On Sunday 17th I was up early and down to the Rhône Valley. When I left the house it was 1°C and even when I reached the Roman town of Martigny it was still only 6°C. Nevertheless, no sooner did I hit the vineyards than first a wall, then a Queen of Spain came out to greet me.
Continuing through the vineyards, past my favourite
trompe l'œil (that I've shown in these pages many times before), I made my way to my midwinter Queen wall.
That
trompe l'œil:
It always makes me think of my mother, as when I sent her a picture of it way back in 2007, with my previous dog, Asha, she thought it was me.
(Asha in 2007)
I took a spherical piccie (for VR) of the Queen wall:
https://momento360.com/e/u/273d97f5b061 ... ize=medium
In addition to the Queens and walls, both Adonis and chalkhill blues flew along this track regularly, as well as southern small whites, red admirals and the odd tree grayling. Clouded yellows and Berger's clouded yellows were also about, though the latter never stopped. I've shown fresh individuals of chalkhill and Adonis already, so here are rather tattier ones:
There were common blues too:
This is a southern small white,
Pieris mannii ...
... and this a tree grayling:
Next, I headed for an off-the-track spot where regular landslides bring alpine butterflies and plants down lower - so in season, Eros blues fly there, even though it's barely above the valley floor. It's where I first confirmed the breeding population of cardinals in 2013, though I didn't expect to see them today. As noted above, my previous latest cardinal was 30th September. I thought, instead, that there might be some brown hairstreaks still flying, or perhaps northern brown argus or a late high brown fritillary. It's also where I had to call the fire brigade in 2015 when Minnie got stuck underground ... Anyway, today, it was all cardinals.
(Les sapeurs-pompiers de Fully with Minnie in 2015)
Cardinals are single brooded. The first individuals appear on the wing in May - May 4th my earliest date - and spend the early summer gently nectaring on clover, without any territorial or reproductive behaviour. In June, when it gets too hot in the valley, they fly up into the mountains and continue taking life easy. Then in July they return to the valley and start planning for the next generation. The males transform into Vogon fighter planes and the females just get broody. In August and September, eggs are laid in the vineyards, where the foodplant,
Viola tricolor agg., grows but the caterpillars don't start feeding until the following year. When the weather's hot, the butterflies typically burn out by the end of September. This year, which was very cool, they kept themselves alive. Some individuals I saw on 17th October might have been flying for five months.
I had been strong-armed into playing the hymns at church in the evening, and a little something before and after, so couldn't spend quite as long as I would have wished in the vineyards (or drink quite as much beer as I would have wished). Nevertheless, I think I had seen all that this part of the valley held for me, so I returned home very happy.
Guy
