www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

He's a real tease, isn't he?

Marek, you ARE an annoying Czech!

Looks like you just damned our weather forecast, Guy...

Anyway, here's my first 2013 Common Blue from the transect site, frozen and probably a bit drenched but apparently new-born. Since I totally lacked the sunlight, I leastwise fixed the straw behind the electric fencer to reduce a wind factor...

I sincerely hope that you are managing to keep your head above the water, Marek.

news of the floods has now reached our TV screens

Mike

Yes, it's pretty grim looking with the Vltava possibly set to burst its banks. Hopefully the rain will stop and the drying process will take over.

Thanks for your (for me a bit surprising) interest, guys. I can assure you I'm 100% safe now, just as whole Silesia and majority of Moravia.

As for the floods, Czechs absolutely deserve it. Who lives with the sword dies with the sword.

I'm talking about massive meliorations, forestry changes, narrowed river banks... Do I need to continue?

So, I can find sorrow for the separate individuals but not for the Czech nation as a whole.

Still, Prague, the city of hundred spires half below the water level is probably something that UNESCO won't like to see, the same way as Cesky Krumlov.

The Annoying Czech wrote:Thanks for your (for me a bit surprising) interest, guys. I can assure you I'm 100% safe now, just as whole Silesia and majority of Moravia.

As for the floods, Czechs absolutely deserve it. Who lives with the sword dies with the sword.

I'm talking about massive meliorations, forestry changes, narrowed river banks... Do I need to continue?

So, I can find sorrow for the separate individuals but not for the Czech nation as a whole.

Still, Prague, the city of hundred spires half below the water level is probably something that UNESCO won't like to see, the same way as Cesky Krumlov.

Illuminating post that, Marek.

Our interest stems purely and simply from genuine concern. No rational person likes to see others suffer as a result of severe weather phenomena.

Regarding the chickens coming home to roost for the Czech Republic - well, I'm not even a beginner let alone an expert but Prague wouldn't be the only capital city at risk of a catastrophic 'once in a hundred years' weather event.

Perhaps if these became 'once in every 20 years' events then politics would catch up with meteorology!

I migrated to South Moravia in July 8-9 once again, being astonished at visited biotopes and even relatively (but not ultimately) satisfied with the photos. The site-list mainly consist of:

• Havraníky heath, Podyjí

• Pod Šobesem, Podyjí (+ Dyje river canyon surroundings)

• Hodonínská doubrava, Hodonín (Mitterwald )

• Pánov ex-military training site

I encountered more than 30 species, Clouded Apollo, Poplar Admiral, Granville Fritillary, Assmann's Fritillary, Woodland Brown, Purple-shot Copper, Large Copper, Provencal Short-tailed Blue, Olive Skipper and Sallflower Skipper to name some notable species.

For lack of time I'm about to focus on open woodland forest called Hodonínská doubrava today, since it was a highly charismatic place - one of the top I've seen so far.

The first and the last reason was an important Woodland Brown population I furiously chased for a couple of hours, being eventually successful round a stinky cratch with aggregating males (colleague I met in the forest in the meanwhile highly recommended me st. like a dead hedgedog as an attractant; I even saw one imago on a living snail).

I made many photos of the very same individual but only rearwing shot did end up well (1). Possibly a hardest target so far, heat, mosquito outbreak, contrejour lighting (2), twilight and wacky nature of the butterfly to name the biggest problems.

Below, you can see the spots achine does (3) and doesn't (4) inhabit.

Marginally, I witnessed and documented sexual act of Pearly Heaths from beginning to the end (5-7).

More stuff soon.

P.S. it's possible I reached (or came near) the technical limits of my equipment (esp. with photo 5) = probably switching to Canon from 2014.

I love the woodland brown shots. This species is quite common in my part of Switzerland, even though it is more generally rare - but it is very difficult to photograph! I think it has good ears. The autofocus on my last camera was too loud for it and it would invariably fly off just as I took close-up shots.

None on the wing here yet. I don't expect them for a few weeks, given the weather.

Guy

padfield wrote:I love the woodland brown shots. This species is quite common in my part of Switzerland, even though it is more generally rare - but it is very difficult to photograph! I think it has good ears. The autofocus on my last camera was too loud for it and it would invariably fly off just as I took close-up shots.

None on the wing here yet. I don't expect them for a few weeks, given the weather.

Guy

Those are important shots for me and quickly becoming famous

The species is basically dying here and this is the last thriving bastion of hope, managed, protected and much-sought-for (possibly 3rd after apollo - only app. 30 km far from me - and maturna sites). No wonder; that beast is extinct even in Bulgaria.

But in alt. 200. Therefore a June butterfly.

I'm clearly more butterflying than writing reports these days, so this brief post to fill the gap:

• Visiting Havraníky Heath and the surroundings (alcetas, dispar and mnemosyne among others crammed at one site, I'd love it)

• Monitoring in two large villages in Eastern Beskydy Mts., today and yesterday, app. 25 species seen (selene, euphrosyne, athalia, medusa, hippothoe, alciphron, statices...). Could end up worst respecting the weather conditions

• I made tonns of photos as usual, good, bad, average... light, no light... But I have entirely no motivation to polish and upload worst ones of (for me) relatively common species, I apologize. I still have some serious cinxia and bellargus todo's on my HDD though

Have a good hunts, Brits,

This year, Brenthis ino activated around June 15 (2012: May 29) but seems to be more and more numerous year in year. That can be explained with expansion of filipendula ulmaria but there must be some breaking point of ingrowth. I believe I will know more in the on-coming decades

Large Skippers are present in every wet clearing or bog with thistle and I'd say they absolutely lack the charisma of Brenthis ino

EDIT: one more Lycaena hippothoe, very common in late Spring northern/eastern Beskydy Mts. (sometimes together with selene, athalia, medusa as well), unlike euphrosyne, alciphron and, damn him - semiargus.

I continued searching the nice biotopes in my neighbourhood, focusing on upland meadows and slope juniper pastures used to be grazed for centuries by the ancestors. The places both look and smell great, some of them have the characteristical elements (anthills with thyme, local Carpathian flysch landslips, open canopy of shrubs) still preserved, some of them doesn't.

South-oriented meadows tend to be warmer than I expected, with early, very fresh virgaureae males already on the wing, etc. List of the interesting species includes athalia, selene, glycerion, hippothoe, alciphron, or statices (took one sample for the lab).

Despite cloudy weather I saw dozens of Heath Frit's if not hundreds, so it was a reasonably good place and time to take some pictures; while the imago might have been chosen better (freshier), the bokeh is something I exactly wanted to achieve.

I have neither time nor motivation to photograph 'round my village, perhaps excluding elusive Lesser Purple Emperor (counted 3 ex. during last transect walk) and Black Hairstreak (1 ex. during last transect walk) flying altogether in this wacky year. But I couldn't resist to eternize this noseless Lesser Marbled Fritillary female. The species is clearly more and more abundant in the fen year in year out, as well as its hostplant - filipendula ulmaria. Yesterday I confired second satellite site of LMF.
Since I made a Czech Peatbog Tour during July 2-4, my next two diary updates will look a bit guypadfieldish. Having 105 mm macro, the biotope was to close and small to get a good photo of.
I'm sure I'll return to "Czech Canada" in 2014, it's a highly unique, vacant place to hang around.
As for butterflies, I'll start with Cranberry Fritillary I fell in love with on the instant.
As you may see, every animal was highly individual. Are those just that cool or was I witnessing inbreeding?
They lurk here for the occassional cranberry fields since the Ice Age. At least for the time being. The nearest population is many kilometers far away. This is a female. I've seen some with even crazier drawing and sharper forewings.
I left the site very happy

(To be continued)

If you are messing around in peat bogs I hope you have waterproof equipment!

I have a pair of rubber boots and oodles of optimism! Besides, I'm a lightweight

A lil' intermezzo - not long ago I made a detour after my work. To see just hatched Apollo males, a bit less lazy and clumsy than usual.
To tell the truth, I'm just not that into them any more. Unlike others, its site is so near by...
But after all, I guess it's somehow nice to come back where I started butterfly oriented wandering and photographing. When I saw the difference I understood the progress I made in the meanwhile.

Hi Marek

I have not commented on your diary before but it's high time I did as your photos are great, your stories interesting and the butterflies just amazing. Please keep posting.

Pauline wrote:Hi Marek

I have not commented on your diary before but it's high time I did as your photos are great, your stories interesting and the butterflies just amazing. Please keep posting.

Thank you.

(...)


Another mix of Czech stories. Anyhow I forgot the correct order. Ain't posting everything everything I saw, shot or visited - lack of time.

To come back to Violet Fritillary post, I visited two neighbouring peat bogs with dozens, if not hundreds False Heath Fritillaries (as well as worn SPBFs) but no Violet Frits. The structure of vegetation appeared to be different and the fen-berry "carpets" were missing. Peat bogs related Chapter III. to be continued later.
I found the sole steady animal to work with, making a bunch of photos but ain't too satisfied with any of them.
Some days later, me and my two colleagues found 2M and 1F of False Heath Frits in Beskydy Mts., where we believed to have only one site before the extinction, independently from each other.

I partly moved my research to Těšínské Beskydy Mts. lying along the border with Poland - the land of Poles (?) called "Gorali".
Their access to land use pleased me a lot, and butterfly species found sometimes likewise.
I found only 5 ex. of Mazarine Blue in two bloody days, mainly in Těšínské Beskydy Mts., that's pretty embarassing for the species distribution. So I was extra happy about this photo, possibly more than in case of those tyrfo-beasts. Took me a lot of work to find such a fresh and steady female.
Oh, and forgotten panorama shot I quite like: Mohelno, a tough river valley-type of biotope with some cool species present, such as Woodland Grayling (1 ex.) or Nine-spotted Moth (many ex.).

Hi Marek. Do female mazarine blues often have the orange spot(s) in the anal angle in your part of the world. Reverdin photographed one like that in the Alps and I thought it was pretty unusual.

Guy

No. It's uncommon. Note that the spots we're talking about are very mild even on a fresh female.

Semiarguses are greatly variable here, though. At least females. I still remember one from southern parts of the mountains (where the species is fairly common), May 27 2012 - big, darker and kind of nausithous-ish looking.

Howdy! Long time no see, I know, but we have pretty temperature-crazy July barely seeing a single cloud in the sky. FINALLY

Since people round me started to annoy me with photos of various Erebias, I improvized and joined another photographer on his way to Jeseníky Mts. that are reasonably near, just over the way I'm used to travel.
It is home of (very charming) Mountain Ringlet and (very scarce) Sudeten Ringlet - both populations are still thriving. It is known photographing Erebias tend to be problematic but sudeticas are an extreme.

Since Sudeten Ringlet exists in only four countries in the world, I doubt there is many good-class photos of them, if any. AFAIK, those mine are fairly disastrous.
Arran Brownie was slipping to me since 2011 but this early morning one didn't have a single chance (Of course, in alt. 1 400 many "missed" species are still pleasantly fresh.)
Another fine species I assumed it's too late for you Brits should very well know. It comes from monitoring of Těšínské Beskydy Mts. Good find but far better was discovering of Sloe Hairstreak population near Polish and Slovakian border.
Speaking of which... Come to the dark side, we have cookies... Come to Poland, they have better management
My "daily routine" biotopes currently look like this...
There I found 5 ex. of Niobe Fritillary, an important species for Czech butterfly conservation.
Not much for butterflies yet, but still a great place for filming some old-fashioned story or fairy tale...
Dusky Large Blue made a couple of days ago, maybe already extinct in "my" faunistic square. Don't ask how photos of Scarce Large Blues ended up that day.
Last but not least, various forgotten stuff. Sometimes not exactly "HQ".