www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Tonight the skies cleared so I decided to photograph an Iridium flare, predicted for just after 23h44m30s, right next to Procyon.

At 23h30 I took the camera and tripod to a site near my house where the setting Procyon was just visible through a gap in the trees and waited patiently. At 23h40 I took a practice shot, then turned the camera off. At 23h44 I turned the camera back on and at 23h44m28s clicked the shutter, set for a 2s delay. To my immense delight, the Iridium satellite appeared just above and to the right of Procyon and my 15s exposure caught most of its flare:



That is Castor and Pollux, the Heavenly Twins, standing above the horizon to the right, holding hands.



Pity about the street light.

Again, here is the detail from heavens-above.com that enabled me to time the shot to perfection:



Finally, here is the Rhône Valley by night:



Guy

EDIT: It's late at night and I have had a few beers, I must admit, but I'm super-confused now. The satellite appeared at exactly the right time, in exactly the right place, but what I saw in the sky was moving from right to left. It should have been moving left to right. The camera has definitely caught a satellite, as planes leave dotted tracks in a time exposure and they're not nearly so bright.

I don't believe it-East Anglia has better weather than CH! It only happens twice a year.

You are a man of many talents,Guy.
I,like many others,enjoy reading your diary,keep up the good work.

It's very kind of you, Essex Buzzard! I also thoroughly enjoy reading your diary.

I'm feeling rather dim right now, though. Without doubt, my camera has just recorded the Iridium flare, but what I saw in the sky myself clearly wasn't that satellite, as it was definitely going in the wrong direction. It appeared just after I had clicked the shutter and my immediate reaction was to look at the camera to ensure it was recording an exposure. While I was looking at the LCD, which dazzles the eyes a bit, the real Iridium satellite must have flared (bang on time) and got itself photographed. By coincidence, I must have seen another satellite or perhaps a plane even, too dim to leave a track at the ISO I had chosen.

I'm definitely a beginner at this!

Guy

After school I visited my blue site again, in the hope of a short-tailed blue. The weather was iffy - wind and ominous clouds - but I was still surprised to see not a single blue. The vetches were out in force and the meadow was heavy with the flowery scent of honey on hot toast:


(Bird's foot trefoil, horseshoe vetch, kidney vetch and yellow clovers and medicks)

Orange tips were drifting around, as well as other whites, and a fresh male violet fritillary showed that the site is beginning to wake up. Normally this species is about from the end of March:



This picture gives a feel for the conditions:



I live on the mountain shrouded in cloud there!

Back home I checked on my brown hairstreak egg and found he had hatched!



I couldn't see him but the leaves were still quite tightly furled and he was probably tucked up safe in a leaf bud. When they open fully it will be harder for him to hide from me:



Somebody has begun nibbling in here - time will tell if it was my little friend.



Guy

Just a thought about the confusion. UTC and CET perhaps?

I won't be getting confused at the moment due to alcohol. I am on some mediaction for a troublesome knee and the medication and alcohol clash

Jack

A good suggestion, Jack, but it wasn't that - the site gives me local time (as verified by other sightings, as of the ISS for example), and in any case it would be quite remarkable if there were two flares exactly one hour apart, to the second, in exactly the same place. It's strange that there is no trace of the object moving right-left in my picture but it was a relatively faint object and I was only using ISO 400. The object that left the trail must have been many times brighter than Procyon, given that the star got 15 s of exposure and the moving object would have got the equivalent of about 1/100 s (a figure I calculated for the ISS, which covered ten times its own length in a 1/10 s exposure). I have no doubt that the picture shows the Iridium flare.

I will repeat the experiment, though. There's a bright flare in Perseus tomorrow morning at 05h58m20s and a repeat of last night's tomorrow night near Procyon at 23h41m30s. There are also two flares tonight by Procyon, but these are only -2 and -3 mags, whereas last night's was -6, as are the two tomorrow. I'll probably go for the 05h58 one as if it is clear the of mountains (I'll do the calculations before I go to bed) it will be rather higher in the sky and set against a much better backdrop, without streetlamps.

Guy

I didn't do the early morning stint! There was a lot of haze around when I let the cat out at 05h00 so I went back to bed and slept through.

In fact, the morning turned out to be glorious, so at lunch I checked some very local sites. It seems (I had very little time) there are no green hairstreaks or grizzled skippers out in Huémoz yet - very tardy for May - but wood whites were common, dithering around the meadows. In the woods, no bugle was showing and no sniff of pearl-bordered fritillaries. Only orange tips were out in force, both males and females. I checked Tiberius' tree without finding him, though a very few nibbled leaves showed the right pattern and I haven't given up on him yet. Over the next week I think it will become apparent whether he is alive or not, as iris feeding patterns on young leaves are quite easy to spot.

Cycling back up the hill I spotted a female orange tip laying on garlic mustard next to the road, on the inside of a bend. At risk to my life I took a couple of pictures:





That egg is literally seconds old. Before long it will turn orange.

By the time I left school in the evening the weather had turned again: rain, thunder and lightning. That is set to be the pattern for the next few days.

Guy

EDIT: Now I look at the photo, it doesn't look like garlic mustard ... I'll check.

I forgot to say: I disturbed a painted lady as I left the site yesterday. That's a good sign - they normally reach my region in about mid-May. But one painted lady doesn't make a 2009, so I'll keep you posted.

Guy

It's been hard work finding butterflies this year. I reached 41 species (after a lot of footwork in Málaga in March) on 14th April and haven't had a year tick since, until today. And today was hard work.

The forecast for Switzerland was pretty lousy but rather better for North Italy, so I headed out that way, if only to spend a morning actually seeing butterflies rather than plodding around under grey skies. My first site was in full sun when I arrived at about 09h30 but almost nothing was on the wing. 'Almost', because a chequered blue came to greet me and I rapidly saw up to half a dozen more. Italian chequered blues are much brighter than their Swiss counterparts so I was delighted to spend some time with them even if nothing else was flying.





I took a little time to study the now green nettle trees, which are a very characteristic plant at this time of year. Many of them grew out of vertical rock walls:



I also looked for nettle tree butterfly larvae, but without success. I saw just one lep or sawfly larva but when he saw me he disappeared back inside a leaf tube and never reappeared.

I left that site a couple of hours later having seen only a single small white and a single possible nettle tree butterfly in addition to the chequered blues. Most strange - not a green hairstreak, not a small copper, not a sooty copper ... There was a little wind and cloud cover for some 50% of the time, but even so the lack of butterflies was surprising. So I headed up the valley to where I hoped to find Camberwell beauties. Again, almost nothing. Here, wood whites and orange tips were the commonest species, with green-veined whites drifting around too. Two painted ladies were a promising sign for the cardui year to come - this is still early.


(wood white)


(green-veined white)

As I was looking, somewhat despondently, at my iPhone, I felt wind in my ears and looked up to see a Camberwell beauty buzzing me - perhaps attracted by my white hat. That was a big plus - and my first year tick of the day - even though it didn't stop at all.

Back down the valley to Domodossola, where I found they absolutely wouldn't take my bike on the train I wanted to catch. That gave me an hour to use (NEVER kill time - use it) before the next train, which would take bikes, so I cycled back out of town and grabbed 15 minutes in a grassy area not far away. There again, almost nothing was flying, but I did see an Everes blue lift out of the vegetation and I felt intuitively sure it was argiades. I followed it and confirmed this - although the ID was not entirely obvious as there was very little orange visible under the hindwing. It was very difficult to get a photo because he only really wanted to show his upperside and I needed a good clear view of the underside - I didn't have my net with me. This picture was when a gust of wind caught his wings and closed them a little:


(notice the very long tail on the hindwing - quite different from that of Provençal short-tailed blue)

Back in Switzerland an hour later than planned I felt there was still just time to try for Camberwell beauty at a site near Brig (where the train from Italy arrives). In breaks in the cloud I did indeed find a beauty, as well as numbers of orange tips, wood whites, a Provençal short-tailed blue, a grizzled skipper, a probable southern small white, a speckled wood and two more painted ladies sparring for the same late sun spot.


(Camberwell beauty contemplating the road ahead)


(I've learnt how to get really close to this species)




(Provençal short-tailed blue - note the almost vestigial tail)




(Wood white egg)

I don't know if it was just the weather today, but all in all this was a poor showing for early May. I hope the year is simply late and that numbers will begin to build up if we get better weather. The possibility can't be ignored that last year's very unfavourable conditions had a drastic effect on some species.

Guy

Your "poor showing" looks great to me!! The chequered blue is stunning. All of the butterflies you have photographed other than the painted lady are butterflies I have never seen myself. I would love to have a week in Switzerland or Italy to see some of those species. There was nothing flying here today, but the forecast for tomorrow looks more promising.

I watched a BBC weather forecast a couple of weeks ago outlining how the jet stream had shifted to the south and consequently all the damaging low pressure systems were being forced over northern Spain, southern France and northern Italy.

Perhaps this is why la belle Suisse is somewhat more retarded than usual in terms of emergence?

contemplating the road ahead

That lovely smooth road is a carbon copy of many on Mull. Sadly one thing is missing here.

Jack

Hi Nick. Switzerland is a little like the UK in the frequency of rain stopping play, so I should plan more than a single week if you do come out here! But so long as you get a few days of good weather you won't be disappointed. As you will have gathered from my diary, there is a wealth of species to be seen, especially in the remarkable Rhône Valley and neighbouring hills. Camberwell beauties, like large tortoiseshells, are far more easily viewed in the spring, when very few butterfliers visit - they normally come for the upland stuff, later in the year. In western Switzerland, chequered blues are a spring butterfly too, and single brooded, though further east they are double brooded. But basically, if the butterflies on this page are lifers for you, you will have a good time whenever you come!

Thanks for the explanation, David! I must say, I'm very glad that up in the UK you are finally getting the fine weather you deserve!

Jack, I guess you're referring to that insect I nearly trod on ... I presume it's not totally out of the question for a Scandinavian Camberwell beauty to turn up on Mull later in the year. But I wouldn't count on it.

Guy

Showing with Camberwell Beauty included is never a poor showing

By the way, Chequered Blue has even partial third brood in good years in southern CZE - weird. Quite a rare animal.

Please excuse the intrusion onto your blog Guy, but your recent night-time photography encouraged me to try some startrails...
Not many mountains for foregrounds here in the fens, so I wondered what it would look like if I used a nearby Radio Telescope and shot through the framework.
As digital sensors warm up too much if the shutter is left open for too long, I had to take multiple exposures and stitch them all together, but I was pretty pleased with the outcome. I had tried to position my tripod to get the pole star in the centre of the dish and I wasn't far out as the curves almost exactly follow the outside of the dish. I've probably missed a few frames as there are some slight gaps, but this was around one hour's worth of exposures (click for bigger version):
Trev

That's impressive Trev. A worthy variation on much covered theme on Astronomy Picture of the Day. For example:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130303.html

or

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121010.html

Jack

Thanks Trev and Jack. Yes - most impressive. I don't think I could do the same with my camera, being restricted to 15 second exposures, followed by 15 seconds of processing time! And Marek - you're right: no Camberwell beauty day is a bad day!

I Joined Matt Rowlings this morning for a foray at our favourite rosy grizzled skipper site. This turned out to be covered in horses, so did not prove fruitful - but it is only where they nectar, not where they breed, so the species will not be affected. In any case, we soon found two rosies nearby, engaging in another of their favourite activities, 'puddling' (often not actually in a puddle). These are both the same one:




(poor shot, but shows the unmistakable underside, should anyone doubt the ID!)

Here is Matt, checking his LCD to make sure his picture of the rosy is at least as good as mine:



In general, it was a successful morning, the full species list being: Small white, green-veined white, large white, southern small white, orange tip, Eastern Bath white, wood white, Berger's clouded yellow, brimstone, swallowtail, scarce swallowtail, common blue, Chapman's blue, baton blue, Adonis blue, green-underside blue, holly blue, Provençal short-tailed blue, green hairstreak, small tortoiseshell, red admiral, peacock, comma, Queen of Spain, Glanville fritillary, small heath, speckled wood, wall, de Prunner's ringlet, rosy grizzled skipper and dingy skipper.

This is a baton blue, diminutive cousin of yesterday's chequered blues:



These cockchafers were living up to their name, in what can only be described as an orgy in the oaks (living up to their name of maybug, I meant ...).





I split at midday. My target for the day had been to see both rosy grizzled skipper and Oberthür's grizzled skipper, which meant heading off to another site in the afternoon. I also wanted to find fresh Dukes, which fly near the Oberthür's. In the event, it turned out Oberthür's were not flying yet - instead, their meadow buzzed with grizzlies (malvoides):





Normally, the first brood grizzlies are on their way out when the Oberthür's fly, so I think this is another example of the year being late. But the Dukes were fresh and obliging:





The sky was alternately clear and overcast. During one of the overcast patches, this green-underside blue offered lovely views of its blue upperside:



Yesterday, I saw a beetle sitting atop a grass stem, as if impaled. Today I saw exactly the same thing, in what must be the same species of beetle:



If anyone can name it, I'd be interested to know.

Here is a green hairstreak from the same site:



Up close and personal ...



A dingy skipper:



And a military orchid:



I took advantage of a cloudy spell to cycle up the hill to meadows I've not explored before, pausing en route at a small site where violet fritillaries were common and various blues were active.



It was mostly cloudy when I reached the new meadows and I saw little, though it was a pleasant walk. What I did see was this little blue:





I spent some time studying and photographing it, despite the poor light, as the shape of the wings and the appearance of slight chequering made me uncertain whether it was a little blue or a female Provençal short-tailed blue - the latter can be deceptively plain and sometimes has the barest kink in the wing instead of a tail. I'm pretty sure this is a male little blue, though. Green-underside was the predominant blue in these meadows, hanging around the edges near trees and shrubbery, and green hairstreaks hung in long after the sun had gone:



33 species of butterfly seen today. Things are looking up!

Guy

padfield wrote: 33 species of butterfly seen today. Things are looking up!

...and to think a fortnight ago you were submerged in snow!!

33 species in a single day over here would unquestionably lead to a steward's enquiry.

Lovely shots as ever, Guy. Let's hope for a continuation of the day's success over the forthcoming few weeks.

Thank you, David.

Up here in the mountains things are finally beginning to move too. In a gap between lessons I cycled to some local meadows, at about 1100m, where violet fritillaries were flying and the first upland Queens were on the wing. Here are one of each:





The violet fritillary shows quite normal melanism for this altitude at this time of year.

There was very little else flying. No grizzlies, for example - a 'postcode tick' I was hoping to get today (malvoides flies in the valley, while malvae flies up here).

My violet copper sites, higher up the mountain, are still snow-covered, so that species is likely to be rather late this year!

Guy

i'd offer a click beetle, Agrypnus murinus is similar, don't know if you have similar species over there.

Chris