Alpine butterflying part 3

Blue-spot Hairstreak

White-letter Hairstreak

Almond-eyed Ringlet

Niobe Fritillary

Heath Fritillary

Alpine butterflying part 2

Alpine Heath

Common Blue

The well-camouflaged underside of a Swiss Brassy Ringlet

and the very same butterfly with its wings open!

Woodland Brown

Marbled White

Alpine butterflying part 1

As mentioned in my first Alpine post, the main purpose of this trip was to see some new butterflies.  With 176 species on the Haute Savoie list, almost two thirds of which I'd never seen, there was plenty of potential but the one species I especially hoped to find was the Apollo.  This distinctive butterfly is restricted to mountainous areas yet all of my previous visits to the Alps have been in the spring, well before its flight period.  Within half an hour of our first morning in the mountains, we already saw two in flight and our hike then took us through a valley which was full of them.

Mission accomplished!  Of course, I wasn't going to stop there, however, and I ended up with a final list of 70 species for the week, 31 of which were new for me. With almost 40 different species in the area, I really struggled with the blues although I eventually managed to identify most of the pictures I took.  This one shows, from left to right, Mazarine (two), Chapman's and Idas Blues.

The fritillaries were also a challenge but I tentatively identified 12 species, half of which I'd not seen before.  The next instalment will be a gallery featuring some of my favourite butterfly photo's from my week away.

Breakfast surprise

No matter how long you observe nature, the natural world always has one extra trick up its sleeve to surprise you and leave you flabbergasted.  Early this morning, as I was getting ready to go and look for butterflies in Wallonia, still half asleep and without my glasses, I noticed something clambering around the dead tree opposite my balcony.  It moved a bit like a squirrel, which would be crazy, but Jays often move around like that so that was my first guess.  As the bird flew, though, I got the impression of a bronzy colouration so I just dismissed it as a juvenile Blackbird, which was the most likely possibility.  A few minutes later, however, the bird returned to the same tree and this time I was ready!

 A juvenile Green Woodpecker was staring right back at me!  I've now been in this apartment almost two years and have just once heard a Green Woodpecker calling so I presumed it was passing through.  As this one is so young, and thus unlikely to have dispersed very far, it now seems they have been breeding right under my nose.

Alpine flowering

We found at least six different kinds of orchids during my alpine break but I have never seen quite as many as in this one particular field at 1800m in the Valais which was full of Spotted Orchids.

 

We also got to see some Wild Pansies, while the most intriguing plant we encountered was this impressive flowering spike with a rosette of leaves at its base.  We only ever saw the one and it took quite a bit of searching but I eventually managed to identify it as Yellow Bellfower, a high-altitude species restricted to the central Alps.

Alpine birding

I've just had a lovely week birding and butterflying in the French and Swiss Alps, with one long hike in particular taking us up to 2200m.  The scenery, as you can see, was spectacular and, although the trip was mainly for butterflies, there were some good birds to be seen too whenever I remembered to look up!

This Short-toed Eagle caught, and then dropped, a fairly large snake in a field right next to us and continued to hunt for the duration of one of our walks.  Other montane specialties we got to see included displaying Water Pipits and Rock Thrush, Citril Finches (probably the best views I've ever had of these), Griffon Vulture, Lammergeier very briefly, and Ring Ouzel, whilst we only got to hear Alpine Accentor and Black Grouse.  We also did some lowland birding around Geneva, where we saw some young Great Reed Warblers clambering around the same reedbed as this Little Bittern, which obligingly landed in front of the hide long enough for me to take its picture.