I finally got out along the Rhône Valley today, for the first time since my accident. I can't take the bike yet, as my arm is still getting its strength back, and so I could only visit one site; but it was a great pleasure to be among the butterflies again!
It is the
vendange and the valley reeks of musty grapes. To the locals, this is a time for celebration and indulgence - and by 'locals', I mean, of course, the tree graylings. In Spain this species is a July insect. In the Rhône Valley the emergence is timed so the butterflies can spend their entire life imbibing.
I reached this point of my walk while the day was still cool:
Even so, there were at least 25 tree graylings already flitting around the piles of grapes and sitting on the track and rocks nearby. There is no doubt in my mind the smell drew them.
I didn't hang around, because I wanted to get to my target field early, before the butterflies got too lively. There, the graylings were forced to take unfermented nectar, as the apple tree which usually leaves rotting fruit lying around appeared to have produced nothing this year (or someone had taken all the windfalls).
But they knew what they really wanted and when I inadvertently left my beer unguarded for a few minutes I came back to find a tree grayling thirstily gulping it down:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaYWP7Q29Zc[/video]
Apologies for the shakiness - tree graylings are very touchy so I filmed that from some distance, hand-held, at 12x zoom.
In the interests of science, I finished that beer and opened another, leaving the can in another part of the field, near where butterflies were nectaring. It took less than a minute for another tree grayling to find that one.
Meanwhile, the ordinary graylings (
semele) seemed to be enjoying elderberry wine instead:
Not surprisingly, armed with all that Dutch courage, the male graylings spent much of the early afternoon chasing females. This one seemed to have hit it off with his mate, though she is no young virgin by the look of it:
The female is on the right, with her wings open. She made no attempt to avoid his attentions and even engaged in some apparently friendly face-trampling for a while:
Elsewhere, this male Berger's pale clouded yellow met a stonier reception:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRRd48HHx4w[/video]
The only 'premium' species I found today was rosy grizzled skipper - a single individual, which didn't hang around for long. But it did stay long enough to get the necessary proof shots:
Here are a few other shots from today:
Plenty of small coppers around...
... and a few small heaths.
Seven species of blue were flying, including:
(Adonis)
(Turquoise)
(Northern brown argus)
(Chapman's blue)
That last was a crumpled little chappy but he was quite able to fly.
Violet fritillaries are still about:
Walls are common:
And here are a couple of Berger's pale clouded yellows, which were around in good numbers too:
(Female)
(Male)
Despite really enjoying today, my feeling is that things are closing up earlier than usual. Last year there was almost this much still flying at the beginning of November and I don't think today's butterflies will hold out that long.
This world-weary chalkhill blue, against a rather bleak autumnal backdrop, says it all:
Guy
.
