I think we're lucky that way, David.
Minnie had her first trip to Italy today - and yes, her passport was checked (as was mine) on the train during the return journey! This is about making sure her rabies vaccinations are up to date, rather than immigration, of course.
Our targets were large chequered skipper, Hungarian glider and the summer brood of nettle tree butterfly. I had prospected for large chequered skippers earlier in the year and thought I had found a good spot. Today proved me right - plenty of these delightful creatures were bobbing around like cheerful puppets on invisible strings. They were very restless - rarely settling and constantly going after other butterflies. But rather than chasing them they were sort of bouncing them - the Tiggers of the butterfly world. It was a real pleasure to spend time with them.
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2014/morpheus3july2014b.jpg)
(male, with meadow brown behind)
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2014/morpheus3july2014c.jpg)
(female)
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2014/morpheus3july2014f.jpg)
(male)
Unfortunately, that site involved quite a hill climb, with Minni on my back, and to get to the glider site I had to go back down to the valley and then climb up again, this time rather higher. She is only 6kg, but with 2 litres of liquid and sundry extras in my frontpack I got a very serious workout and arrived exhausted. Minnie arrived raring to go!
Gliders were thin on the ground but I found a spot where two or three were constantly present - and constantly flying. I didn't see any of them touch leaf or ground in an hour of standing and watching. It didn't really matter - I've photographed them before. The great thing is just that they were there.
Elsewhere on the site MInnie came across her first purple emperor:
He was a magnificent, freshly emerged specimen.
At the glider site I saw a couple of nettle tree butterflies. Both were taking minerals on the same road as the emperor. I stopped off at another site on the way back down, though, and saw much more significant activity. Many books say nettle tree butterfly is single-brooded but my Swiss reference says it has a short-lived summer brood that gives rise to the hibernating generation. Today I watched a female busily occupied with ovipositing on a large, full-leaved nettle tree. That rather supports the double-brooded theory!
Otherwise, second brood chequered blues were on the wing, dryads were common (they are a late July butterfly around Huémoz) and scarce, sooty and purple-shot coppers were all flying. I thought I saw a woodland grayling, but couldn't be sure - then found a dead one on the road. So I'm counting my first sighting! When I've cleaned up and recovered a bit from today's exertions I'll measure it up and post scans of ups and uns for reference.
A few Minnie piccies from the day:
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2014/phoebeminnie3july2014a.jpg)
(knapweed fritillary)
Guy