I don't think I've seen any wintering pupae except small whites, Wurzel. Something I should look for, perhaps.
I had the whole day free today, with no outstanding school work to do - all internal assessments, extended essays &c. now signed, sealed and on their way to the IB.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
So Minnie and I set off with a light heart for Italy first thing in the morning, to look for the first nettle tree butterflies out of hibernation. We cycled down the hill to Aigle at about 08h00 in bitter cold - so much so that my hands were numb by the bottom and then very painful as they began to thaw. By 10h30 I was cycling back up an Italian hill, in sweltering heat and with a dog in the backpack.
Immediately on arrival I found a couple of Queens of Spain and my first green hairstreak and small copper of the year, both fidgeting around in the grass:
Large tortoiseshells were common, as were small tortoiseshells, and male brimstones drifted past regularly as I continued walking. But for the full outward leg at this site, no nettle tree butterflies. Everything was still wintry and bare and the nettle trees themselves were barely in bud, let alone leaf.
In places at this site I have to keep Minnie on the lead, as it is a long way down to the valley and today in particular there was a lot of evidence of roe deer moving around (which gets her very excited).
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2016/minnie19march2016a.jpg)
(one lunge after a nimble-footed deer here and it could be the end of Minnie...)
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2016/minnie19march2016b.jpg)
(careful how you go ...)
Finally, as we walked back to the bike, a nettle tree butterfly came and nectared on a flowering sallow. It was some distance away, and directly into the sun, so I thought it would just be a record shot, but I was actually quite pleased with the result. Here are two different crops of the single photo I took:
For one large tortoiseshell at least, the season is already over:
I picked the wing up and threw it into the wind with a blessing, to take its last flight. Literally, a wing and a prayer.
Carrying on back to the bike I saw a wall and then a small white, both new for the year.
My second site had been scrub-cleared so was not very productive, but anyway it was clearly very early season. A single nettle tree butterfly flew through and either half a dozen orange tips or just one, roding, tracked past a sunny bank. I saw a probable dingy skipper in the distance but it had gone by the time I got there.
Finally, back to urban scrub near Domodossola itself, where a third nettle tree butterfly flew through and I saw my first (southern) grizzled skipper of the year on a sunny bank. There, too, it was still wintry, with no nectar flowers and no signs of new growth:
In the summer there will be idas and short-tailed blues there. Today, there were wary lizards (quite right, with a Jack Russell on the prowl):
A quick cool-off under a road bridge ...
... then back on the bike and off to the station, spotting a comma on the way. I haven't totted up yet, but I think that brings the year total to 13 species so far. [Edit: I have totted up now, and it's 14
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
]
Guy