I've been unusually quiet recently, mostly because I was preparing for my final interview with the Commune for acquiring Swiss nationality. In principle, this is an oral exam on all things Swiss. They sent out a booklet on Swiss and local history, geography, culture and civic structure, which I learnt off by heart (something I'm still very good at), but in the event we mostly discussed butterflies and dog-training and I'm very proud to say they welcomed me - so the last hurdle to becoming Swiss has been jumped. Now there is just the indeterminate wait while the wheels of administration turn.
Today's target was poplar admiral, for which we travelled to the canton of Geneva. A friend had seen several males last week so I set off with high expectations. However, this is one of the most short-lived species (average lifespan 8 days) and I saw no males today. I was rewarded with two females, the first of which touched down ever so briefly and allowed a poor photo:
The second female didn't stop at all. This was, however, the first time I have ever set out to see poplar admiral and seen it! All my other sightings have been completely at random when I was looking for something else.
If the poplar admirals put on a rather subdued show, the white admirals were in spectacular form. They were flying literally in their thousands - perhaps tens of thousands. This video clip is not a special highlight - they were like this throughout the four hours I spent wandering the forest looking for
populi (Minnie is on a flexi-lead attached to my belt, as this is a nature reserve).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKq0GNbpdwc[/video]
Here are some more shots of white admirals:
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2014/camilla13june2014f.jpg)
(Note the woodland brown,
Lopinga achine, tucked in with that lot)
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2014/camilla13june2014g.jpg)
(Minnie encountered for the first time that great wonder of the dog world, the poo-poo that flies away when you sniff it!)
But I couldn't find a single aberration among them!
Woodland browns were common but very difficult to photograph, not because of their natural shyness but because of the white admirals, that would swoop and dive around me even when I was trying to photograph something else. These were the best I could do:
Other new species for the year were ilex hairstreak and silver-washed fritillary. I also saw a single lesser purple emperor but unfortunately we put it up as it was lurking rather discreetly in the shadows and we were looking for poplar admirals - so no photo.
Guy