Padfield

[David M]

Can't remember the last time I saw snow like that over here, Guy. None fallen thus far this winter and by the look of things, we ain't getting any through Christmas and New Year either.

I wish you all the best.

[Padfield]

Hi David. I'm in the UK for a few days over Christmas, but I can see from my balcony webcam that there's snow right down to the valley floor at the moment - so should be good skiing. Here are a couple of snaps, from the morning and afternoon:





Not such brilliant weather in Woodbridge, but I photographed a very smart spotted redshank on the Deben this morning :



As I watched, he first evacuated, then stood on one leg and went to sleep :


(no sense of shame, these spotted redshanks)



I also saw a ringed godwit. I photographed a few of these while I was in Woodbridge looking after my father, and on sending the photos to the ringer was rewarded with life histories of the individual birds in question. One dated back twelve years and mapped its annual commuting between Iceland and the Deben Estuary. I've sent this photo off and hope to be able to report on its life history soon:



Merry Christmas to all !

Guy

[Wurzel]

Cracking views of the Spotted Redshank Guy (even the less attractive one ) - been years since I've seen one of those

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Hi Wurzel. Happy New Year - and to all UK Butterfliers! It's a long time since I've seen a spotted redshank too, and I was lucky to see that one. A local birder I reported it to said, 'It's been seen by several people ...', implying there's just the one around.

Since I've been back in Switzerland the weather has been amazing: thick snow and brilliant sunshine. Most days it's been better in the mountains, as a haze has hung over the valley, but I've done a couple of trips to the Valais vineyards east of Martigny and it was sunny there too. The first was on 29th December, when a single red admiral flew at my usual winter spot. Today, 1st January, I eventually located another - or perhaps the same one - not far away. It flew up and down the track before zooming over the bank and into the upper vineyards, where I lost it. So no photos.

This picture shows conditions in the valley out of the direct sun:



Just round the corner, where Minnie is heading in that picture, is my winter bank, where it was now sunny and almost warm (6°C):



The fact those pictures are about 150m apart shows just how much difference aspect makes in winter.

Similarly, this picture (from 29th December, but it was the same today) shows how on the flatter terraces snow still lies between the vines:



Up in Leysin, the snow is much thicker ...



... and even in the south-facing cemetery, with its heather in flower, no butterflies have flown since my return:



More snow is forecast tomorrow, and then next week there will be a lot more still. Sadly, I think Minnie's now too old (she'll be 13 on Monday) to keep up if I go off on a ski randonnée but there are some cross-country pistes in Leysin I can train on, leaving her at home. It's definitely not butterfly season yet!

Ah - one for the birders. I thought I saw a goshawk in the distance, over the vineyards today. It was a very long way away and I only got too awful pictures, the first in flight and the second on a post. The flight picture shows the barred texture of the upperside and the fingered wingtips (visible in the shadow). I expected it to have a barred chest but instead it has reddish-brown vertical streaks. I labelled the pictures 'sparrowhawk' because of the colour, but it's clearly not a male sparrowhawk (and in flight, it looked nothing at all like one):





It looked the size of a buzzard, though it's very difficult to tell at such a distance. Is it possible I got it all wrong and it is a buzzard?

Guy

[bugboy]

with a fair dash of uncertainty, and after flicking through Collins birds of Europe, I'd plump for a juvenile Goshawk. Those legs look more Accipiter than Buteo to me and the shape of the tail looks more Goshawky than Buzzardy too. Far from certain though.

[essexbuzzard]

Hi Guy, it’s definitely not a buzzard,which have a plump, more compact appearance. What you have there is a juvenile hawk, which have streaked underparts , and lack the barred front of the adults. So the only question is which species, and I think Bugboy is right. Based on your description of size, what you have there is a young female goshawk.

A very nice sighting!

[Padfield]

Thank you Buggy and Buzzard! I'm very happy to agree with you! It was only after I'd stared at the images far too long and hit semantic satiation that I even considered buzzard - you are both right that it is obviously not this. The very rounded end of the tail also says goshawk rather than sparrowhawk.

I very often see sparrowhawks over the vineyards and sometimes goshawks, though I only confirm these in flight when they're close enough for their size to be apparent. This one I had assumed to be goshawk until I saw the photo and the reddish chest. My bird mission for 2025 must be to get a better photo of one.

Guy

[David M]

I see you bagged a New Year's Day butterfly, Guy. I guess that's not especially unusual in your part of Europe, but it never ceases to amaze me how they take flight when there is so much snow lying.

Think it'll be a while before any are seen over here. That cold snap recently will probably have finished most of the few Red Admirals that were around.

[Padfield]

Hi David. In my opinion, it's the cold that keeps them alive, by enabling their metabolism to slow right down and so allow them to conserve resources. In the shade of the mountains, winter nights are bitter in Switzerland, even in the valley. Then for a short time on sunny days, the south-facing slopes may really warm up with the radiant heat, allowing activity.

That said, we recently had a very warm, dull spell - exactly what the butterflies don't want ! A lot of the snow melted and when I went for a training ski on the Leysin cross-country pistes I found what was left to be heavy and slow (it didn't help that I couldn't find my wax !). You can get a feel of the conditions here :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyQY2yD ... uyPadfield

The alpine pistes, higher up, will have been fine, though probably a little heavy.

Today the cold and snow returned - and long may it last !



Guy

[Padfield]

The Snow Queens are awake! Despite bitterly cold air in the valley - just 2°C when I saw the first Queen and 3°C when I saw the third and last - the radiant sun on steep, terraced banks did the trick. All three looked pristine and might have emerged this week, though equally, they might have emerged before the snows came and immediately gone into diapause. Here are the three individuals, with their locations. They were spread out over a distance of about 1.5 km:

No. 1:





No. 2:





No. 3





In fact, the morning view from Leysin didn't look promising, as the Rhône Valley north of Martigny was full of cloud:



It remained like this all day. But as often happens, the cloud ended at Martigny and from there eastwards it was brilliantly sunny with just a light, low haze:



Rock buntings were foraging in small flocks:





It was my first chance to get out properly since my 1st January trip (one red admiral, no Queens) and felt like a very successful day.

Guy

[essexbutterflyer]

Very fascinating that despite the low temps they emerge! I'm not familiar with the behaviour of Queens - can i ask why they do this? Do they bother overwintering at all?

And excellent photos

Zayed

[Padfield]

Hi Zayed. I'm glad you like the piccies! To be honest, I'm not sure of the answer to your question. What I do know, from observation, is that Queens of Spain are hardy, long-lived (as adults) and very successful butterflies. In summer, they may be seen from the valley floor to above the tree level in the mountains. The main spring emergence is March, when it is not unusual to see hundreds in a walk in the vineyards, but they fly in every month of the year and you can reliably expect to find some on the wing in January and February when the sun shines for a few days. They are continuously brooded and can reportedly enter diapause in any stage. I suspect these winter emergences are essentially opportunistic. Maybe a little winter nectaring helps keep them alive for longer. Maybe they even mate and lay (males engage in obvious territorial behaviour in February, when there may be many of them on those sunny banks). Maybe males just like to emerge early and then go torpid, ready to pounce on the first female emergees when they come (hence the relevance of this being a long-lived butterfly). More study is needed, but I don't have the time to do it!

Although this winter flying is regular near Martigny, it is only really possible because of the special microclimate there. Further along the Rhône to the east (or north-easst), the valley floor is narrower and the lower slopes are in shade for far longer. Near Martigny, the alluvial plain is wide and the sun reaches my favourite vineyard spots early in the morning. I don't know anywhere else, in Switzerland or further south, where this phenomenon occurs, though I have seen late February Queens in Italy, near Domodossola.

Guy

[Wurzel]

Great to see the Queens and the Rock Buntings Guy How common are the latter in your area? They're one of those species that I've missed out on several times

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Those Queens of Spain must lift your spirits each winter, Guy.

Doesn't seem to be a great deal of snow around and the ice-line on the mountains appears to be quite high up. Did that part of Switzerland experience a mild spell over the last week or so?

[Padfield]

Hi Wurzel. Rock buntings are common in Valais - that is, along the Rhône Valley east of Martigny. In summer they can be quite hard to see, as they are small and easily hidden by foliage, but in winter they are conspicuous, moving around in little flocks (often with chaffinches and other finches) and going 'Tsi- Tsi'.

Hi David. It's been cold pretty well everywhere recently but there has been no precipitation for a while. Valais has also enjoyed mostly unbroken sunshine, so the radiant heat has done its thing, even though the temperatures are low. Up in the mountains, the skiing is still fine but we are in need of fresh snow for the powder junkies!

Guy

[Padfield]

Lots of work and generally grey weather have prevented me going out looking for butterflies recently. Today, as yesterday, heavy cloud rose up through Leysin. We tried to escape it by walking up the hill but the cloud kept catching up. Nevertheless, it made for some spectacular scenes.

This was as we reached the top of Leysin:



We then took a contour walk, rising slightly, towards blue sky:



At times it was a complete white-out:



But briefly, the rolling waves of cloud did recede and we could see them building up for their next attack:



I imagine the skiing was fantastic just a few hundred metres higher up. But skiing in white-outs is terrifying. You can't tell whether the snow ahead of you is rising up or dropping off into a steep slope.

Guy

[Padfield]

The first local (Leysin) small tortoiseshells are flying. These photos were taken at about 1300m:







A few more days of sunshine are forecast, with cloud and snow at the weekend.

Guy

[essexbuzzard]

They are lovely, Guy.

A reminder of what we are missing!

[Padfield]

Hi Buzzard. What's happening to the small tortoiseshell in the UK is both concerning and very strange. I have to say, I saw reasonably good numbers in Suffolk in 2018-2022, when I was looking after my father, though nothing like the numbers in my youth. Here in Switzerland, there is no evidence of any decline.

I saw five in total today. Strangely, there were none on the heather in the cemetery, though I did see the first one just as we left, flying along the road by the cemetery. Having seen that one, I pushed my bike up through the snow to a slightly higher, south-facing meadow, where I thought there should be more - and there were.

The cemetery:





Queens of Spain breed on the Viola tricolor in the cemetery, but although this species has been in flower for a few weeks now, the Queens themselves don't fly until later at this altitude:


(24th January this year)

Minnie was a bit cheesed off when we changed plans and went up through the snow, because she was already in the backpack and enjoying the ride. But she had to get out and walk ...



Guy

[Padfield]

Three mornings a week, I cross to a neighbouring mountain and teach at a school in Chesières, at about 1100m. Today, as we walked back for the bus, a couple of small tortoiseshells were flying on this bank :



I didn't have my camera, but I got a rather distant shot of one with my iPhone and cropped the picture to give this :



This February emergence is not exceptional - and it is clearly synchronised around the whole region.

Guy