Searching in vain for rare butterflies

Yesterday, I was up at 4am and drove 2 hours to a site in the mountains close to the Swedish border which has historic records of a number of very exciting butterflies. What I was really hoping to see was Lapland Fritillary Euphydryas iduna (iduns rutevinge) but there were potentially 9 other new and exciting species on offer alpine grizzled skipper Pyrgus andromedae (polarsmyger), northern clouded yellow Colias hecla (mjeltgulvinge), pale Arctic clouded yellow Colias tyche (polargulvinge), Glandon Blue Agriades glandon (polarblåvinge), Thor’s Fritillary Boloria thore (tors perlemorvinge), Freija Fritillary Boloria freija (frøyas perlemorvinge),  mountain fritillary Boloria napaea (fjellperlemorvinge),  arctic ringlet Erebia disa (disas ringvinge) and norse grayling Oeneis norna (nornens ringvinge). 

Instead, in what were perfect butterfly conditions (they were already flying before 7am) I recorded 8 species none of which were new for me but three of which have seemingly only been recorded once in the area before making them locally rarer than the rare species I was hoping for... These were Pearl-bordered Fritillary Boloria euphrosyne (rødflekket perlemorvinge), Cranberry Fritillary Boloria aquilonaris (myrperlemorvinge) and Moorland Clouded Yellow Colias palaeno (myrgulvinge). 

EDIT: GOING THROUGH MY PICTURES AGAIN ON 2 DECEMBER 2020 I SUSPECTED ONE OF THE BUTTERFLIES I HAD IDENTIFIED AS CRANBERRY FRITILLARY WAS ACTUALLY MOUNTAIN FRITILLARY WHICH HAS NOW BEEN CONFIRMED SO I DID GET ONE OF MY HOPED FOR SPECIES. JUST 9 TO LOOK FOR NEXT YEAR 😅

mountain fritillary Boloria napaea (fjellperlemorvinge)

Orchids gave me two new species though with frog orchid Coeloglossum viride grønnkurle and false orchid Chamorchis alpina fjellkurle plus lots of white mountain orchid Pseudorchis straminea fjellhvitkurle of which I had just seen 

Birding wise it was a bit disappointing with no raptors or owls despite there being quite a few tracks from rodents but there were lots of birds with young including Bluethroat and I saw the Surf Scoter on the way.

This Wood Sandpiper (grønnstilk) was clearly breeding and is supposedly a rare breeder in the area as is Mistle Thursh (duetrost) which I also saw

A White mountain orchid (fjellhvitkurle). They were quite common and varied greatly in size

Bog Orchid (grønnkurle) - a small a quite boring orchid

And a really tiny orchid: false orchid (fjellkurle)

Dewy Ringlets (fjellringinge) were common and came in a number of colours. I am not sure if this was due to wear of abberation

Fg

Habitat shot

G

Back at the cabin I have now discovered 8 Broad-leaved helleborines (breiflangre) including one with nice big flowers.

The small green flowers of Common Twayblade (stortveblad) are more impressive at close range