The big freeze continues
Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 8:08 pm
Switzerland had its coldest January for 23 years (see http://www.meteosuisse.admin.ch/web/fr/ ... anuar.html) and February has continued in the same vein. It's been below -10°C every morning recently and I'm getting a bit fed up with it, to be honest.
Here's the balmy Rhône Valley near Martigny today. Sunny, yes, but that haze is freezing and the sun's rays seem cold by the time they reach the ground.
In the shade the temperature never got anywhere near zero:
There are no nectar plants out at all at the moment. All the speedwell carpets that began to bloom in early January, as usual, have completely died down again. I saw a few flies and heard two or three lizards in a three-hour walk along the valley. Last year was the severest winter for decades but this one beats it hands down!
On the plus side, I had good pickings of hairstreak eggs again. Here are two brown hairstreaks on the same branch...
... and here's a nice healthy purple hairstreak:
I think this purple hairstreak egg was parasitised. It was dangling precariously off the twig so I collected it in a paper pouch to examine at home, but I got impatient and lost it when I opened the pouch in the field.
Finally, another mystery egg on blackthorn. Doubtless a moth, and doubtless I'll never know which.
It was smooth and greenish, and a little smaller than a brown hairstreak egg, I think.
Guy
Here's the balmy Rhône Valley near Martigny today. Sunny, yes, but that haze is freezing and the sun's rays seem cold by the time they reach the ground.
In the shade the temperature never got anywhere near zero:
There are no nectar plants out at all at the moment. All the speedwell carpets that began to bloom in early January, as usual, have completely died down again. I saw a few flies and heard two or three lizards in a three-hour walk along the valley. Last year was the severest winter for decades but this one beats it hands down!
On the plus side, I had good pickings of hairstreak eggs again. Here are two brown hairstreaks on the same branch...
... and here's a nice healthy purple hairstreak:
I think this purple hairstreak egg was parasitised. It was dangling precariously off the twig so I collected it in a paper pouch to examine at home, but I got impatient and lost it when I opened the pouch in the field.
Finally, another mystery egg on blackthorn. Doubtless a moth, and doubtless I'll never know which.
It was smooth and greenish, and a little smaller than a brown hairstreak egg, I think.
Guy