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David M wrote:Do you know, Guy, this is the first time ever that I've felt sorry for you...I mean, normally you're teasing us with your stats of 40+ species seen by May Day, but this year thus far Switzerland seems as though it may as well be Sweden!!

NickMorgan wrote:But he's still seen way more butterflies than any of us!!

If we're counting ( ), I'd seen 41 species by 14th April, thanks to that judicious trip to Málaga. The 42nd didn't come along until 4th May, after when finding butterflies in Switzerland was like wringing blood from granite. Friday's pearl-bordered fritillary was no. 57.

But of course, it's not really the numbers that count - it's what's actually happening out there. In 2011 I enjoyed black hairstreaks on 21st May (the day the world was due to end, if anyone remembers!). It's very difficult indeed to imagine they're anywhere near flying at the moment. My local brown hairstreak cat was only about 4mm long on Friday (not a totally fair comparison, as he is at 1000m, rather than about 400m where I see black hairstreaks).

Guy

The snow has all melted again at my altitude and even though more fell this morning the wind seemed to blow it all away by the afternoon.

I checked on Bertie Betulae again in the afternoon. The cows were still in his field but they had moved away from his blackthorn and were munching on urticae cats in a nettle patch:



None of them seemed sufficiently nosy to join me at the sloe.

For others hoping to find these cats (they might be a bit more advanced in the UK if you haven't had such constant snow and rain!), here is a picture showing his present distance from the egg. He has moved from the egg towards the tip of the twig:



The upper arrow shows Bertie and the lower one his egg. He is on the underside of a leaf - and that is where I have always found them. Despite the brilliant camouflage he can be quite conspicuous from some angles.

Here is a slightly closer shot:



He's still a rather spiky, hairy little creature. Yesterday his black face showed quite conspicuously but I didn't see it today - probably just the angle and the light. Unfortunately, my camera just isn't good enough for such tiny cats and this is the best I could do:



Later instars are easier to photograph so I hope he hangs around on that branch and doesn't get eaten.

Guy

Cold sunshine today - but not even a white flew in Villars when I went on a lunchtime wander around the town. The forecast is for about 10 more days of rain and snow after today's sunny blip. I've never known a summer like this one.

When I got home at 17h15 it was still sunny, so I had a look around my local patch to see if any chequered skippers had been teased out of their chrysalises. Amazingly, they had. I found two, at different places near the village. Here is the second one, taking the last of the sun at 17h40:







These are hardy butterflies, capable of raising their body temperature by buzzing their wings while at rest, so if anyone can milk the next ten days for those occasional glimmers of warmth it is surely this little chap. I really hope so.

Guy

I went to check on my betulae cat after school today, only to find his branch had been broken off and was dangling by a strip of bark - doubtless damage caused by a cow (there were cowprints right next to the bushes). SO, I broke the branch off completely and examined every single leaf, one by one, to see if Bertie was still there. After I had cleared each cluster of leaves I broke them off and put them in the bush, so any caterpillar (of any species) I might have missed could crawl onto healthy leaves. But there were none so far as I could see. The leaves had just begun to wilt (I suspect the damage was done this morning) and all life forms had already scarpered - presumably up by the strip of bark onto the main stem (dropping to the ground would have been a no-hope option - straight into muddy cowprints). I have seen young betulae cats moving when alarmed and they can leg it! They travel along stems very nimbly so I have reason to hope Bertie is still alive somewhere else on the bush.

Back at home, I found an orange tip egg on a garlic mustard plant on my back terrace. Now, my landlord will doubtless want me to weed this - or even come round and do it himself - so I propose to pot the plant and follow this little cat when he hatches. I would be very grateful if someone with experience could tell me whether I can safely pot just one, and he will live on it all his life, or whether he needs to be able to move from plant to plant. Thank you in advance!


(He won't be alone!)



Guy

padfield wrote:I went to check on my betulae cat after school today, only to find his branch had been broken off and was dangling by a strip of bark

Strewth! Hope little Bertie is ok!

padfield wrote:I would be very grateful if someone with experience could tell me whether I can safely pot just one, and he will live on it all his life, or whether he needs to be able to move from plant to plant. Thank you in advance!

In my (limited) experience, he will live his life out on one plant. I've only ever seen them move plant simply because they can (one plants is abutting another). The other reason to move, of course, is if the food supply has run out, but OTs must be very good at assessing the available foodplant before they lay. I'm sure others (e.g. Vince) will have a view!

Cheers,

- Pete

padfield wrote: Back at home, I found an orange tip egg on a garlic mustard plant on my back terrace. Now, my landlord will doubtless want me to weed this - or even come round and do it himself - so I propose to pot the plant and follow this little cat when he hatches. I would be very grateful if someone with experience could tell me whether I can safely pot just one, and he will live on it all his life, or whether he needs to be able to move from plant to plant. Thank you in advance!

Guy, I'm just about to go out and will provide a more detailed response later tomorrow. For the moment all I can advise is that successfully digging up and potting a mature or flowering Garlic Mustard plant is very difficult because the roots can be long and delicate. As such they are easily damaged and impossible to extricate if they are in any sort of crevice. You need to extract a large root ball to have any chance. Try potting up some smaller plants to start with. Keep an eye on the colour of the egg. When it darkens to grey, it will hatch within a day.

Vince

Edit 31st May - You now seem to have this covered Guy. I have sent you a PM.

Thanks Pete and Vince. I'll plan this one very carefully then! There's no doubt that before the end of the summer the landlord will want the terrace cleared of 'weeds' and last summer, though I did tell him I wanted to keep the garlic mustard, I came back one day to find them all gone ... It may be best to pot one in similar condition from elsewhere, where I can dig up the root and surrounding soil, and transfer the caterpillar.

Guy

Both Cuckooflower and Garlic Mustard keep pretty well when cut and placed in water. Just make sure the opening to any receptacle is blocked up, and change the plant every now and again.

Cheers,

- Pete

They use other crucifers,too,of course. I reared some OT last year for exactly the same reason-the plants were about to be destroyed. I reared them on hairy bittercress-a tiny annual plant and very easy to dig up and keep-just keep it wet. It wilted for a couple of days but,keeping it in the shade for a week,it soon recovered. The adults OT hatched a couple of weeks ago,no problems .

Thanks for that, Buzzard! Hairy bittercress is used here too and grows by the main road into my village. If I have difficulty with the garlic mustard I'll consider transferring the caterpillar to this plant.

Guy

With warnings of sustained rain and a high risk of flooding and landslides in Switzerland there was no point in staying local today. The winds were from the north and it seemed there would be a Föhn effect south of the Alps so I headed into Italy yet again.

I cycled down the hill to Aigle in cold rain and arrived soaked to the bone. In the train I had to take my boots off and wring out my socks and I felt no drier by the time I reached Brig. There it was cold and cloudy and obviously hopeless for butterflies. I jumped on the train to Domodossola and was delighted to find that when I got off it was warm and sunny, just as predicted! There was a very strong wind, which lasted all day, but it was a warm wind and I soon began to dry out.

I reached my first site by 09h40, when things were just beginning to fly. Chequered blues were the commonest butterfly, though getting decent photos was well-nigh impossible in the winds. New for the year was large skipper, of which I saw several males, all perching territorially on leaves or grasses. I stayed about half an hour there, clocking up brimstone, sooty copper, small copper, holly blue, wall, speckled wood, red admiral and my first woodland ringlet for the year (also my first for that site).


(Large skipper)


(Chequered blue)


(Sooty copper)


(Woodland ringlet)

Next, up the hill to my Hungarian glider site - not that I expected to see any today, in this late year. Still the wind blew and most things stayed down, but I added small heath, wood white and another red admiral to the day list. The goatsbeard - the Hungarian glider foodplant - was not in evidence, or at least, not flowering, and after an hour I headed back down the hill again.


(Small heath)


(Wood white)


(The Alps in the distance)

Back at site no. 1 more butterflies had come onto the wing, including my first large wall of the year and a grizzled skipper.


(Large wall)


(Grizzled skipper)

This Queen of Spain was vigorously defending any high perch, launching out after large skippers, chequered blues, sooty coppers ... It would have been lovely to have caught him on the cocksfoot grasses where he was often to be seen swinging in the wind but that was impossible.



I passed him once and saw him in the same place when I came back - and then he pulled. He zoomed at a passing female Queen of Spain, landed next to her and immediately reached his pointy bits in her direction. She needed no encouragement and within seconds they were in a lovers' clinch.






(That's her on the left - I think she's a bit of a looker so well done him!)

Nearer to Domodossola I stopped off where I had seen a short-tailed blue earlier in the year to see if any tailenders of the first brood of that species were still around. There were none - but instead I found a thriving colony of silver-studded blues, the males showing remarkably broad, dark borders compared with those in my part of the Alps:



They were also almost entirely lacking any silver scales:



They stopped rarely, as they were trolling for females, but I got a few shots. I saw a single female, who flittered off over a virgin meadow and I didn't follow her because I thought I was trespassing (I wasn't, it turned out). Also at that site were common blues, holly blues and finally, I discovered, a colony of idas blues.


(Idas blue)

In Switzerland, there is sometimes the possibility of confusion between idas and silver-studded - but not here. The silver-studs were small with super-broad borders and the idas were all noticeably larger with linear borders.

I also saw a single lesser marbled fritillary - a bright orange male that never stopped but whose identity isn't really in any doubt. There was meadowsweet growing not far away. And this pair of small heaths also coupled up before my eyes:



I had to catch the 14h48 to be home at a reasonable time (because that train took bikes) and left Italy in wind and gathering cloud but still warm. Back in Brig it was raining, windy, at least ten degrees colder - probably more - and miserable. No point in stopping off on the way home at any Swiss sites.

So, I congratulate myself on having taken the right decision this morning!

Guy

Wonderful images, Guy.

You really go through heaps of discomfort sometimes to get to see your butterflies.

Nobody deserves a reward quite like you!

David M wrote:You really go through heaps of discomfort sometimes to get to see your butterflies.

I jolly nearly didn't cycle down the hill this morning, David! Ever since I came off my bike taking a corner in the rain in 2011 I've been very cautious about wet mountain roads. But in the end, you just have to do it - or regret it.

Guy

You worked hard for them but got some splendid rewards It must be very interesting living on the 'watershed' between two climatic regions.

Mike

Your photo's are superb Padfield, I love the back grounds with the butterflies predominant it gives them life some how instead of just a single flat image. Goldie

I was just curious how the current flood situation does look like in Switzerland, Guy?

Does everything begin and end with "Gross Wasser" in your media just like here?

(Despite of this I'm still aground and even saw the sun for a few minutes today )

Thanks all!

Mike - 'watershed' is the right word this year! As the Annoying Czech suggests, there has been an excess of precipitation this spring in general and the last few days in particular. I am subscribed to an e-mail newsletter (free) from MétéoSuisse which gives all the latest weather news as well as advance warnings. The last few have all been dire predictions of 'crues' and 'glisssements de terre' - which is why I scampered off to Italy yesterday. So yes, Marek - we are a waterlogged country at the moment!

Goldie - thank you for your comments. My camera is particularly suited to including the background (i.e., it's a cheap compact!) so I do try to maximise the possibilities this offers. I always look past the butterfly when I am taking a picture and try to compose its background too, except of course when I need a record shot, in which case I just point and shoot.

Today the best of the weather was in the west, so I set off for Geneva to add Reverdin's blue (Plebejus argyrognomon) to the two Plebejus I saw yesterday. In most recent years these blues have been past their peak by the beginning of June. Today, however, they seemed to be just starting their season. I saw four pristine males in total and no females, in a very brief rush round a reliable site. One male was particularly friendly. I was taking photos of him down in the vegetation when he took to the air, all agitated. I backed off so I could watch where he would settle but he came straight for me. I backed off more, then sidestepped, and still he headed for me. When I realised he really was trying to say hello I stood still and he landed on my trousers and began supping at a tasty mix of sweat and mud that's built up over the last couple of days!



He wasn't offering very good views down there so I moved him back into the vegetation - but he immediately made a beeline for my rucksack:







Finally, I let him sup at the source:





Other species at that site included common blue, Adonis blue, green hairstreak, little blue, brown argus, small white, green-veined white, wood white, large white, grizzled skipper and my first Oberthür's grizzly of the year:



This little blue was more of a shoe fetishist than a sweat-and-mud type:



This is a male western clubtail dragonfly from that site:





I wanted to move on and see if any black hairstreaks were on the wing, so quite soon left for a different set of meadows, bordered by blackthorn. I didn't expect to see hairstreaks as the year is so late but I felt I should check it out. An indication of the tardiness of the season is that there were no marbled whites or meadow browns in the argyrognomon meadows. There were also no pearly heaths at the black hairstreak site, and balls of squabbling green hairstreaks were tumbling over the sloe! The privet is not out yet and apart from one possible sighting I saw no black hairstreaks but it was very pleasant to stand among the blackthorn bushes, with nightingales singing their heart out against the constant background mewing of black kites.



I did see plenty of fritillaries, though. These were mostly Glanville:



Here is a couple deep down in the grass:



Flying with them were heath fritillary and knapweed. A single peacock was the only Vanessid I saw today, I think and I saw my first red-underwing skipper of the year.


(Heath fritillary)


(Red-underwing skipper)

There were also plenty of brown arguses - all looking very different from the one seen at the first site. That had very little in the way of marking on the forewings while at this second site they were all very brightly marked. Here is a brown argus from the first site:



And here one from the second:



I had to be on the 14h33 from Geneva, or the congregation would have had to sing hymns without accompaniment this evening; so with some regret I left the meadows at half past one and pedalled as fast as possible back to the big city.

Guy

Sports Day today, and as usual for this event the sun shone warmly all day. In fact, it felt like the first day of summer and in an ideal world I would have been skipping about the hills tracking down butterflies. In the real world I was appointed to play James Bond and wander the athletics track with a loaded 9 mm revolver and 150 rounds of ammo:



The students who knew me as a vegan Buddhist who will halt a maths lesson to liberate a wasp found this quite amusing. But the cartridges were blanks and I only fired the revolver in a spirit of fair play:



It was all over by 15h30, when I pedalled off as fast as possible to catch the train and go hunting iolas blues, arriving on site by 16h30. It was hot and the butterflies were in evening mode. I saw at least 3 male iolas blues but all were bounding over the bushy vegetation, checking out the bladder senna for females but never stopping to rest or nectar. As well as iolas I saw turquoise blues, Adonis blues, common blues, Chapman's blues, green-underside blues, Provençal short-tailed blues and a probable little blue - all equally energetic. I got record shots of a green-underside and a turquoise but I think these were the only two butterflies I saw settle in the whole time I was there.


(Green-underside blue)

Red underwing skippers were about in great numbers - the whole site heaves with salad burnet - but amazingly, I didn't see any of them settle either! A single Camberwell beauty drifted through majestically, circling me and checking out my backpack before cruising on down the valley, and other butterflies seen were small white, small tortoiseshell, wall, spotted fritillary, Queen of Spain fritillary and another Melitaea fritillary - probably heath.

Guy

Lots of bad luck and a little good luck!

I had some free time in the afternoon so decided to nip up to my violet fritillary sites and see what condition they were in. First bit of bad luck - somehow I forgot to pack my camera when I went home to get changed. Second bit of bad luck - the trains weren't running so I had to go up the mountain on foot. Third bit of bad luck - despite the forecast of sun, sun, sun, a thunderstorm was evidently heading our way and by the time I reached my upper sites, at over 1700m, the rain had started falling in great dolloping drops that bounced like hail. A green hairstreak darted about, several small tortoiseshells were braving the cool and a couple of painted ladies zig-zagged through, but that was it for the butterflies.

The bistort was abundant but still tiny, poking through like spring salad, and the aconite-leaved buttercup was mostly not in flower. Primroses and marsh marigolds - more typically April flowers - were enjoying their day. It was clearly too early for violet coppers.

I wandered back down the hill in the rain, heading for a metalled road, and then followed the metalled road down. About 150m (in altitude) lower down, I noticed a patch of bistort in a meadow near the road that was much further advanced - and also that the aconite-leaved buttercups were in full flower there. The rain paused and the sun came through very briefly so I jumped over the fence and checked it out.

Here comes the good luck! Almost immediately, a HUGE violet copper cruised into view. I immediately took it for a sooty copper, as it was as large as a common blue (violet coppers are the tiny gem of the family) but it glinted purple and on landing revealed its identity unambiguously.

These record shots were taken with my phone. It's a pity, as this was by far the most brilliant, purplest, freshest and largest violet copper I have ever seen! They were also taken in low light conditions as the thundercloud had moved over again.









I've removed the exif data by processing these with IrfanView, as suggested by Mike.

It soon began raining again and before I got home the rain was violent hail - this time for real. I do hope he managed to get down beneath the bistort leaves and was protected. If tomorrow is sunny I'll go back to the same site.

Guy

padfield wrote:the trains weren't running

What? In Switzerland

Mike

ps good job with the iPhone - who needs a camera, these days?