Re: David M
Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2024 6:48 pm
Arctic Circle, 3rd to 10th July cont…
The second day was cooler and much more overcast than the previous one.
There were five of us so one (Jon) volunteered to go back up the cable car in the morning, which was en route to a site where the rest of us wanted to go to look for Lapland Fritillary.
The reason for this was that we had been searching unsuccessfully for Dusky Winged Fritillary, Boloria improba on Day 1, and I had subsequently been given precise GPS co-ordinates for Day 2, which showed we were 300m or so off track.
Sadly, there was no sign of Lapland Fritillary in the heavily overcast conditions at the site near Kiruna, but excitement came in the form of Jon texting me to say he’d found 3 Dusky Winged Fritillaries and that we should return if we wanted to see them for ourselves.
Obviously, we wasted no time but with 95% cloud cover and temperatures no more than 14c at the upper cable car station, I wasn’t confident.
I passed the point where we had been looking for it the previous day, not really believing that it could reside near the very top of the mountain at 1,300m in the Arctic.
That last 300m or so was a stiff climb, and conditions looked and felt quite austere upon arrival:
There were a few breaks in the cloud but it was quite windy, and I was feeling frustrated at having made such an error the previous day when the weather was much better.
Then, just as I felt things were hopeless, a small, blackish insect flew by me and landed about 20m away. As I approached, I recognised it as improba but it immediately flew into the air and was taken by the wind.
Cue an immediate redoubling of efforts and a little good fortune in the sense that the sunny intervals got a little more generous. Eventually, our prayers were answered and another shot by, coming down in the grass:
It wasn’t going to fly willingly in the wind and cool temperatures so I persuaded it to rest on a small bit of rock:
Quite how any delicate insect can live in such an environment is almost beyond comprehension.
This is why it is so difficult to find and is so coveted.
‘High altitude endemic Arctic butterfly’ just doesn’t sound right….but it does exist!
The second day was cooler and much more overcast than the previous one.
There were five of us so one (Jon) volunteered to go back up the cable car in the morning, which was en route to a site where the rest of us wanted to go to look for Lapland Fritillary.
The reason for this was that we had been searching unsuccessfully for Dusky Winged Fritillary, Boloria improba on Day 1, and I had subsequently been given precise GPS co-ordinates for Day 2, which showed we were 300m or so off track.
Sadly, there was no sign of Lapland Fritillary in the heavily overcast conditions at the site near Kiruna, but excitement came in the form of Jon texting me to say he’d found 3 Dusky Winged Fritillaries and that we should return if we wanted to see them for ourselves.
Obviously, we wasted no time but with 95% cloud cover and temperatures no more than 14c at the upper cable car station, I wasn’t confident.
I passed the point where we had been looking for it the previous day, not really believing that it could reside near the very top of the mountain at 1,300m in the Arctic.
That last 300m or so was a stiff climb, and conditions looked and felt quite austere upon arrival:
There were a few breaks in the cloud but it was quite windy, and I was feeling frustrated at having made such an error the previous day when the weather was much better.
Then, just as I felt things were hopeless, a small, blackish insect flew by me and landed about 20m away. As I approached, I recognised it as improba but it immediately flew into the air and was taken by the wind.
Cue an immediate redoubling of efforts and a little good fortune in the sense that the sunny intervals got a little more generous. Eventually, our prayers were answered and another shot by, coming down in the grass:
It wasn’t going to fly willingly in the wind and cool temperatures so I persuaded it to rest on a small bit of rock:
Quite how any delicate insect can live in such an environment is almost beyond comprehension.
This is why it is so difficult to find and is so coveted.
‘High altitude endemic Arctic butterfly’ just doesn’t sound right….but it does exist!