The fat lady cleared her voice, then went back to the dressing room.
16 species were enjoying the sun in the Rhône Valley today. In a year where everything happened early, many of these were third brooders.
I arrived at my favourite autumn site at my usual time to find frosty dew on the ground and only walls on the wing (I saw a single red admiral and a single tree grayling on the way). It was 10.45 am and a glorious, sunny day, but the shadows were long and the air cool. Nothing more happened until 11.05, when the first Adonis blue flew in; but by 11.30 I had seen half a dozen species and by midday the site was heaving with butterflies. It is essentially a nectar hotspot, where the last dandelions of the year flower, as well as several other nectar species, and I think butterflies come in from all the surrounding region, as do the black redstarts, fattening up on Lepidoptera for their long flight.
Here is a Queen of Spain:
These were common today, giving hope that I will still be seeing them in November. December is the only month of the year I've never seen a QoS.
This is one of three rosy grizzled skippers I saw:
I've never seen the third brood of this butterfly before this year. That's a female, as were both the others I saw today, which meant good photographic opportunities were limited (they don't sit around defending territories).
Ian asked about identifying Berger's pale clouded yellow and pale clouded yellows (and thank you for your other kind comments, Ian). Roger, Tim (Cowles), Matt and I have been exchanging e-mails recently about this and the conclusion is that we all use slightly different criteria and end up disagreeing about individual insects. Sometimes, as today, the context is sufficient. In my experience, the wings are differently proportioned, making males separable most of the time; but my criteria led me to a different conclusion about one of Roger's butterflies than that reached by local experts (local to where he photographed it). So the short answer is: by visible characteristics we haven't got a definitive answer yet! Ecological and geographical considerations allow confidence a lot of the time.
This one is a Berger's female:
And here is a male clouded yellow:
Blues were on good form today. Here is a nicely autumnal northern brown argus:
This one is Chapman's:
And these are common blues:
Love was in the air for Adonis blues too:
Some walls looked very fresh - and this species will be on the wing a while yet, I think:
Many others showed signs of having been attacked by those predatory black redstarts that were permanently in the wings. This female had lost an 'eye' ...
... as had this male:
Many others had similar bites taken out of their hindwings.
Essentially, there were butterflies everywhere on the site, nearly always close to the ground because this is a grazed paddock and most nectar plants are very low. I wandered around being careful not to tread on them:
(QoS on the left; a wall and tree grayling on the right)
As I wandered back to the train I checked UK Butts and found Susie had lost a swallowtail. At exactly that moment, a swallowtail cruised past me!
I can't recall seeing one in mid-October before so it
must be Susie's, back where it belongs!
A single grayling appeared shortly afterwards (just a proof shot obtained). But by now it was the heat of the afternoon and the piles of rotting grapes were absolutely humming with wasps, tree graylings and insectivorous birds:
All in all, a really enjoyable Ides of October.
Guy
