Padfield

[ChrisStamp]

I always like to see what you're posting Guy - it brings back memories of a great few years I spent living in Switzerland and south Germany.

Your book inspired me to try wide angle macro photography too. No idea what kind of kit you are using but I bought a Laowa wide angle macro lens. A whole new approach for me after using a 105mm macro, but starting to get some results that look a little more like your pictures!

[Padfield]

The large tortoiseshell was a great surprise, David, though I always feel for the butterflies when they are on the wing when they shouldn't be. I hope it found somewhere to go back to sleep. In answer to your question, the snowline reached the valley last night. It was a beautiful, sunny day today, so in exposed places the snow didn't hang around, but there is more to come.

I didn't know you had lived in Alberta, Goldie! You get around a bit ... I thought of you, as always, when I watched the lunar eclipse!

Yes, I've recovered from whatever it was, Wurzel! My problem is, I can't afford to take sick days, as I earn my living from private lessons. On top of that, I don't use any medicines - not even paracetamol - so when I do get ill I feel it sorely! I decided 40 years ago, at the same time I became vegan, never to use doctors or medicines, because of the use of animals in research. Since then, through thick and thin, through slicing myself up cycling through a barbed wire fence to getting Lyme disease, I've held firm and medicated myself with nothing stronger than good food, beer and traditionally prepared he shou wu (which I credit with curing my Lyme disease).

I'm flattered, Chris! My latest cameras, being super-zooms, are less suited to that kind of picture (or rather, they encourage a lazy, point-and-shoot-from-a-distance attitude) but I still go in for that wide-angle context shot when the opportunity arises - as it did with the late-season southern white admiral on the previous page.

Normally, as autumn turns to winter, I fill my diary with Queens of Spain, clouded yellows, walls, red admirals and even a few blues. This year, November has been marked by heavy rain and very unsettled weather, and I've seen almost nothing. Today, with snow on the ground, sun in the sky, and a maximum temperature in the valley of 3°C, I visited my regular winter haunts near Martigny and was pleased to get just one Queen of Spain, as well as three red admirals. No opportunities for decent shots, but I got the proof, at least:





There is much more snow to come, so I'm not confident of any December butterflies ...

Guy

EDIT: This male black redstart was still hanging around in the vineyards today:



I thought they headed south for the winter, but evidently some of them just pop down to the valley.

[Wurzel]

I'd be more than happy with that proof-shot of a Queen of Spain Guy Interesting to see the Black Redstart still hanging around - I think some passerines like this do sometimes avoid migration (possibly not having built-up enough body fat or maybe feeling that they can cope with the ambient temperature?) I remember filming one of these on my iPod in Salisbury Cathedral during the Christmas break - it was using the 'mirror font' as a drinking pool

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

...Today, with snow on the ground, sun in the sky, and a maximum temperature in the valley of 3°C, I visited my regular winter haunts near Martigny and was pleased to get just one Queen of Spain, as well as three red admirals...

Amazing how you can see anything in those temperatures, Guy. Butterflies don't seem to tolerate air temperatures of less than 7c round my way (and it's been below that these last few days).

[Padfield]

Thanks Wurzel and David. Today was beautifully sunny, but with temperatures of -12°C when I got up and snow down to the valley I was never going to see anything. I went to my usual winter hotspots and tried, but it was just too cold and white!

In the evening I had to teach a lesson at our higher campus and decided to catch the train rather than walk. As I waited at the station, the ISS passed over, so I took a photo:



The ISS is the bright, elongated light in the sky - elongated because I did a 3-second exposure and it moved. When I looked at the phone (I took the picture on my iPhone), I noticed a dark shadow hanging behind it:



Thinking it was a bird that happened to get in the picture, I took another, by when the ISS was more distant (the other bright 'star' is Jupiter):



And again, there was that dark shadow:



If anyone knows what it is, I'd love to know. It might be a processing artefact of the iPhone, but no other bright lights have left this mark. It can't be atmospheric, as the ISS is outside the atmosphere. I'm a bit mystified.

Guy

[David M]

That's a bizarre phenomenon, Guy, but one which I foolishly thought might have a simple explanation.

I've been online and checked Quora Digest and other similar websites but there is aeemingly no theory that explains it.

I think you should email Michio Kaku.

[Padfield]

It is strange, David. Too big for a dropped tool bag ... I probably won't bother M. Kaku with it, though !

I had pretty much given up on any December butterflies, with all the snow (and then rain, though that was swiftly followed by more snow). But yesterday was sunny all day and today was forecast to be the same, so I headed to my hotspot near Martigny to see if I could bag a Christmas lep. The three potential species are Queen of Spain (very improbable on isolated sunny days but almost guaranteed if there is a week or more of sun), clouded yellow and red admiral. Despite shade temperatures of little above zero at midday, I saw two red admirals. The first stopped in a very awkward place in the stepped vineyards, but I was able to get a proof shot :



The second was only in flight.

I'll be in the UK over Christmas, so that's very probably the end of my 2023 butterfly year (unless something turns up when I drop Minnie off at her kennels in the valley).

The night skies have been incredible recently. Here is Orion rising over the hills at Bretaye, just across the valley (the chalets in the foreground are in Leysin) :



Guy

[David M]

That is a truly beautiful image of the night sky, Guy. How do you achieve such sharp detail?

There are parts of Orion I don't see with the naked eye in that shot.

[Padfield]

Thanks David. I actually can't claim any credit for the star pictures - they come straight out of the iPhone. I spent Christmas in Woodbridge (as I no longer have a home there, the rector and his wife very kindly put me up in the rectory - in return for my singing in the Christmas services!) but took this shot of the sky the night before I flew:



The iPhone takes a 3-second, handheld exposure, then stacks the frames to produce a composite. The effect is amazing.

I did see one butterfly while I was in the UK : a peacock, that woke up during the carol service in Great Bealings. Sadly, it didn't stop low enough for me to put it out. This is Great Bealings church that night :



It was packed for the carol service.

It was great to spend time on the Deben again. Here is a kingfisher on a boat chain on Christmas Day :



It was low tide, so it didn't hang around there - the boat was in the mud. But it was lovely to see it on the festive day.

I flew back yesterday - 28th December. All over the country, trains were delayed and cancelled, and planes were grounded, but I got to the airport in record time and the plane was almost on schedule. It's not all doom and gloom in the UK. Congratulations to Greater Anglia and Easyjet !

Guy

[bugboy]

Of all the train operators I regularly use, I have found Greater Anglia to be one of the more reliable.

[Padfield]

Of all the train operators I regularly use, I have found Greater Anglia to be one of the more reliable.

I've hardly ever used other trains in the UK, but I've never had any big problems with GA. My one big gripe is the fare system. A single from Gatwick to Woodbridge was £64 and an off-peak open return was £65. But I was actually coming back from Norwich, having spent Boxing Day there with my sister, and though it's the same route from Ipswich onward, I didn't know if the Ipswich-to-Gatwick leg would be off-peak or on-peak. So I bought an Anytime single from Norwich to Gatwick at an eye-watering £109. In Switzerland, a single is half the price of a return and there's no on-peak/off-peak, so it is much easier to mix and match your routes. Not that I buy tickets. Instead, I pay about CHF 4000 a year (about £3500) for unlimited access to all Swiss trains and buses - a very good deal for a non-driver.

It was sunny today, so Minnie and I went to our winter hotspot in the Rhône Valley to see if anything might fly. A few red admirals were around and this one posed long enough for some shots :





Meanwhile, Minnie did her own thing :



Guy

[Wurzel]

Glad you had a good Christmas Guy But it's also good to see you back on 'home turf' and clocking in the last butterflies of the year

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Thanks Wurzel. I'm happy to be back on home turf too !

No butterflies today, as the snow returned with a vengeance in the afternoon :



She still loves the snow, even though she'll be 12 on 6th January.

I did snap this hawfinch from my balcony in the morning, though - before the snow came :



Happy New Year to all !

Guy

[David M]

Lovely hawfinch, Guy, and well done with the Red Admiral the day before. Hard to get a later sighting in the year than that!

All the best for 2024.

[Padfield]

Thanks, David. Happy 2024 to you, too !

The forecast for today, 1st January, had been a bit iffy, so I got up late and took Minnie for a local walk. But it looked bright in the valley and an updated forecast suggested there just might be enough sun for a butterfly or two. So we caught the 11h04 down the hill and headed to our usual winter site near Martigny.

As we were so late, we got the bus across the valley, instead of walking. Minnie appreciated this :



On site, it was sunny but a little hazy and rather cool - probably about 4°C :



I decided to give it one beer (my standard unit of time when butterflying) before moving on. After about 3/4 of a beer, a red admiral flew in and posed almost exactly where there had been one two days ago, on 30th December :



It's a different individual, though.

No more butterflies turned up, but that one red admiral was enough for me. By 14h00 it was already chilly :



We headed back to the sunny, snowy uplands of Leysin :



2024 has begun !

Guy

[essexbuzzard]

Congratulations, Guy. You’ve got a head start on the rest of us!

Though I did see my first buff-tailed bumblebee today.

[David M]

Always amazed that you can find butterflies when there is snow lying nearby, Guy.

But, as you've frequently said, the sun rises higher at your latitude so there is more radiant heat.

I would never bother looking for butterflies in air temperatures below 6c.

Nice to see Minnie enjoying herself too.

[Padfield]

Thanks Buzzard! I don't always have luck on my 1st January search, but this is the second year in a row.

The sun rises higher, David, and the nights (and many of the days) are much colder. I think this also makes a difference, as it means torpor is deeper. Butterflies like red admirals, Queens of Spain and clouded yellows can conserve energy for long periods of time just by going into enforced metabolic inactivity, and so live to exploit those occasional sunny periods without true hibernation. I've identified the same Queen of Spain in winter on two occasions three weeks apart, separated by really cold weather.

Recently, a fresh wave of cold air and associated thermal inversion have dispelled any hopes of more butterflies. The valley has been flooded by an ocean of cloud, lapping at the mountains almost exactly at my altitude of 1300m. Yesterday, I made the mistake of taking Minnie for her afternoon walk in the lower parts of Leysin. There, visibility was about 10m and it was seriously cold :



It had looked OK from my balcony in the morning ...



This afternoon, in similar conditions, I walked her 200m higher up the mountain, in the upper village. Above the cloud, the world felt warm and beautiful :



This next picture shows the transition. It feels like looking through an aquarium glass at a world half-submerged, half above water :



With the boundary at about 1300m, it means the skiers are getting fantastic conditions and wonderful views. This is a good thing for the village !

Guy

[David M]

Looks positively Arctic, Guy, but then I suppose it's better than last year when central Europe experienced an unusually mild period during winter.

Same thing's happened here. We've had a cold snap for a week or so now. I'm sure it won't do any harm.

[selbypaul]

Fantastic photos of the scenery Guy. Thanks as ever for sharing