Buttering

Last autumn I wrote a post summarising a great year of buttering and I also listed the remaining Norwegian species I had yet to see and how I could go about that.

 Yesterday was time to start chipping away at that list and a trip to Hedmark was in order to search for Lapland Ringlet (emblas ringvinge) and Bog Fritillary (ringperlemorvinge). I chose yesterday as it was forecast to be warm but cloudy with periods of sun. I thought this would be better than a very sunny day as the butterflies were more likely to rest when the sun went behind a cloud and allow me to get photos rather than them just flying around manically.

I had an early start from Oslo and arrived at my chosen bog by 0930. I then began to doubt my strategy as there was rather a lot of cloud in the sky and no immediate sign that the sun would shine. It was warm though and moths were flying around. I thought that I might scare some butterflies up if I walked around and succeeded in seeing a Northern Grizzled Skipper (moltesmyger) which was only me second sighting ever. A couple of fritillaries also flew past quite slowly but frustratingly did not land within sight of me. I needed sun and eventually I could see that there would soon be a large gap in the clouds - and that did the trick.

Suddenly there were quite a few fritillaries on the wing. The first ones that I managed to identify were Pearl-bordered (rødflekket perlemorvinge) but most just zipped by. I did have my butterfly net with me although I am normally equally as (un)successful with it as I am at scratching on tree trunks and managed to net one. And, it was the first of my targets - a Bog. Things then became easier and I saw a number of them and got photos and it was probably the commonest butterfly there. I also had some more skippers and then a giant of a butterfly - a  Baltic Grayling (juttas ringvinge). Again this was only my second ever sighting and in total had probably 4 individuals which frequently landed on tree trunks.

I was still missing my second target species but after 2 hours I saw another dark butterfly but it was smaller than the graylings and it kindly landed and allowed photos. Embla in the box - the day was working out entirely to plan 🦋🥳.

I had good time to continue further east and check out some flower rich road verges where I have stopped a couple of times before including in July last year for Silvery Argus (kileblåvinge). I was a bit shocked to see that the verges had been scraped to dig drainage ditched but did find some untouched areas and here found a couple of Chequered Skippers (gulflekksmyger) which again and for the third time was only my second ever sighting and they were mint individuals. A few Violet Coppers (fiolett gullvinge) were past their best but were probably the rarest butterfly of the day although it is a species I have been lucky enough to see a few times before.

Yesterday takes me to 84 species of butterfly in Norway and leaves me just 17 to get.

And birds? Well, there were some but nothing to write home, or on this blog, about.

the first target to fall - Bog Fritillary (ringperlemorvinge). The line of white circles at end back of the underwing are diagnostic

from above it looks like a Small Pearl-bordered (brunflekket) but note how the black spots bleed into the triangular markings and this appears to be diagnostic

this one got me very excited and I was thinking a Friggs Fritillary but turned out to be an abberation of Bog. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of the upperwing but we can see some of it and it is mostly dark and on the underwing it is much darker than normal

and target #2 - Lapland Ringlet (emblas ringvinge). I only has this one individual with a bit missing from its wing

and my second ever sighting of Northern Grizzled Skipper (moltesmyger) and much better than my first

and my second ever sighting(s) of Baltic Grayling (juttas ringvinge) - a large butterfly that has a 2 year syklus

waiting for the clouds to move

the forest bog when the sun was shining - this type of habitat must be very common but rarely visited by anyone with an interest/knowledge 

of butterflies so many of the species may be far more widespread than the handfull of annual records suggest

and my second ever Chequered Skipper (gulflekksmyger) which was a much more satsifying sighting than my first last year which was so late and faded that it was barely recognisable

and the rare Violet Copper (fiolett gullvinge)

a tiny orchid growing on a roadside verge - Early/Northern Coralroot (korallrot)