I was completely sure that my butterfly year was over and had no plans on chasing anymore species until a message last night rather changed things. Kjell who I normally see on Værøy or Jæren was down in Hvaler (in the far south-east of Norway) surveying insects and had seen 3 Clouded Yellows. This is still a real rarity in Norway and of course one of the vagrant species that I needed. It was the chance of meeting up with Kjell that was the biggest draw but a new butterfly would also be nice so I decided that I would head down there this morning. With a drive of 1hr 40min to see a vagrant species seen in passing the day before this would be my first proper butterfly twitch rather than dedicated journey.
On the drive down it was clearly hot and sunny but a
rather strong wind had me slightly worried. I arrived before Kjell (and Stein)
who were busy emptying moth traps and set about searching in the area where
Kjell had seen them yesterday. It was an area with cabins by the sea and was clearly
very productive for butterflies and was also out of the wind. One of the first
species I saw was Meadow Brown (rappringvinge) which is one of those common species
that occur close to Oslo but which I have been waiting to come to me rather
than me go to it. So that was rather unexpectedly species 81 in Norway and
there were lots of them. 82 came soon after when a butterfly that looked very similar
to ones I had seen in the mountains just a month ago shot past me. It took a
while before it stopped and landed on a flower but I soon had documentation of bog
standard, regular, Clouded Yellow (vandregulvinge) rather than those rare
northern version 😉. I had 9 sightings in total and
there was clearly a male that was patrolling a territory but there was
definitely one other individual and quite possibly more.
But my butterfly luck didn’t stop there. Grayling (kystringvinge) which I have only seen once before were common, I saw the regular form of Silver-spotted Skipper (kommasmyger) for the first time having previously only seen the mountain form catena around Beitostølen. I also saw my first, and a fairly late, High Brown Fritillary (adippeperlemorvinge) of the year which was a species I had to be honest forgotten about. At this point I started to get greedy and think about finding an Essex Skipper (timoteismyger) which I realised also occurred here but I should have been here a couple of weeks ago but I must leave something for next year 😉.
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| my first Clouded Yellow (vandregulvinge) in Norway! |
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| and my first, and long overdue, Meadow Brown (rappringvinge). When it landed in the grass with wings closed and only the underwing showing (inset) it just disappeared |
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| it was easier to see when the top of the upper wing was visible |
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| and a Small Heath (engringvinge) for comparison |
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| Silver-spotted Skipper (kommasmyger) |
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| Grayling (kystringvinge) |
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| and an attempt to capture the open wing |
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| this aberration was from Fornebu on Saturday and had me at a loss until... |
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| ... I saw the underwing and it was clearly a Queen of Spain Fritillary (sølvkåpe) |
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