www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

padfield wrote:
Switzerland in general, and the Rhône Valley in particular, with its range of habitats from Mediterranean to Alpine, is a region of amazingly high biodiversity. Sometimes I wonder if I could ever live in the UK again. Then I read the Kipper's diary, and all the other diaries with such fascinating observations, and I know I could!!

Guy

Sounds like heaven.

Keep those photos coming.

I see you do Ascalaphids just as well as Butterflies.
Nice shot and definitely something I'd like to see.
Thanks Guy.

When I let the cat out at 5.30am it looked as if a wonderful day was dawning. It still looked good two hours later, so I ignored the very iffy forecasts and jumped on my bike, headed for the hills. My target was alpine grizzled skipper, Pyrgus andromedae, as I was browsing through my pictures of skippers yesterday and realised I didn't have any good shots at all of this species. A second target was Asian fritillary (Hypodryas intermedia wolfensbergeri).

I arrived while the day was still cool and little was flying. Most prominent were northern walls, basking on the paths and open patches of ground, heating up for a busy day ahead:


(A female)

During the morning, I saw six alpine grizzlies, all in flight and all clearly intent on being somewhere other than where they currently were. I also saw a single Asian fritillary winging its way over the rhododendrons. Then, as the afternoon heated up, more and more things began to settle, including my targets!

Normally, Asian fritillaries love nectaring on thyme, offering lovely photo-opportunities. Today, the few I saw were intent upon taking minerals and basking on rocks - behaviour I haven't seen before. One licked blades of grass. But they are beautiful insects wherever they land:





Here are a couple of alpine grizzly shots - I know Pyrgus isn't everyone's cup of tea but I find them fascinating. The first one shows the distinctive 'triple spot', which is unique to andromedae:



This one lacks the triple spot, but is unambiguously an alpine grizzly. The diaphanous, veil-like markings around the edge of the hindwing are characteristic:



And here is the classic andromedae underside, that I was able to catch when the clouds came over and the insect decided to go to roost:



That shot was one of the things I got out of bed for this morning!!

A pleasant surprise was to find this geriatric female green hairstreak apparently merely oviposturing on the leaves of a herb:



But then she got serious and soon laid an egg:



Here is the egg in question, glistening fresh:



If anyone can tell me what the plant is, I'd be grateful:



Here are a few more shots from the day, some from lower down the mountain as I cycled home:


(Alpine grayling, Oeneis glacialis - a very special alpine butterfly)


(One of several cranberry blues I saw today - a species that doesn't normally fly before July)


(Scarce copper)


(Small skipper)


(My first Essex skipper of the year)


(False heath fritillary)

Guy

Hi Guy,

I am loving the reports and photos. Please keep them coming.

The plant being used by the Green Hairstreak looks very much like one of the Willowherbs.

Vince

Thanks Vince - you're right. It does look like a willowherb. I'll look in the book and see what glabrous species flower up there!

Guy

You're just teasing me now Guy but only 2 weeks to go.

Definitely looks like a Willowherb of some sort although they can be quite difficult to ID to species level and they Hybridise as well I think.

Absolutely wonderful picture report from a superb location, thanks for sharing it with us all Guy.

Bill

It's exam week, and I cunningly arranged my invigilation and marking to give me today completely free. The forecast was very favourable so I decided to look for scarce large blues (Phengaris (Maculinea) telejus). This is one species I don't head off to the Rhône Valley for but instead make for the Oberland. There are many colonies scattered throughout the region and although it is an extremely rare butterfly on an international scale it is relatively easy to find at the local level if you know where to look.

The site I chose seemed to be at peak right now (I know another site much higher up, so UK Butterfliers coming out a little later this year should not despair!). Here are a few pictures of this special insect:


(This is a female, ripe with eggs)


(And here she is, laying them on a head of greater burnet)


(Another female with a male)


(In Switzerland, the forewing spots on the male are typically vestigial or absent)



After drinking my fill of scarce large blues I pushed on up the hill to see if the cranberry fritillaries (Boloria aquilonaris) were on the wing yet. They were, but only just. I saw two males in total, one of which paused awhile to ponder the meaning of life:


(That's a sea of cranberries he's sitting in)

Where there are cranberries there are usually also moorland clouded yellows (Colias palaeno). Several males were winging their way inaccessibly across the bog but I was very lucky to spot this couple discussing something in detail:





Here is a beautifully fresh purple-edged copper (Lycaena hippothoe):



And here an older one, posing against the hills:



Cycling along the hill roads I had to swerve often to avoid creatures. Here is an emperor moth caterpillar probably going for his last walk before pupation:



And here is a cricket (I moved this one off the road, as it was just sitting there):



To get to my various sites today I had to cycle up and down mountains, including going over the Col de la Croix, at 1800m. But to go back I just dropped down to the valley under gravity (over 20km without using the pedals ), cycled along the valley and caught the tram back up the hill. It was while going along the bottom that I spotted a road casualty lying in the grass. It was a fresh lesser purple emperor that must, tragically, have been hit by a car or a train:



It was dead, with wings folded beneath the body, but very fresh because still quite floppy. I don't know why, but I folded his wings above his back, popped him in a paper triangle and took him home. When I was a child I used to set road-kill butterflies. Maybe I'll set him and show him to the kids at school.

Tomorrow it'll be back to walking sternly round an exam room throwing scowls at any student who dares breathe too loudly. But at least I'll have some good memories from today to think about.

Guy

Years ago a lady showed me a purple emperor which her husband had found dead. It was really interesting to see as I had not seen a live one at that point. I am sure that if you could set the LPE you have found people would find it very interesting also. Great photos as always.

Hi Guy,, enjoyed your report from the mountains. This week i photographed the introduced Large Blues at Collard hill in Somerset. In these pics the LB's underwings looked quite brown, as in your pics. last year my underwing pics looked greyer. OK it may be the angle of light, or the actual camera. In your experience do the underwing colours change from grey to brownish depending on the angle, and intensity of the daylight?

This years Brownies.


Last years Greys.



Gawd photography,,, whatta headache.

Guy, you must have lungs like Miguel Indurain to cover so much undulating terrain on a bike.

Great pics again - I particularly liked the Purple-Edged Copper.

As ever, thanks for the comments - and yes, Susie, I think students will be interested to see the refractive colours of my LPE.

David - I never bothered to learn to drive, so I'm completely used to going everywhere powered only by beer and peanuts (renewable energy)! I don't know any different.

Zonda, there is great variation between individuals as to greyness and brownness (though my pictures are of a different species, of course) but I wonder if the extreme difference you illustrate is an artefact. Did you notice it in real life or only by comparing pictures? I can't help observing that the general 'warmth' of the first picture is much greater than that of the second. The background of the second is cold, like the shade of the butterfly.

I'm right out of my depth when it comes to photography and image manipulation, and you're a bit of a pro, so I proceed here with caution! But when I artificially adjusted your first picture so the background was cooler, and warmed up the second one a bit, they certainly approached each other.

I took this picture of a couple of large blues (arion, not telejus) holding hands a few years ago.



I think that's the female on the left and she does look rather greyer than the male. Both, however, are between your two extremes!

In short, I don't really know the answer to your question, but I do think the camera has distorted reality slightly differently in each of your two photos, to give the impression there is a huge difference from rich brown to cold grey.

Guy

Thanks for sharing those great pictures and descriptions Guy. I am becoming increasingly frustrated by the poor weather and lack of butterflies here, but it is always a great consolation to tune into the UKB Forum and see what others have seen.

NickMorgan wrote:Thanks for sharing those great pictures and descriptions Guy. I am becoming increasingly frustrated by the poor weather and lack of butterflies here, but it is always a great consolation to tune into the UKB Forum and see what others have seen.

Seconded.

Wetting the taste buds again Guy.
I'm starting to pack already and still have almost 2 weeks to go.
Excellent photos and a great tale to go along with them.
Brilliant.

Stormy weather at present, but this morning was hot and it stayed dry long enough for me to get a lunchtime trip down to the woods.

Three species were firsts for the year.

Woodland browns (Lopinga achine) were out in numbers - I saw about a dozen today. This beautifully marked Satyrid is very shy and will fly on hearing the autofocus but I did get a few rather distant record shots today:



Also new on the wing were white admirals, of which I saw just two fresh males. They were also very excitable but one settled briefly on the track:



Finally, a single Arran brown (a dubiously British species) was avidly nectaring as a storm approached:



A few other species were flying, including marbled and dark green fritillaries, meadow browns and ringlets and assorted whites, but essentially this is the lull before the summer storm. No purple emperors yet, nor silver-washed fritillaries, nor white-letter hairstreaks.

Here is a large wall who has probably had a close encounter with one of the many insect-eating birds that flit around these rides:



The air is getting visibly heavier as I write. We are forecast about 24 hours of solid rain from this evening. on top of the 12 hours we had yesterday.

Guy

My latest batch of pupae hatched on Saturday:



That lot were bred in captivity. Here are a couple of wild high brown fritillaries from my woods after work this evening (sadly, although my beauties have flown, I have to keep working for a week, doing all those tedious admin jobs that keep maths departments running):





Guy

Thanks Guy for sharing your wicked sense of humour. Nick Ballard was talking about you yesterday and enthusing about what a splendid, albeit (dare I, or dare he, say it) slightly eccentric. Nick thought you might more properly have belonged in an earlier era: the late 19th century "mad" butterfly collector.

I hope to meet you some time Guy. You will be most welcome to stay with us when you are in England. But maybe not just yet -there's a little "hiccup" in my lifestyle at the moment but it should settle down to somewhere in North Norfolk before too long. Nuff said for now

Jack

Thanks, Jack! Perhaps one winter's day you, me and Nick could meet up in or near Cambridge and share a flagon of ale. I enjoy popping back to my old college every so often and it's one of the few train trips in England that I can still afford!

I really enjoyed meeting Nick, too, and think he is also cast in a rare mould! I have to say, I had a little more faith in humanity after LOTSWI had stayed with me last year than before they came out...

Guy

PS - Late 19th century is good. I can't imagine living in a world without the Eroica, so the 18th century is ruled out.

Are you an ex-Cantabrigian then Guy? Which college I wonder?
PS: Can I play gooseberry when you come to visit Jack and Nick

Trev