Padfield

[Padfield]

Hi David. The comet's still there - it's not too late! It's not a naked eye object, though, unless you have an exceptionally clear night and are away from all lights. This was last night:



The 'noisy' patch of sky just beyond the comet's tail is not an artefact of the image but a star cluster - to be precise, IC 4665. Here is a detail from one of last night's pictures, with increased contrast, to bring out some of the stars in the cluster:



Overhead, the Andromeda Galaxy was shining. At 2 million light years away, this is the most distant object that can be seen with the naked eye. To see it is to look 2 million years back in time:



We took a walk near Villeneuve, on the lake, yesterday. By far the most conspicuous butterflies around now are red admirals - gliding, feeding, sunning in their dozens. Here is a group on some discarded orange peel:





It was a beautiful, warm day:





The only other butterflies flying, however, were two clouded yellows, one holly blue and one speckled wood:







Some of the hundreds of red admirals we saw will be fattening up to try and hibernate. There are always overwinterers on the wing on sunny days in January and February. Many of them, however, will fly south to where winters are shorter and milder. This one appeared to be getting his bearings for the journey:



Guy

[Padfield]

A few red admirals still drifting around town, but up the local mountain today we saw no butterflies at all.


(going up the easy way)


(view towards Lac Léman)


(view towards Les Diablerets)


(view towards the Rhône Valley)

In the evening, the comet was put on a final show. My first pictures showed it brilliant, with a long tail, against a bright, early evening sky. Now it is dim in the dark sky and with a short tail:



Guy

[David M]

I think it's going to be too faint now, Guy, and in any case it's still cloudy here and is forecast to be so till Hallowe'en at least.

Interesting to see from your images that most of your local cloud is settled low within the valleys whilst the upper slopes are clear.

[Wurzel]

"This one appeared to be getting his bearings for the journey:"... Cracking shot and cracked me up

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

He made me smile too, Wurzel!

I agree David, if you haven't seen the comet yet, you'll probably have to wait another 80 thousand years. It's still there if you know where and how to look, but it's much, much fainter and definitely not a naked-eye object. I was teaching tonight at the Leysin American School and nipped out between lessons, shortly before 20h00, to take this picture:



The stars aren't in fantastic focus - probably because of all the lights around, confusing the iPhone - but they are bright and the comet is almost lost among them. This is where it is:



Guy

[Padfield]

October finished very warm and November has begun the same way. In Leysin, at about 1300m, several species are still flying, including Queen of Spain, red admiral, common blue, Adonis blue, small white, clouded yellow and Berger's clouded yellow. In the valley today, I saw all these plus walls, tree graylings, speckled woods and small coppers. A few piccies:


(one of several Queens of Spain in the Leysin cemetery on 31st October)


(a Queen of Spain in the valley today)


(... and another, also in the valley today)


(one even sat with us at our beer/water stop)


(a red admiral at a buttercup)


(a couple of amorous walls)


(a rather fresh-looking small copper, today)


(at this end of the season, tree graylings often rest with their wings open)


(Adonis blue)


(the river walk)


(looking across the Rhône)

The comet is still detectable and I have photographed it every night recently, including tonight. But it is very dim and far outshone by the brilliance of the clear night skies. So instead of a shot of that, here's Orion rising above the Grand Chamossaire last night, with Jupiter at the top left of the picture:



In 2019 there was great excitement because Betelgeuse seemed to be fading, and there were hopes we might be about to witness a supernova. Red giants go dim before they explode. But it is back to full brilliance again now. It is the slightly yellowish (in this picture - reddish in reality) star marking Orion's right shoulder (on the left as you look at him).

When we start seeing Orion in the evening skies it means winter is soon to be upon us.

Guy

[Padfield]

The hot weather has continued. Early this morning, Minnie and I caught the télécabine up the local mountain and descended by a route we had never taken before. It turned out to be a little hairy - shaly traverses across steep slopes, so I had to keep Minnie close! - but we survived it and ended up at one of our regular butterfly spots at about 1650m. After seeing nothing prior to this, we suddenly found a few Adonis blues and a single common blue. No Berger's or clouded yellows, surprisingly. A little lower down, a few small tortoiseshells were flying. These must have been awakened by the recent warmth, as small tortoiseshell is a well-behaved butterfly - it goes to sleep in July/August and wakes up when conditions are good for breeding. They may be able to lay a few eggs before the snow comes.


(Minnie on one of the safer but steeper bits of our new route)


(Adonis blue at 1650m)


(common blue at 1650m)


(small tortoiseshell at about 1500m)

I think this is a marsh tit. I normally tell marsh and willow tit apart by voice : marsh tits make a kind of sneezing 'pitchou' sound and willow tits wheeze. But this one made a kind of wheezy sneeze and I wasn't sure:



Some people buy expensive mineral water from springs. In Switzerland, spring water is free and on tap. At one point on our way down, in Leysin, there is a 'fontaine' with three different sources, from Ormont Dessus, Leysin and Ormont Dessous. Minnie always looks forward to her drinkies here. Today she had Ormont Dessus water:





Guy

[Wurzel]

Great to see that Small Tort Guy - there becoming something of a scarce sighting in the UK Good call on the Marsh Tit ID, the most obvious ID feature isn't actually obvious in this shot (the pale patch on the wing) but the cheek is white and then into very pale brown/grey whereas in Willow Tit it's all white

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[essexbuzzard]

This is the time of year you make the rest of us jealous, Guy, with your sightings. In your first picture, with Minnie, you can just about make out a sheet of low cloud ( stratocumulus), in the background . This is the cloud which has been covering virtually the whole of the UK for over a week now. We don’t begrudge you, of course. It’s nice to see a few butterflies are still flying, somewhere!

[David M]

..In your first picture, with Minnie, you can just about make out a sheet of low cloud ( stratocumulus), in the background . This is the cloud which has been covering virtually the whole of the UK for over a week now...

Indeed. We're almost halfway through the sixth day of November and I have yet to see the sun this month!

[millerd]

A little lower down, a few small tortoiseshells were flying. These must have been awakened by the recent warmth, as small tortoiseshell is a well-behaved butterfly - it goes to sleep in July/August and wakes up when conditions are good for breeding. They may be able to lay a few eggs before the snow comes.
Guy

As Wurzel mentioned, it's great to see a Small Tortoiseshell, Guy - I saw just two fresh ones this summer locally. I didn't realise that when roused temporarily from hibernation by some autumn warmth and sunshine they may actually breed and lay eggs, as I just assumed they save all that for next spring. I suppose that if a warm spell is sufficently prolonged breeding behaviour is triggered.

Cheers,

Dave

[Padfield]

Thank you for the comments, Wurzel, Buzzard, David and Dave. An alternative theory for the small tortoiseshells is that they might have been late emergers from higher up the mountain, come down to nectar and enjoy themselves before going into hibernation. In contrast to the trend in the UK, small tortoiseshells are very common here and can be seen from the valley to the mountain tops. My understanding is that true hibernation - which small tortoiseshells do - involves profound metabolic change and is not something a butterfly can simply slip in and out of. Typically, they go into hibernation in July and August and I don't usually see them again until they wake up in January and February, when they engage in breeding behaviour. I have no direct evidence they go into breeding mode if they wake up in November.

It is common for there to be heavy cloud hanging over the valley while it is sunny up here in the mountains, but the cloud Buzzard alludes to was particularly interesting. It was uniquely over Lac Léman, flowing around its contours as if it were the lake itself:



It stopped very abruptly where the lake became the Rhône Valley, so it looked like water brimming on the lip of a dam:



This picture shows the Rhône Valley basking in the sun while the cloud fills up the Léman basin on the right of the image:



This picture, from 26th October, shows the more common situation, where the whole valley is filled with cloud while Minnie and I trot along in the sun in our mountain paradise:



Guy

[Padfield]

In the Rhône Valley today, ten species were flying: red admiral, Queen of Spain, tree grayling, wall, clouded yellow, Berger's clouded yellow, small white, Adonis blue, northern brown argus and small copper. We have had hot weather for over two weeks now, and although this particular walk has a very short day in the winter, the butterflies are doing their best to stretch out the season.

The Rhône:





Adonis blues :



Small copper:



Clouded yellow:



Berger's clouded yellow:



Wall:



Northern brown argus:



Queen of Spain:



Tree grayling:



Guy

[Padfield]

A sudden wave of cold air has hit the Alps. Snow fell to 1200m on Sunday night and the clear skies have been replaced with vast, amazing cloudscapes. More snow is forecast for next week.







No butterflies, with maximum temperatures of about 7°C this last couple of days and heavy night frosts.

Guy

[Wurzel]

Stretching it out indeed - the Small Copper, NBA and Wall look in pretty good nick Which form of NBA is that one there - as it doesn't have the orange lunules on the fore wing that we might see over here - is a different race from our NBA?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

A sudden wave of cold air has hit the Alps. Snow fell to 1200m on Sunday night and the clear skies have been replaced with vast, amazing cloudscapes. More snow is forecast for next week...

There seems to be no escape from the capricious nature of the weather this year, Guy. You've gone from warm to cold in a matter of days.

Same thing here. It's been 13-16c all month but next week we have sleet forecast and temperatures of 6-8c.

I'll be delighted to see the back of 2024.

[Padfield]

Hi Wurzel. The artaxerxes a couple of posts up is a typical male of ssp. allous. The forewings are rather pointy and without orange markings. The subspecies is extremely variable, though, especially in earlier broods.

Hi David. Snow in November is quite usual, and typically snow that falls from 15th onwards stays to contribute to the Christmas skiing. This week's snow was mostly higher than Leysin but next week we should get significant dumps at this altitude and lower. You're right though - the temperature transition has been very sudden.

Today in the Rhône Valley just five species were flying: Queen of Spain (the commonest), clouded yellow, wall, small copper and a single red admiral. No tree graylings, so I guess the season for this butterfly is finally over. Temperatures were low - maxing at about 12°C while I was out - and there was considerable frost in the shade. Puddles were still icy in the early afternoon.






(I took this picture at about 13h15)









This is a rock bunting:



This is my best friend:



Guy

[Wurzel]

Cheers for the info Guy Cracking shot of the Cloudy and a lovely portrait of Minnie

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

I liked that shot of Minnie too, Wurzel!

That was on Saturday. On Sunday, the sun stayed but the temperature dropped: it was about 7°C when we took our afternoon walk near Leysin. Unsurprisingly, little was flying, but there were at least half a dozen clouded yellows doing their best in a meadow next to the cemetery:





On Monday and Tuesday the snow level dropped and by today Leysin was under thick snow. Much more snow is forecast so I think those cloudies will now enter the long sleep.



Winter is here.

Guy

[Wurzel]

That looks like proper snow Guy -if we got that over here the whole country would be at a standstill I'm glad that you got a few more Cloudies in before the white stuff

Have a goodun

Wurzel