Padfield

[David M]

Fair play. This is legendary stuff.

Your trip to England will now take place without fretting about your adopted charge's welfare.

[Padfield]

DAY 14

Thanks again for your enthusiasm, Pete and David! I won't post any more pictures of Tiberius until September now, but here he is in all his glory this morning. I've inset a photo of him on day 1 to illustrate what has happened in the last two weeks:





There were heavy thunderstorms again last night - torrential at times - but he seems to have had no difficulty clinging onto his leaf.

Guy

[NickB]

Great stuff indeed, Guy.
How does it feel to be a Dad again?
N
Yes, Pete - Our very own "Autumn Watch"
(Eat your heart out Chris Packham & Michaela Strachan, this is much better )

[Padfield]

It feels great, Nick!

I leave tomorrow for England so had a quick wander to the woods this morning to say cheerio. After more torrential rain last night I think a lot of butterflies are feeling sorry for themselves but there are still a few around. Silver-washed fritillaries have had an excellent year and were numerous, males as well as females. There was also at least one high brown fritillary still on the wing.



Despite the brown edges, this is a male Provençal short-tailed blue:



I did say no more photos of Tiberius until September, but I thought maybe just this one, while he is still tiny, to illustrate how difficult it is to spot a 2nd instar caterpillar:



He's on the leaf pointing to the bottom right-hand corner. His birth leaf is the one up to the left of that, with the white spot (where the egg was), and now shows some signs of nibbling around the tip.

Other species on the wing included Scotch argus, red admiral, comma and, in the more open parts of the woods, dryads, which are now out in force. Here is a female (with another visible towards the top left of the picture):



They rarely display their uppersides so obligingly but when they do they are a truly gorgeous butterfly.

Guy

[Padfield]

Roger Gibbons has very politely PM'd me to say the fritillary above is a high brown and not a silver-washed! Shame on me! I've edited the text to reflect this.

There are still silver-washed frits around, in increasing states of dilapidation, but that butterfly was not one of them...

Thanks Roger - and to anyone else who thought that but didn't like to say.

Guy

[Padfield]

I arrived in Suffolk on Sunday night. Unlike much of the country, we enjoyed morning sun on bank holiday Monday and I was able to make friends with a female holly blue in the garden:



It was too windy for her to open her wings except when I held her in the lee of my body.

A cloudy afternoon walk with my parents produced few butterflies but graylings didn't seem to mind the weather:



Today I cycled around favourite purple hairstreak haunts without managing to find any. Although there must still be some on the wing it is probably too late for the main rush of the species. Suffolk has a distinctly autumnal feel to it and most of the action was on brambles. As I've noted in previous reports from Switzerland, graylings are particularly fond of fruit:





Other species hanging around the brambles were red admirals ...



... and speckled woods:



I despair of standards in education these days, especially grammar and punctuation. I found a signpost today where 'Public footpath' was spelt with a comma:



Shocking.

Guy

[NickB]

Indeed! I found this Comma punctuating an old message....!

[David M]

Indeed! I found this Comma punctuating an old message....!

I dread to think what's attracted it to that.

[Padfield]

Thanks Nick. We are reminded of the simple innocence of butterflies.

I saw rather little in my brief stay in Suffolk, even though the South-east probably got the best of the weather. It was nice to find graylings so commonly, though, and still in excellent condition. One evening, after my father had spent the afternoon playing tennis, we went for a sea swim and found the species out on the shingle beach. Its camouflage worked very well against the stones:



I have the impression this butterfly has flourished and probably spread over the last few years but it is difficult to tell as I am out of the country so much of the time.

Having got back to Switzerland last night my first chance to check on Tiberius was after school this evening. The days are shortening rapidly and even at 17h45 it was too dim in his shady corner to get decent pictures but I was very pleased to see he is still thriving. He wasn't on the resting leaf where I last saw him but I suspect he continued (or perhaps continues) to use it as it appeared densely covered with silk at the tip, visible even from some distance:



Many leaves on the branch where he lives showed signs of iris nibbling and I believe he wanders quite freely to feed. I found him, after some careful searching, a distance of over 60cm from that rest leaf, on a well nibbled leaf that did not have a silk pad - so he was probably out on a foraging trip:



One of the leaves with obvious iris damage was over a metre away from the rest leaf. I am satisfied there is only one iris cat on the branch.

This is the best I could do for a photo in the poor light:



Guy

[Padfield]

When I got back to Switzerland a week ago there was a distinctly autumnal nip in the air. Today it seemed as if summer had returned. There was masses on the wing in the Rhône Valley and even though the dandelion field where I had hoped to do a lot of photography had been grazed recently, so there were no dandelions, I still got a few pictures.

As usual at this time of year, tree graylings were the most numerous and conspicuous species, often flying up in dozens around me as I passed their gathering spots. These will not be the last tree grayling piccies of the year ...







I saw just a single 'British' grayling.

Second brood southern white admirals were still on the wing...



... and this long-tailed blue was absolutely pristine. I was trying to video it on the ground but it preferred to jump onto my hand and once it had the taste never looked back:



This video shows how the tails, waving in the wind, add to the impression the head is the wrong end:

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

Here it is on the ground before it developed a more sophisticated palate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuDOeTUGzR0[/video]

I also filmed a female, nectaring by the river, and saw at least another three, in different places. I have never seen so many of this species before in Switzerland. Here is the female, showing her upperside. Not such a pristine young lady:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qv3RBGeJqY[/video]

Love was in the air for turquoise blues, the species that is its own Valentine's day card, covered in little hearts:



Love was also in the air for these southern small whites:



British species on the wing included chalkhill and Adonis blues:





Here is a comma. This one is starski but there were several hutchinsoni about too (I know that's now a tired old joke but it's what I call them ):



There was plenty else flying, including spotted and Queen of Spain fritillaries, rosy grizzled skippers, small heaths, small coppers, small, green-veined and large whites, brimstones, clouded and Berger's pale clouded yellows, Bath whites, common blues, Chapman's blues, Provençal short-tailed blues, northern brown and brown arguses, walls and speckled woods and more besides.

Probably the most unusual September sighting was a single large tortoiseshell, seen only in flight. I wondered for a moment if it was just a huge comma but it flew over my head, allowing its wing shape to be clearly visible.

Dryads are still around:



I've got a very busy term coming up but it looks as though the work will be punctuated by good butterfly days for some time to come.

Guy

[David M]

Lovely images, Guy.

By the way, how far from Crans-sur-Sierre golf course are you? I was watching coverage last weekend and I could have sworn one of the valley shots was identical to those you regularly post.

[Padfield]

By the way, how far from Crans-sur-Sierre golf course are you? I was watching coverage last weekend and I could have sworn one of the valley shots was identical to those you regularly post.

When I say 'Rhône Valley' I usually mean somewhere along the valley, or up a tributary valley, between Martigny and Brig. That's quite a long way, but it's a straight valley and the views looking one way or the other can be pretty similar! I am often near Sierre but rarely go up on the Crans side, even though it has great significance for me. It was while holidaying with a tetraplegic friend (he paid everything, I was wheelchair muscle!) in Crans many years ago that I decided to get a job in Switzerland. He used to get up late. One morning, having got up and out long before him, I suddenly realised what a staggeringly beautiful place it was, so I popped into the tourist office and got a booklet of all the international schools in Vaud. I then worked through the booklet until one of them (Aiglon College) said they needed a maths teacher for the coming term. I popped over for a quick interview and that was that.

Today, indeed, I was down in the Rhône Valley, after nipping into my local woods to see if Tiberius was around (no trace of him to be found) and into another local site to film male long-tailed blues before the day got too hot and they got too aggressive. This one opened its wings beautifully for me while it nectared on bird's foot trefoil:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRGRF79CkRc[/video]

In the valley proper there was much flying but still rather less than this time last year. That said, every autumn seems to be different and today, like last week, there were southern white admirals on the wing - something I've never seen before in September.







This species has really thrived this year.

As usual, tree graylings defined the autumn scene...



... with 'ordinary' graylings scattered sparsely among them:



There's nothing ordinary about graylings, I must add - they are very special butterflies.

Plenty of blues, again as to be expected. Here is a sample:


(Adonis)


(Chalkhill)


(Common)


(Chapman's)


(Turquoise)


(Provençal short-tailed)


(Northern brown argus)

I saw a single, very tattered, baton blue, which didn't settle.

This looks like a pretty scene with a Provençal short-tailed blue peacefully nectaring:



Appearances can be deceptive. The blue is dead and is being held up by an amazingly camouflaged spider, whose legs you can just make out poking up from the flower in the picture above, near the abdomen. The spider had got the shade of yellow spot on.



Skippers seem to be all but over. I saw a single Pyrgus skipper today, which I believe to be rosy grizzled, but it flew before I could see the underside and I couldn't follow it as it buzzed off.



It is entirely compatible with late generations of rosy grizzly, which often have very well marked hindwings.

There were plenty of speckled woods lurking in the autumnal verges:



The whites were into what must be their third brood, with some very fresh specimens about. This is a southern small white:





The grapes are fat and ready for picking:



Indeed, in a sunny bend in the path I took back to the station there were tables and glasses all laid out for some pre-vendange party to which I wasn't invited... The Swiss take their wine very seriously.



Guy

[David M]

That spider shot is amazing. The level of camouflage is simply staggering.

By the way, why don't we ever see Swiss wine in UK supermarkets?

[Padfield]

By the way, why don't we ever see Swiss wine in UK supermarkets?

I guess the area of land covered with vineyards is actually quite small in Switzerland, what with all the mountains! Whatever the reason, almost all of the wine produced is consumed domestically, despite it selling in the shops for considerably more than comparable French wines.

Guy

[NickB]

By the way, why don't we ever see Swiss wine in UK supermarkets?

They drink it all; what would you do - sell it to the Brits?
(Only when as Guy says, very expensive compared to French plonk! It can be very good, as one would expect; it is Switzerland!)
N

[Cotswold Cockney]

...
This looks like a pretty scene with a Provençal short-tailed blue peacefully nectaring:



Appearances can be deceptive. The blue is dead and is being held up by an amazingly camouflaged spider, whose legs you can just make out poking up from the flower in the picture above, near the abdomen. The spider had got the shade of yellow spot on.

I frequently find Crab Spiders even in my small garden. Plenty of colourful flowers for them to lurk within as my better half is a keen gardener and loves flowers. The spiders' colour matches are remarkable. I have seen bight pink, pure white and vibrant yellow ones in the garden. I sometimes see smaller ones ( juveniles ? ) in the garden and these are usually a drab grey colour.

Some years ago, I saw a bright yellow one which had caught and killed a Pearl Bordered Fritillary ( A. euphrosyne ) which had tried to nectar on a Dandelion.
.

[Padfield]

A very short trip on Sunday morning led to an encounter with another predatory master of camouflage, and one of my all-time favourite insects:



That's the closest a mantis comes to smiling for the camera...

Here's a couple of tree graylings:



Numbers of most species were lower than I remember in recent times for mid-September.

Guy

[NickMorgan]

Fantastic pictures, Guy. It seems alien to see so many species and the thought of filming the Long-tailed Blues before it gets too hot! It is decidedly autumnal here in Scotland now!

[Padfield]

Well, it is feeling more autumnal here now, Nick, but there are still a few species on the wing. I really enjoy going out butterflying at this time of year because everything seems special. It is a pleasure to see every species and because there is less flying it is possible to spend time with butterflies you would pass over in July.

I visited a single site in Valais today, arriving at about 11.00am (the weather is distinctly cooler now and there's no point in getting up at the crack of dawn). Many butterflies were worn and end-of-seasony but the site was a hive of activity. Surprisingly, five species of fritillary were still flying. Here is a spotted fritillary (the butterfly in the background is a wall):



High brown:



Niobe:



Silver-washed:



The fifth fritillary was, unsurprisingly, Queen of Spain.

Equally unsurprisingly, grayling species dominated today. Here is a tree grayling basking with its wings fully spread - a relatively rare sight:



British graylings were out in good numbers:



Finally, a few dryads (also graylings of a sort) were still flying:



Other Satyrids included small heath, speckled wood, wall and large wall. Here is a large wall:



Lots of blues flying. Adonis blue is quite striking at this time of year, when most other species are looking faded:



This is a common blue:



A few more blues:


(Chalkhill)


(Northern brown argus)


(Provençal short-tailed)

I only saw two skippers. The first was a female olive skipper ...


(I never saw the underside of this butterfly but the only Pyrgus I know with certainty to fly at the site are serratulae, armoricanus and malvoides - of which the latter two are not options. There are no onopordi there, leaving only alveus (a very variable species) as an alternative possibility for this individual. I think serratulae is a fairly safe bet).

... and the second a female silver-spotted skipper:



Other species included small copper, small tortoiseshell, small, southern small and green-veined whites and Berger's clouded yellows.



Guy

[David M]

Lovely shots as ever, Guy.

I agree entirely that this time of year allows one to enjoy the company of butterflies simply because they're still there, rather than feeling any pressure to ensure that one sees as wide a variety of species as possible. The same applies in early spring; any butterfly is welcome regardless of how common/rare it is.

I must admit I'm surprised to see High Browns are still on the wing. Are they double brooded in central/southern Europe?