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October closed with another Colias teaser in a local meadow:


(by wingshape very much alfacariensis - by colour (very pale ups and no strong orange spot) and behaviour (ignoring all but the clover flowers) hyale.

November opened with a surprise peacock:



The only other butterfly I saw on a short lunch-time walk was a red admiral.

Guy

More great photos and that Yellow certainly is a teaser - looking at various apps and books I'm non-the wiser
Don't worry about inducing envy Guy - I really enjoy seeing the photos you post and the mild 'envy' they prompt
Have a goodun

Wurzel

Intuition tells me it's alfacariensis, Wurzel. We'll probably never know, though.

My lunchtime walk yesterday produced just one butterfly - this autumn clouded yellow, cryptically camouflaged against a leaf. It was actually quite difficult to see, but I'm sure this was accidental.



Rain dominated today, with snow on the peaks, and snow is forecast down to 800m tomorrow (200m below where I live). So I hope that poor old clouded yellow is tucked up somewhere out of the weather.

Kenny was still on his twig yesterday. He will be glad of the snow, which will help him keep hidden from those pesky tits.
¨
Guy

Morning walkies today:



Here is Kenny, looking suitably miserable:



I photographed this soggy white admiral hibernaculum without flash to bring out what I believe is the silhouette of the caterpillar within:



Guy

It has snowed a lot over the last few days, though at my altitude the snow has alternated with rain too. This photo was taken on my morning walk:



Despite the snow and the low temperatures I thought it was probably worth looking for butterflies in the valley, so Minnie and I headed off, later than usual, to see what was about.

Midday temperatures were around 4°C - 5°C, with a constant breeze making it feel colder. In exposed places there was no snow ...



... but wherever there was shade snow persisted:



This is the field where I get my late autumn butterfly photos:



Unsurprisingly, then, butterflies were very thin on the ground. To be exact, I saw two small coppers, one clouded yellow and one Queen of Spain. The clouded yellow flew across the track from a clover field with a laboured flight, but despite obviously having difficulties remaining airborne in the low temperatures, never stopped. The Queen of Spain appeared and disappeared suddenly as I was walking home, flashing silver briefly in the sunlight. Only the two coppers posed for photos. Here is one of them:



Ravens and buzzards guarded the cliffs:


(buzzard)


(buzzard)


(raven)

Minnie zoomed all over the place, following countless scent trails, and worked up quite a thirst during the afternoon:



Tommorrow will be cloudy and probably wet but temperatures are on the rise again so there may be more to see next week.

Guy

Back to cold and grey.

High in the trees near my house, hawfinches were moving. I have greatly enhanced this photo to try and bring out the colour - the original was all grey. The unavoidable effect was bleaching all the colour out of the sky:



[EDIT: A handful of clicks in Microsoft Paint and this actually becomes the beginnings of a Christmas card ...



I might do a neater job using the iPad to make it just a decent photo of a hawfinch.]

Here is a white admiral caterpillar, quite conventionally wrapped up for the winter:



Here, on the other hand, is Jonathan Livingstone White Admiral, daring to be different:



I don't know if he is still alive - he looks in perfect health.

Finally, Kenny, the purple emperor caterpillar. The leaf adjacent to his hibernation spot has fallen. I'm sure he's fine with this - if he had wanted it to stay all winter he would have secured it with silk.



Guy

Great Hawfinch and Buzzard shots Guy I was surprised to read about Coppers flying (albeit feebly) in such cool temperatures butterflies never cease to amaze me

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Nice (not to mention helpful) to get an insight into where you're seeing these late butterflies given that much of your 'patch' is snowbound.

I can see why November stragglers covet that sunny slope!

Lovely Photos Guy, great scenery too Goldie

Thank you for your comments, Wurzel, Dave and Goldie.

Monday's supermoon was completely obscured by cloud, which in turn was obscured by fog. Maybe the fog did seem a little brighter, or maybe it was my imagination. On Tuesday evening the clouds cleared and the moon coyly revealed herself. Too late!





For size comparison, however, here is the moon on 6th January last year next to 15th November this year. This year's is on the left. The colours reflect the differing light and sky conditions but the sizes should be correct relative to each other as they were both taken with the same camera on the same zoom:



The snowline has been going up and down the mountain over the last week. At my altitude it snowed this morning but little settled and by the afternoon watery sunshine had taken over:



Kenny is still hanging in there ...



I forgot to look for last week's dangling white admiral caterpillar.

Guy

Lovely shot of the supermoon. It's amazing that our ordinary cameras can pick out
such detail, even craters, over a distance of about 240,000 miles.
Unfortunately cloud cover obscured the supermoon here in Sussex.

Best wishes,
Trevor.

Always love seeing your cat shots Guy, they are fantastic. I wanted to photograph the Super moon myself but I was thwarted by villainous cloud.

Best Wishes

James

Thanks Trevor and B Rex. I have to say, with just one purple emperor caterpillar on the go this winter I always approach his corner with a certain trepidation. The tits are very active at the moment. I hope they will soon all move from the woods to the villages and towns, where the feeders are.

Today ambient temperatures reached a maximum of 9°C in the valley and the sun remained veiled by permahaze throughout the day:



There was also a constant, stiff breeze, filling the air with oak and sycamore leaves that danced and played just like butterflies but weren't butterflies. Under these conditions, I realised I might not see very much, but there were plenty of Queen of Spain fritillaries around, at least. Here are four different individuals, the last and freshest sitting on fallen vine leaves, marking the passing of the wine summer:









In total I saw probably a dozen.

I also saw two red admirals, bravely clinging on ...





... and two Berger's clouded yellows. This one was sitting high up a slope in the breeze:



I couldn't get a shot of the other because walkers were coming by.

A few black darters, always a strong shower later in the season, were flying:



So not quite the ski season yet - but it's coming ...

Guy

Sorry to introduce another stupid question, Guy, but why DO Queens seem to remain so active in conditions such as these?

It's not a stupid question, David! I think the Rhône Valley Queens are quite exceptional in flying all year round. To the best of my knowledge they don't do this in the South of France, where the climate is distinctly milder. All I can think is that the combination of steep, south-facing, terraced slopes and a year-round supply of the larval host plant means that this unusual strategy is productive here. Has this strongly migratory butterfly adapted genetically to the local conditions? It is not impossible, as there seems to be a large resident population, but there must be genetic movement both in and out, watering down any tendency towards a local race. More likely, the Queen of Spain, being able to enter diapause in any phase of its development, is simply very flexible and perfectly suited to taking advantage of the special climate in this little corner of Switzerland.

Guy

Yesterday Kenny was still holding strong ...



Today, for the first time since last weekend, the sun shone. Most of the week has been very cloudy and foggy. In the valley there were plenty of red admirals including this female alternately sunning and ovipositing:





Those shots were taken as I passed in one direction. When I came back past the same spot half an hour or so later she was still there:



I didn't look for eggs as I didn't want to disturb her. She was enjoying her day in the sun, doing what she does best. I'll check the nettles carefully next weekend if I go that way.

I also saw two clouded yellows, including this helice that landed on the path ahead of me, looked me in the eye, then flew off:



I probably saw just the one Queen, surprisingly. But the vines have been dug up for replanting just below their main hotspot. That may have made a difference.



There were also loads of people wandering among the vines - more than I have ever seen before.

Finally, a single wall was on the wing. This is not unprecedented - I have seen one as late as December 15th - but it is not necessarily a good thing. The December wall was in the winter of 2006-7, when there wasn't really any winter at all. I hope this is not a sign of a mild ski season ...



Guy

Here's a very unkempt white admiral hibernaculum in my local woods:



I wouldn't have known it was a hibernaculum at all if it weren't for the caterpillar visible inside from the right angle:



Similarly, this one was not obvious:



But the caterpillar is in there (sorry about the fuzzy words - they looked fine before I saved the file!):



This is a more conventional way of spending the winter:



Kenny, the purple emperor caterpillar, is hanging in there. On Tuesday he'll be four months old:



Guy

Fingers crossed that you get plenty of snow Guy - we've been experiencing a cold snap over here but I don't know if ti'll last - I hope it does

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Padfield wrote:On Tuesday he'll be four months old

It's incredible how they can remain in suspended animation for such a long spell.

I hope Kenny survives, Guy. He along with all other Emperor cats certainly put the effort in to warrant that.

I don't know how you spot them Guy, to my eyes they just look like dead leaves, then I do have to wear glasses I hope they survive, Goldie