Padfield

[Padfield]

Thanks Wurzel. Fortunately, I was able to make up for the missed brimstone shots today!

Because kids were off today on various trips, I don't have any lessons before 20h00. So I took Minnie along the Rhône in Valais in the morning, confident there would be butterflies flying. And there were!

Most abundant by far were the Queens, which were flying in triple figures. Some were nectaring ...



... some were basking on the road or beside the track ...



...

... and some were chasing each other over the hillside in tumbling, silver and gold whirlwinds of lust:



Brimstones were out in force too, both males and females:





New for the year were eastern Bath whites - flying in good numbers too:



I saw probably eight large tortoiseshells, though they were very uncooperative for photos. The only one I saw land (though I did accidently put up several before I spotted them!) was a plump female, who never opened her wings:



A single, early orange tip was flying. He only stopped briefly, and almost inaccessibly, but I got this distant shot of his rather grumpy expression:



He spent some time trying to get a reaction from a male green-veined white, who did his best to ignore him. This is a crop of a phone picture:



This is the green-veined white in question:



In the sky, the buzzards were joined by newly arrived crag martins:





All in all, a great day out for a working weekday, with a grand total of 9 species seen (the ones not mentioned above were small white and small tortoiseshell)!





Here's one of the small torties - I didn't get any pictures of small white:



Guy

[Wurzel]

Glad you caught up with the Brimstone Guy - but did you have to see a Bath White? I've only ever seen one of those and not got a single shot of them - they seem to be one of my bogie butterflies Still nice to enjoy yours

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Glad you caught up with the Brimstone Guy - but did you have to see a Bath White? I've only ever seen one of those and not got a single shot of them - they seem to be one of my bogie butterflies Still nice to enjoy yours

Have a goodun

Wurzel

I remember you saying before that Bath white was a bit of a jinx butterfly for you, Wurzel! It's true, they're very lively butterflies but where they fly they can be very common and it's just a matter of waiting for one eventually to stop. They particularly like nectaring at crucifers. In Switzerland we have the eastern species, edusa, but in a very few weeks' time I'll be in Málaga photographing the western species, daplidice. If you wanted to beat your bogie, that's probably the place to go - very much cheaper than my beloved homeland!

It was a bit of a grey day in the mountains today - at least, at the time I took my walk - so only small tortoiseshells were on the wing. But a majestic golden eagle passed overhead, presumably on his way back to the high Alps:





Guy

[Wurzel]

Great to see that 'flying barn door' Guy

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Lovely to see that Orange Tip, Guy. We'll have to wait another 3-4 weeks for ours but over here, March thus far has been a distinct improvement on the 2023 and 2024 versions.

[Padfield]

Thanks Wurzel and David.

More recently, the snow returned and I have been very busy too - so only time for scenic piccies en passant. Here are a few from the last week or so:


(morning on 13th March, from my bedroom window)


(Primula spp. outside my apartment block on 17th March)


(morning walkies on 17th March)


(the valley near Ollon this morning - I had to go and buy things for my trip to Spain)


(the lizard in the Henri Badoux vineyards above Aigle)


(the view walking back from work this evening, with the Dents de Morcles on the the left and the Dents du Midi across the valley)

Guy

[essexbuzzard]

Good luck in Andalucia, Guy. They’ve had a lot of rain down there in the last couple of weeks, which should have freshened up the local plant life. This might help with nectar sources, I look forward to seeing how you get on.

[Wurzel]

Have a great trip Guy - I look forward to seeing some spring exotics

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Thanks Buzzard and Wurzel. I'll be processing pictures every night and posting them, assuming I get at least some fine weather!

Term has finished here, so I was able to spend the morning in Valais. The forecast had been rather iffy - mostly cloud with some sun - but in the end it was warm sunshine the whole time I was there. It was very windy, though, making photography difficult.





Despite the wind, butterflies were everywhere, with a total of 16 species seen in about three hours. Especially for Wurzel, here is a Bath white, unusually enjoying some sallow blossom:



Orange tips were everywhere - but only males.:





Both swallowtails were flying - new for the year - though only one scarce swallowtail stopped for a couple of pictures:





I used AI to take that annoying twig out of the second picture (I couldn't get a steady view through the bushes because of the wind). The result is not perfect but on first view it's a nicer picture:



Grizzled skippers (malvoides, not malvae) were out in very small numbers. Typically, they fly from mid-March, so this is not an early year:





They breed on Potentilla recta, which was out in good mats of flowers:



Other new species for the year were wood white (a single individual, in flight), speckled wood and small heath (a single individual):





There were no Lycaenids - again confirming that this is not an early year. I would have expected to see at least a green hairstreak or holly blue. Nevertheless, I can say with confidence that spring is here in the Rhône Valley!

Guy

[David Lazarus]

A really beautiful selection, Guy - good to see.

[David M]

...Despite the wind, butterflies were everywhere, with a total of 16 species seen in about three hours...

Phenomenal! In spite of the snow you had not so long ago your season is way ahead of ours, even though March has been a largely benign month here.

So good to see those Orange Tips. I'm sure they're imminent here.

[Wurzel]

Cracking sights there Guy - those Orange-tips are stunning - a glimpse of what we have in store

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Thank you, David, David and Wurzel.

Since that last post it's turned cloudy and cooler. These pictures are from our afternoon walk near Leysin:





I noticed in the morning that the black redstarts were back, and in the afternoon saw my first black kites of the year, circling high with one or two buzzards:







Red kites are resident in Leysin all year round but black kites are strictly summer visitors.

Guy

[Padfield]

I was up at 04h30 this morning, after spending the night in a Geneva hotel so I could catch the early plane to Málaga. By 12h00 I was in my hostal and soon after that I set off for a little local walk. My first mission was desert orange tips, but their foodplant was all dried up and apparently dead so unsurprisingly there were none there. After that, I headed out along one of my favourite walks, which used to be a filthy track, full of rubbish, tramps and butterflies. The town has cleaned it up completely and now there are no tramps or rubbish - and very few butterflies. They dug up all the Lantana for some reason, so there weren't even the usual monarchs. Nevertheless, I found a few geranium bronzes and green-striped whites and spotted a single monarch flying near the only remaining Lanatana that I could see. I saw four more monarchs when I walked back the same way later, though all at very great distance. One of the species I used to see along the tramps' track was Zis Knys. Luckily, I found a new place for this today and spent a pleasant half hour drinking beer and watching them sparring and dancing. I even had time to head a little into the hills, seeing black-eyed blues, dappled whites, Spanish festoons, a Cleopatra and more. Tomorrow I will head higher into the local hills.


(Spanish festoon)


(green-striped white)


(western dappled white)


(western Bath white)


(African grass blue)


(geranium bronze)


(a very distant monarch - on the other side of the river)


(a female - I think - parakeet in her nest in a palm tree in a Málaga street)


(her mate)

Guy

[Padfield]

Today's surprise guest was a wonderful, male two-tailed pasha, hill-topping at one of my favourite spots above Málaga:



Two years ago, I saw one on 1st April and thought that was exceptional. Clearly, the flight period has shifted, as Tolman gives the first brood as May-June!

I didn't see any other positive evidence of this being an early year, though. No meadow browns, Spanish gatekeepers or southern brown arguses, for example. Negative evidence was the striking absence of green hairstreaks - a species that flies from February here, so is either over or has mysteriously disappeared. Perhaps the recent heavy rain and thunderstorms finished them off. Everything was very lush and a little river was flowing where in 2023 at the same time it was bone dry.

Spanish festoons were abundant in the hills. Here is a couple kissing, and another two individuals - I take too many photos of these lovely butterflies:







Black-eyed blues were also very common, though the males were incessantly on the wing and I couldn't get any decent photos of them:





Some more piccies:


(Spanish marbled white - very common in the hills)


(Iberian scarce swallowtail, Iphiclides feisthamelii)


(helice)


(green-striped white)


(one of a group of cattle egrets down on the river in Málaga)

I took this next photo with my iPhone from one of my hill-topping spots, catching two Spanish marbled whites and a green-striped white in the picture. The slight shadow on the left-most Spanish marbled white is an artefact of the iPhone - to get HDR it combines lighting from several frames.



And a detail from the same photo, containing the butterflies:



Guy

[Padfield]

I took a more relaxing day on 29th, heading to Benalmádena to photograph Provence orange tips, which I know where to find easily there:





I knew I wanted to do a big trip the next day, but wasn't sure what. One of my targets for the trip was the Iberian greenish black-tip, which was quite daunting because I wasn't quite sure how I would get there and back in a day, being a non-driver. My other two potential trips were Antequera, for false baton blues, and Gibraltar, for old times' sake. As I sat at the station at Benalmádena, I decided to go for it and ordered a night bus to Baza on my phone. Thus, at 01h00 that night, I boarded a very full coach (it goes on to Barcelona) and at 05h30 (the time change happened during the night), I was dropped off in a deserted bus station on the outskirts of Baza, on a moonless night. It reminded me of my youth, when I spent a lot of time in deserted, midnight bus stops all across Iberia! I had considered getting a taxi to continue the journey a bit but the bus station was absolutely dead so I just headed off on foot, walking through the night until I arrived, just after dawn. I had beautiful sky views on the way. Here is the Milky Way with Scorpio and Sagittarius:



I reached the hilltopping site I had kindly been tipped off to as the sun rose, but the temperature was still only 2°C. Nothing at all flew until after 10h00, when I saw a painted lady - then a single wall at about 10h30. My fingers were still crossed when a Danish biologist, who had been visiting for the last week, turned up and said the bazae wouldn't be in until well after 11h00. Portuguese dappled whites and other Euchloe began hilltopping, then at 11h22 my first ever bazae arrived and flew around me a few times before settling:





After that, probably three males kept a constant presence at the site, increasingly battling with other species as the day hotted up:









This is the kind of terrain where the butterfly flies:



I had to leave at 13h00 for the long walk back to Baza, but was very happy indeed with the new species. Euchloe bazae (or Elphinstonia bazae) was only discovered in 1982 and at first was taken to be a subspecies of E. charlonia, an African species. Then in 1993, the Italian lepidopterist, Fabiano, described it formally, as a species new to science. It flies in two very small populations near Baza and another, discrete population further north, near Huesca.

On the way back, I picked up a Provence hairstreak:



I'm taking another relaxing day today so my feet can recover a bit before more long walks!

Guy

[selbypaul]

Really enjoying reading your write up of your trip Guy. I love the photo of the view with the butterflies in the foreground.

And more than excited on your behalf in relation to Euchloe bazae. Wonderful photos of one of Europe's rarest butterflies!

[Padfield]

Thanks Paul. I've been extremely lucky so far and am very grateful.

The reason I post every day is partly because I'd never find time afterwards if I didn't, and partly because I like to secure my photos in the cloud as soon as I can. I've been robbed in Spain twice before - once my passport and credit cards and once my iPhone. Those things are replaceable. An SD card with a holidayful of photos isn't!!

So a few offerings from today. I mostly relaxed and sorted things out for tomorrow, but in the late afternoon I took a stroll along the river to spend some quality time with a beer and Ziz Knys (African grass blue). As I walked there, a Monarch flew past, circled a couple of times, then carried on his or her way:



I was happy to see a female Ziz Knys on the newly cleaned-up track, suggesting it might move back there in time:



At the beer spot, a single male was enjoying the early evening sun:







Off to Gibraltar early tomorrow.

Guy

[Padfield]

It had to happen eventually: today I was mugged and robbed. My aggressor seemed friendly enough, then suddenly jumped on my back, unzipped my backpack and made off with my bread. He then scarpered up the bank and began eating it:



No moral compass, these Barbary macaques. Fortunately, he didn't seem to be interested in my beer, though he did initially try to take my bag of charging cables along with the bread. I dived on the cable bag and prevented him getting away with that.

Other macaques were more innocent:



Doubtless he'll grow up to be a thief, too!

It was a mostly cloudy day on the rock, with some sunny intervals but also a fair wind. Butterflies were few and far between. I had hoped for hilltopping Portuguese dappled white, as I photographed one at the top two years ago, but up there I saw just one painted lady.

A few piccies, beginning with the view over the Mediterranean from the Goat's hair cave:



This is the view over Catalan Bay, on the east side:



And another view, from higher:



I presume the Portuguese dappled whites breed on those grassy slopes (most of which used to be the water catchments), so I went round afterwards and checked out the only part of them I know to be accessible:



Forty two years ago, I used to sit there and watch green-striped whites and Provence orange tips (then, Moroccan orange tips). Today, lots of Provence orange tips were drifting around, as well as a smaller number of unidentified Euchloe - by default, green-striped whites, as that is all I have ever seen there.

Gibraltar itself is a ghastly place now. In my day, it was romantic and steeped in history. Now it is an overbuilt, tacky souvenir of itself, crawling with visitors who get to the top by cable car or taxi just to gawp at the monkeys. I had to pay £30 for permission to walk up to the upper rock, the price including all the attractions, like St Michael's caves. I explained that I didn't want to visit any of these as I had done so a thousand times before, but the chap on the till had no choice. Despite all this, though, the Rock stands proud above all the new high-rise buildings and has a dignity all of its own.



Guy

[Wurzel]

Fantastic selection of species Guy Those Iberian Greenish Black-tips are a stunning looking butterfly!

Have a goodun

Wurzel