Hi Chris. I'm behind with everything too. The camera is a PowerShot SX520 HS. Like all cameras, it has its pros and cons, but the zoom is definitely a pro. When you have learnt how to manage it properly it can work miracles.
My main mission for today was to see if any cardinals were still on the wing. For those who are interested, the article I co-authored on this butterfly is now freely available on the web here:
http://www.researchgate.net/publication ... mphalidae). In 2013 the last was reported from this site on 1st Oct. but last year they were over long before this. I reckoned this would be my last chance this year.
I visited a brown hairstreak site in the morning, without any luck. Brown hairstreak does not really form colonies - it simply occupies a region. Vagrant females can be found anywhere there is blackthorn and habitually turn up at the same sites, often kilometres away from any other blackthorn. But I drew a blank this morning.
In the afternoon, on to the cardinals. I did see a couple, of which more later, but first, Minnie's little adventure ...
All was well until about 14h00, when I told her to wait while I photographed a speckled wood. When I turned round, she was nowhere to be seen. I presumed she had carried on, but as she wasn't there either, I called. She answered - a distant yap. I set off in the direction the yap came from, calling every so often, and eventually the yap came from the distance in the other direction. Then it got quieter and quieter as if she were being driven off somewhere (I thought). Some ten minutes, and a lot of running around, later, I worked out she was actually underground, trapped or lost somewhere beneath several hundred tonnes of rubble. I could locate almost exactly where she was, but had no hope of retrieving her. SO, I called the fire brigade!
In no time at all, three very helpful pompiers were at my side, calling 'Minnie' and puzzling how on earth to extricate her. The chief rang all his hunting friends to see if they had any tips, then called up three more pompiers to help with the probably futile but necessary task of moving what rocks we could. The larger rocks were at least 20 tonnes. She was deep beneath them, lost, trapped, or just incapable of climbing out. Then one of the girls had the idea of wrapping my sweatshirt round a long stick and pushing it as far as she could into the void. This seemed to achieve nothing at first, but some minutes later a chalky Minnie appeared, a little dazed, in the orifice, scrabbled about a bit and finally managed to get out. I think sounds had echoed and misled her. There was obviously no light at all where she was. But the smell of my sweatshirt enabled her to guide herself to the exit. In all, she was underground for about two hours.
So, a thousand thanks to Les Pompiers of Fully for their cheerful, supportive help in rescuing Minnie. They were really incredibly nice - it was like being with a group of friends who cared. And I think they were all relieved when she appeared!
That episode took about 2 hours. Before it, I had seen a single female cardinal in the vineyards:
This is the location:
I soon lost her among the vines, where she was doubtless laying -
Viola tricolor grows widely among the grapes.
There were no cardinals at the usual site because all the Buddleia was over - in fact, there were almost no butterflies there at all. But after the Minnie adventure I saw another female, also among the vines, even further from the nectaring site, and also doubtless laying. It is impossible to chase such a mobile butterfly in a vineyard ready for harvest, so I couldn't follow to see her laying. But she is clearly a different individual:
Other species flying were wall, large wall, small, southern small and green-veined whites, common and Adonis blues, clouded and Berger's clouded yellows, tree graylings, Queens of Spain, commas and red admirals.
(a pair of Queens, male below, female above)
(female southern small white,
Pieris mannii)
(Minnie, posing casually before the adventure)
(my previous dog, Asha, posing at the same site eight years ago)
Guy
Though there is one UK lepster that does go made for Hedge Browns 
