Re: Padfield
Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2015 11:49 am
On Thursday, Minnie and I set off for an adventure in Graubünden. The hope was to find Melitaea asteria - unfortunately unrealised. I have no idea even whether the species flies where I am looking for it but I much prefer searching on my own to turning up at known sites. The problem is, Graubünden is so far away we end up with very little time for the actual searching.
As it was 100% cloud cover on Thursday, we left home rather late, arriving at our final station at about 15h30. This is at 700m. So Thursday's work was to climb up to 1900m and set up for the night. This was very pleasant in the relatively cool weather. Last year, we bivvied well off the jeep track (so we didn't get kicked off by some landowner or crofter), under some larches. When we reached this point on the road, Minnie instictively turned off and headed for our bivvy spot. She has been there just once in her short life - but dogs have near perfect scent-based GPS of everywhere they have been. We ate supper, laid out the bivvy and turned in for the night as it started raining.
The next morning we set off early, leaving almost no trace of our passage:
Despite a forecast of wall-to-wall sunshine, the cloud persisted as we climbed the mountain and it remained cold:
We kept thinking we were getting above the cloud but then more cloud would suddenly roll over us:
Here is a 'selfie with halo'!
My shadow is cast onto a very close cloud, reflecting a rainbow centred on my head (strictly, centred on my camera):
Eventually, we reached the highest point of the range, and almost at the same time the last clouds cleared:
The problem was, by now it was 10h00 and still cold at that altitude. To be sure of getting home the same day we had to be back in the valley at 700m by 15h30. Almost nothing was flying yet - just a few Erebia (mostly tyndarus and pandrose there). I would have liked to spend a few hours exploring the region, when I am pretty sure I could have found our target (unless it has already stopped flying, which is a distinct possibility this year, with almost every day in July having been a flight day) but we only had time for a cursory wander before heading back down, slowly, sweeping the now sunny lower altitudes for asteria (which flies between about 2000m and 3000m).
Unfortunately, Minnie had to be attached the whole time, as there were marmots everywhere:
There were also chamois grazing. When the wind blows in the right direction, Minnie can spot these from about a kilometre away!
Reciprocally, these chamois caught wind of us and bounded elegantly down the rocky slope:
Because of being attached to Minnie, and also because I had a heavy backpack on the whole time, I took rather few photos of butterflies even on the way down. In the end this was more of a Minnie adventure than a butterfly trip. But I learnt that I can't really do this site with one overnight stay. I either have to bivvy two nights in a row (and carry correspondingly more food and drink everywhere) or book one night in the valley at a hostel.
As it turned out, I had greatly overestimated the descent time and we reached the station over an hour early. We will find asteria next year!!
Guy
As it was 100% cloud cover on Thursday, we left home rather late, arriving at our final station at about 15h30. This is at 700m. So Thursday's work was to climb up to 1900m and set up for the night. This was very pleasant in the relatively cool weather. Last year, we bivvied well off the jeep track (so we didn't get kicked off by some landowner or crofter), under some larches. When we reached this point on the road, Minnie instictively turned off and headed for our bivvy spot. She has been there just once in her short life - but dogs have near perfect scent-based GPS of everywhere they have been. We ate supper, laid out the bivvy and turned in for the night as it started raining.
The next morning we set off early, leaving almost no trace of our passage:
Despite a forecast of wall-to-wall sunshine, the cloud persisted as we climbed the mountain and it remained cold:
We kept thinking we were getting above the cloud but then more cloud would suddenly roll over us:
Here is a 'selfie with halo'!
My shadow is cast onto a very close cloud, reflecting a rainbow centred on my head (strictly, centred on my camera):Eventually, we reached the highest point of the range, and almost at the same time the last clouds cleared:
The problem was, by now it was 10h00 and still cold at that altitude. To be sure of getting home the same day we had to be back in the valley at 700m by 15h30. Almost nothing was flying yet - just a few Erebia (mostly tyndarus and pandrose there). I would have liked to spend a few hours exploring the region, when I am pretty sure I could have found our target (unless it has already stopped flying, which is a distinct possibility this year, with almost every day in July having been a flight day) but we only had time for a cursory wander before heading back down, slowly, sweeping the now sunny lower altitudes for asteria (which flies between about 2000m and 3000m).
Unfortunately, Minnie had to be attached the whole time, as there were marmots everywhere:
There were also chamois grazing. When the wind blows in the right direction, Minnie can spot these from about a kilometre away!
Reciprocally, these chamois caught wind of us and bounded elegantly down the rocky slope:
Because of being attached to Minnie, and also because I had a heavy backpack on the whole time, I took rather few photos of butterflies even on the way down. In the end this was more of a Minnie adventure than a butterfly trip. But I learnt that I can't really do this site with one overnight stay. I either have to bivvy two nights in a row (and carry correspondingly more food and drink everywhere) or book one night in the valley at a hostel.
As it turned out, I had greatly overestimated the descent time and we reached the station over an hour early. We will find asteria next year!!
Guy
Seriously, I expect that other Windows users will be pleased to hear this!