Padfield

[Padfield]

Thanks Wurzel. I always think of you now, when I see one of the Bath whites ...

Today the weather turned somewhat and it was quite cloudy, with sunny intervals, at Antequera. Even so, I'm fairly confident the false baton and Lorquin's blues I had hoped to see were simply not there. This time two years ago, at exactly the same spot, both were numerous, and I saw many of both in the wider region. Today, I searched carefully every time the sun came out and had no hint of either. I hope it is just a late year, as the sun was warm when it shone and I would have expected to see them if they were there. In general, the numbers of butterflies were down on previous years and significantly, I saw no skippers (southern grizzled and false mallow both fly at that spot). NEVERTHELESS, it was a good day. Best of all, after checking every Euchloe that deigned to stop, I eventually found a Portuguese dappled white and was able to get photos. This was at 18h00 and it had actually gone to roost:



For comparison, here are two western dappled whites from today:





So that means I've photographed all four Spanish species of Euchloe this holiday.

I watched this courting pair of painted ladies for a long time, hoping to see the mating, but a third interrupted them and they all flew off together in a puff of pheromones:



Next is a crumply but brilliant female Adonis blue:



I didn't see any males.

Here is a female Austaut's blue (Polyommatus celina):



I did see a male of that species.

Just two Provence hairstreaks appeared. This species has been thinner on the ground in recent years:



On the bird front, here is a very distant Iberian grey shrike - a close relative of the great grey shrike but endemic to Spain and Portugal:



The common shrike here is woodchat, though I only got a poor shot today:



While I was lurking and waiting for false baton and Lorquin's, a Dartford warbler danced past in the bushes:



Corn buntings were jangling their keys everywhere - wonderful birds:





And here is a stonechat with a present for his wife:





Guy

[Padfield]

Today was my last day in Málaga for this holiday. I usually go back up to my hilltopping crests on my last day, to say goodbye and thank you, but it was raining all morning and I gave it a miss this time. I have been extraordinarily lucky: I have had as little as a day-and-a-half of sun on trips in the past, with cloud and rain dominating. It is always a gamble at this time of year. And the rain brought a life tick for me: the sight of the Rio Guadalmedina in full spate! What I normally refer to as 'the dried up river bed running through Málaga' was a raging torrent today:



Here is a view with those very crests I would have been hilltopping on in the background. Not a butterfly day:



Any butterflies breeding in the river bed will have been utterly washed away. I've never seen anything like it. By the afternoon the spate had diminished to a dribble but I didn't walk up the river again to see the damage done. I imagine the reservoir just upstream was full to overflowing so this was a controlled release.

When the rain had stopped and it had warmed up a bit, I went up to check the capers at my desert orange tip site. I noted in an earlier post that they were dead or dormant and have since learnt from research that they were merely dormant. The new growth was not yet enough to attract passing orange tips, though I did find a female large white nearby, who had decided it was warm enough to fly despite the cloud:









The full species list for this March/April trip to Spain:

Swallowtail, Iberian scarce swallowtail, Spanish festoon, large white, small white, western Bath white, western dappled white, green-striped white, Portuguese dappled white, Spanish greenish black-tip, Provence orange tip, clouded yellow, Cleopatra, small copper, Provence hairstreak, geranium bronze, African grass blue, black-eyed blue, Austaut's blue, Adonis blue, Monarch, two-tailed pasha, red admiral, painted lady, Spanish marbled white, small heath, speckled wood, wall.

That's 28 species, all by public transport and walking. I saw more in 2023 but that was an exceptionally early year.

Guy

[essexbuzzard]

Hi Guy, I found the same in GBZ last year. It’s getting rather expensive to go walking on the upper rock these days!

The dried up river bed in Malaga very flooded in the autumn, just after the infamous Valencia floods. Apparently, it was pretty much full to overflowing, and probably wiped out any insect life there and then. Although, of course, they will quickly recolonise.

They’ve had a lot of rain down there, which they badly needed after several dry years and associated water shortages. This should have freshened up the local plant life. It still looks like you had a good time in Andalucia, which is most pleasing.

[David M]

Delighted to see you had a productive time in Andalusia, Guy. Conditions have certaily been unusual down there lately, although as Mark says they desperately needed the rain after two successive winter/spring periods that were extremely dry.

I'll be off there myself in a few weeks. It'll be interesting to compare what I expect to be a lush, green environment with the sparse vegetation experienced in the last two years.

Well done with the Portuguese Dappled White. That's not an easy find amongst the numerous Western Dappled Whites flying down there!

[Padfield]

Thank you, Buzzard and David. You're right - they needed the water. Sometimes in the summer it has been so parched in recent years I've wondered how anything survives. And I think the Upper Rock must be one of the most expensive nature reserves in the world, Buzzard!

I picked Minnie up yesterday and immediately went up my local mountain to see what was happening. There is still too much snow, even at my spring spot at 1650m, for any movement yet, though there were small whites and orange tips everywhere.

Today I took Minnie to Italy to look for nettle tree butterflies and chequered blues. Both were flying but at the chequered blue site there was no shade and Minnie was too hot, so I didn't hang around waiting for photographs. Even shading her with my body, she was panting:



I'm not sure for how many more years this walk will be passable. It was dangerously eroded in places (so I carried Minnie there):




(the only nettle tree butterfly that stopped in photographing distance!)


(green hairstreaks were very common)


(sooty coppers are flying)


(another sooty copper)


(wood whites were taking moisture at moss)



I think I begin teaching again tomorrow ...

Guy

[Wurzel]

A delectable assortment of species there Guy from your trip to Malaga I'd love to be able to see the 'set' of Euchloe Good luk getting your nose back to the grindstone...

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Thanks Wurzel - it was a good trip.

Back in CH, the weather has been sunny but distinctly cool - and even cloudy today. Yesterday few butterflies were about at my altitude of 1300m. Mostly they were whites and orange tips, with a single brimstone and a couple of small tortoiseshells. Here is a pair of wood whites. The male was going for the touchy-feeler stuff but the female kept her antennae quite still and pushed him away with her legs. In the end, he flew off to find a more amenable mate:







While I was giving Minnie some water, a female black woodpecker landed on a nearby tree trunk and began working her way up. There was too much vegetation in the way for good photos, and she was moving all the time, but I got a few pictures:











I was surprised to see the amount of brown on her.

Today's new species for the year was dingy skipper, sitting in the road when it was cloudy. I went to pick it up, thinking it was too cold to fly, but it flew off on its own into a nearby meadow.



Guy

[Padfield]

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

[Padfield]

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 year.


(photographed with my iPhone)

Guy

[Wurzel]

Cracking shot of the Weaver's Frit Guy Mind you going in for a lesson at 4pm would be a bit of a shock to the system for me

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Thanks Wurzel. You may be horrified to learn I teach till 21h00 most days during term time ! 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 also teach in another town three mornings a week (because they let Minnie come to lessons ) but it is the Leysin work that really pays the beer and dog biscuits ! The good news is, I love teaching. I know you're a teacher - there is quite simply no better job in the world.

Here's a female brimstone from this afternoon's walk:



I finished early tonight ...

Guy

[Padfield]

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:



My main targets were Camberwell beauty and de Prünner's ringlet. Surprisingly, I saw just two Camberwell beauties, at what is normally a populous site, and no de Prünner's. I hope it was just the cool temperatures and threat of bad weather. Just one of the beauties came to ground and I got a distant shot of him before some passing cyclists put him up.



Here are a scarce swallowtail and a rock bunting from that site:





In general, numbers of butterflies were low, so I caught the stopping train and got off somewhere I'd never visited before just to try it out. Sadly - and strangely - there were still no de Prünner's, but the walk was a great discovery. Despite the mostly cloudy weather here, good numbers of chequered blues were flying throughout, as well as plenty of speckled woods, walls, scarce swallowtails, whites &c.





I was lucky to get up close and personal (but not too close ...) with an asp viper, a critically endangered Swiss snake:







It scuttled off before Minnie encountered it. She's generally good with snakes, but an asp viper could quite possibly kill a dog of Minnie's size and age.



Guy

EDIT - since posting, I've read up more carefully, and only subspecies Vipera aspis aspis is critically endangered in Switzerland. The snake I photographed is Vipera aspis atra, which is categorised as vulnerable. Still, I was very happy to see it!

[Padfield]

Just like last year, the snow came back on 16th-17th April:





In Valais, they had record snowfall for the time of year:

https://www.lematin.ch/story/valais-pre ... -103327044

Unlike last year, when the meadows stagnated under 30cm of snow for at least 10 days, bright weather over the next few days cleared it, so I hope the damage won't be so great. Valais also suffered catastrophic flooding last year, with damage right up to the mountaintops, and there have been local emergencies declared this year too. So far, this spring has done very little to make good the disastrous spring of 2024.

Guy

[selbypaul]

Hi Guy
As ever, I follow your posts in detail and find them really informative. I've been waiting for your insight into the recent weather in the Alps, I'd heard about the cold weather and snow in the news.

Last year was clearly a very "late" season. Would you say that, despite the recent snow, it is more of a "normal" year this year?

I'm guessing that butterfly numbers, regardless of "lateness" or "earliness" of the season, remain low, simply because of the weather extremes being suffered each month.

Would love to hear your insights.
Best Wishes
Paul

[Padfield]

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 above logic applies.

Officially, this has been a warm first quarter of the year in comparison to the 'normal'. That means that despite the weather, snow masses at altitude will have melted faster than usual. Fresh, spring snow at ca 0°C (or a a little less at altitude) doesn't hang around and makes little difference to the overall trajectory of the year above about 1500m. I guess the test for middle altitude species will be violet copper. In good years, I see my first at the end of April. Last year, it was about a month later. Admittedly, I live further from my nearest site (1700-1800m) now, but I judge my first visit by looking up the mountain to see the snow levels. I can say without any risk of later contradiction, that violet coppers will not fly at my nearest site in April this year. The site is still completely covered in snow.

Updates to come!

Guy

[Matsukaze]

Ref your Antequera post: also finding that butterflies smaller than orange-tips are very thin on the ground. No skippers here at the western end of the Serrania de Mijas (though this is not really unusual), and next to no blues (which certainly is unusual). Really good numbers of pierids though and an absolute abundance of wildflowers.

[David Lazarus]

Just like Paul, I follow your posts with great interest Guy. Even though I restrict my own area of butterfly ecology and phenology to Essex, I am fascinated by your own experiences in the mountain area where you live. Truly interesting. I just cannot get my head around it at all. How butterflies have adapted to such a climate is amazing - and I am very jealous of the images of your local butterflies. Lovely. Looking forward to seeing how the season pans out after the latest weather extremes - and I thought a chill, north-easterly wind coming over the Essex coast from the North Sea was a problem. wow!!!

[selbypaul]

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 above logic applies.

Officially, this has been a warm first quarter of the year in comparison to the 'normal'. That means that despite the weather, snow masses at altitude will have melted faster than usual. Fresh, spring snow at ca 0°C (or a a little less at altitude) doesn't hang around and makes little difference to the overall trajectory of the year above about 1500m. I guess the test for middle altitude species will be violet copper. In good years, I see my first at the end of April. Last year, it was about a month later. Admittedly, I live further from my nearest site (1700-1800m) now, but I judge my first visit by looking up the mountain to see the snow levels. I can say without any risk of later contradiction, that violet coppers will not fly at my nearest site in April this year. The site is still completely covered in snow.

Updates to come!

Guy

As ever, thanks for taking the time to explain your thinking. A really interesting insight. I will await your further updates with lots of interest!

[Padfield]

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 Suffolk! I still love the East Anglian landscape and long, lingering sunsets. But living in the Alps does - quite literally - bring a new perspective on things. Above all, you can see evolution in action. From the valley to the mountaintops, or from one mountain to another, you can see different, local forms of the same species, ecologically separated for tens or hundreds of thousands of years but living on each other's doorsteps. Especially interesting is the Alpine heath/Darwin's heath/pearly heath complex, but there are countless other examples. You should come out and see it for yourself one day, if you haven't already ...

Thanks Paul. I'll try and keep you updated as the year progresses!

Guy

[Padfield]

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:





By the time we walked back, a little after midday, the meadow was alive with Berger's, whites (including wood white), orange tips, clouded yellows and my first common blue of the year. Nothing stopped for a picture, and we were hurrying for the bus, but that couldn't have mattered less. It was lovely to see them.



Guy