex hairstreaks but I did see one individual:
Southern white admirals were prominent, with at least ten individuals crossing my path today. Most behaved absolutely normally, defending territories vigorously against all comers while keeping a wary distance from me. One, however, was obviously deeply atracted by the odours emanating from my body and flew round me a couple of times before landing in the most awkward possible place - on my left heel:
It then crawled up the back of my trousers and jumped onto my camera bag, swung round behind me on the right. I was also wearing a backpack and it was with some considerable contortion that I managed to take some pictures of the butterfly as it manoevred behind my back!
That was an amusing encounter. My next surprise was an early grayling. Last year I saw my first grayling at the beginning of June but last year was exceptional. I didn't expect to see one today. Here it is:
It is a strange time of year. Pristine
hutchinsoni commas were flying alongside last season's commas. Brimstones and orange tips gave everything a spring feel but they flew along the edges of fields filled with marbled whites. This Camberwell beauty will probably die before his children are born but if he just holds out a little longer...
Large skipper, small skipper and Essex skipper are all common now. Here is an Essex skipper taking mud:
As always, I took hundreds of photos, so here is a selection:
Marbled skipper
Safflower skipper
Knapweed fritillary
Scarce swallowtail
Osiris blue
Northern brown argus
Amanda's blue (female)
Swiss Zephyr blue
Turquoise blue
Mazarine blue
Large skipper
Queen of Spain
In all, 46 species crossed my path today and I got a photo of most of them - so that will do for now.
Guy