![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2012/18dec2012a.jpg)
At higher altitudes a lot of snow has fallen, guaranteeing a good early ski season, if any of you have booked winter holidays here!
Today the forecast was for wall-to-wall sunshine in Valais and this proved accurate, apart from a cloudy spell between 10h00 and 11h00. It felt warm too - my last vineyard ramble of 2012 (back to Suffolk tomorrow) was balmy and pleasant. But no butterflies flew. I checked the usual late hotspots for Queen of Spain, clouded yellow and red admiral without seeing a single lep, though loads of flies and Hymenopterans were on the wing.
This is a sunny bank where small tortoiseshells are guaranteed if a similar day happens after the solstice. Here, this species never flies before the days begin to lengthen but is quickly on the wing on the first warm day after this.
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2012/19dec2012e.jpg)
The usual winter flocks of finches and tits included a few rock buntings:
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2012/rockbunting19dec2012a.jpg)
Here are some more pics of Martigny and the vineyards in winter. A mild Christmas is forecast so it is quite likely there will be butterflies flying here on a sunny day in January.
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2012/19dec2012a.jpg)
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2012/19dec2012b.jpg)
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2012/19dec2012d.jpg)
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2012/19dec2012g.jpg)
This picture, snatched from a moving bus on the way home, shows the dangers of going too close to the side of the road in this part of the world! That's the second person to go off just there in the last week.
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2012/19dec2012ii.jpg)
Guy