Hi Wurzel. Clearly you're such a good teacher the kids don't need revision - ahem, intervention - sessions! :D I have to say, I can't think of 'intervention' without thinking of John Finnemore's Pooh Bear sketch ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbk4lmrdF8&ab_channel=elbuho ). :lol: Happy May h...

Ironically, Wurzel, though Chatty G is entirely digital, he has neither fingers nor gloves! :D The good weather is continuing. As I went up for my 16h30 lesson this evening, my first red-underwing skipper of the year was taking minerals at Leysin Village station. I tried to move him on, as others we...

I'm pretty sure this is the same individual, confirming that mine is onopordi : https://www.guypadfield.com/images2017/onopordi22apr2017c.jpg The only hesitation I had with yours was that in onopordi , the discal mark on the hindwing upperside is usually defined internally by a slightly brighter, wh...

Hi Wurzel. Yes, hard work - but good beer! :D Well, as good as Swiss beer gets (Valaisanne Pale Ale). Hi Rob. I'm with you there! I just love seeing wood whites doing this. And the individual on the left, which I think is the male (please correct me), seems to be kissing the one on the right with hi...

It looks good for onopordi to me. Here is a Swiss individual from April 2017:



Guy

Hi David. There are good numbers of immigrant red admirals and painted ladies in Switzerland too. Good numbers in April usually presage a bumper year, here and in the UK.

Guy

Some lovely pictures there, Wurzel - especially of those marsh frit cats. I should look out for these too - I've only seen older cats.

What is an intervention session?

Guy

It looks good for crameri to me. Nice find!

Guy

I was going to visit a site in the Val d'Hérens today, for Dukes of Burgundy among other things; but a cancelled train messed up the connections and I ended up going to a different site, in the Zermatt Valley. This and the Saas Valley were among the worst hit areas of Valais in the recent weather sh...

On our walk to my morning job today, the first Berger's clouded yellow of the year was sunning itself by the side of the track. I took this photo with my iPhone but it really did look that yellow in real life, with the low, morning sun: https://www.guypadfield.com/images2025/23apr2025a.jpg https://w...

My immediate instinct is also pronoe , to a very high degree of probability. The violet hints are very lighting-dependent, and though there's nothing visible on the forewing they are detectable on the hindwing. If that is a normal-sized scabious flower, the butterfly is too big for gorge , and like ...

The truly bizarre things to me is this - all over these isles we hear of proposed and actual re-wilding schemes, where land is supposedly given back to nature, and the cost involved can be considerable. Here on the airfield is a site of hundreds of acres which has rewilded itself over many years - ...

Hi Matsukaze. I too was very struck by the paucity of blues and absence of skippers, especially given the mostly fantastic weather I enjoyed. It will be interesting to hear reports from later in the year. Hi David. There's a Flatlander deep inside me too - I was born in Maldon and grew up in East Su...

Sorry I'm so late on the uptake here, Pete - it's been a busy week! I can almost feel your excitement at the small Bath white. What a very special butterfly, and not just because of its rarity. It really looks different from the other Bath whites. I have to say, though, that the false Apollo has sud...

Hi Paul. When numbers are low, it's difficult to judge the lateness of a season. Outliers are proportionately rarer and less likely to be encountered, so first sightings are likely to be nearer to the median emergence date. On first sightings alone, 2025 is late, but numbers are very low, so the abo...

Just like last year, the snow came back on 16th-17th April: https://www.guypadfield.com/images2025/17apr2025a.jpg https://www.guypadfield.com/images2025/17apr2025b.jpg In Valais, they had record snowfall for the time of year: https://www.lematin.ch/story/valais-precipitations-exceptionnelles-de-nomb...

I went east today, to escape the cloud and rain moving in from the west. We did indeed get most of the morning in the sun, though it clouded over as predicted in the early afternoon: https://www.guypadfield.com/images2025/12apr2025a.jpg My main targets were Camberwell beauty and de Prünner's ringlet...

Thanks Wurzel. You may be horrified to learn I teach till 21h00 most days during term time ! :D I had to give up my job when I went back to the UK to look after my father, and since I've been back in Switzerland I teach mostly privately, after normal school hours, at the American School in Leysin. I...

As I walked up to school for a 16h00 lesson, I found my first violet fritillary of the year. Last year, the first local violet fritillaries flew on 11th April, then we had heavy snow from 16th April, covering the local meadows to 30cm for about ten days. I hope the same is not going to happen this y...

The kidney vetch is coming out around Leysin, so I had a quick check for little blues today. There were none there, but I did see this lovely, fresh green hairstreak:



Guy