I am sure some, OK a couple, of you have been waiting for
this post and for the rest you can just ignore it 😉
So far 2025 has been a strange butterfly year around Oslo.
There are not many butterflies on the wing at all but there is a lot of
variety and many species seem to have emerged very early. I think this may be
due to the dry and warm early spring we had which may have brought a lot
of species on earlier than normal but then we have had a period of cold and wet
weather which will have affected many as they were about to emerge or had
emerged.
I have made little effort to just go after butterflies but
in addition to my usual observations from the Maridalen area and Fornebu I have
had one visit to Nesøya which I have previously detailed, one to the mountains
and yesterday a specific trip, a twitch if you like 😊,
to the east of Oslo.
My trip yesterday was an attempt to fill in remaining holes
of species that occur within roughly half an hour of Oslo. My trip to Nesøya a
couple of weeks ago gave me Scarce Heath (heroringvinge) and my trip yesterday
was for False Heath Fritillary (mørk rutevinge) and Bog Fritillary
(ringperlemorvinge). I succeeded with the first but will have to try again for
the second. By the time I got to my chosen bog it was already hot and constantly
sunny and all the fritillaries were in constant flight and the only ones I ever
saw land were egg laying Pearl-bordered (rødflekket) so a visit in slightly cloudy
conditions earlier or later in the day would make more sense.
In addition to the Bog Fritillary I still have Meadow Brown (rappringvinge),
Essex Skipper (timoteismyger) and Chequered Skipper (gulflekksmyger) that I should
be able to find although these are closer to an hour from Oslo.
My trip to the mountains was primarily birding but that was
mostly achieved very early in the morning so when the sun came up and the
temperature rose I switched to butterflies. It was not much of a detour on the long
way home to visit a site which seems to have become the go to site for Large
Grizzled Skipper (alvesmyger) after only being discovered there a decade or so
ago. There seemed to be nothing special with the roadside site and I am sure
this species is far more widespread than recent records indicate but there are
so few people who are interested in butterflies in Norway and even fewer who
actively search for new sites/species. I failed in my search for the Large
Grizzled although at the time thought I had succeeded but my pictures show I
saw just Grizzled. I was unaware both species occurred there but it was very
early for Large Grizzled so I will have to see if I can visit again later in
the summer. The south facing hillside site was quite butterfly rich though and I
enjoyed my time there. I then tried for Apollo at the site where I have previously
seen them but despite seeing many other species it also seemed still too early
for Apollos.
The pictures work back through the spring
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| False Heath Fritillary (mørk rutevinge) |
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| and a regular Heath Fritillary (marimjelle rutevinge) for comparison |
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| Pearly Heath (perleringvinge) |
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| Pearl-bordered Fritillary (rødflekket perlemorvinge) |
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| Nothern Brown Argus (sankthansblåvinge) |
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| Moorland Clouded Yellow (myrgulvinge) and fly |
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| Northern Chequered Skipper (svartflekksmyger). A male and my third sighting at three locations this year |
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| Grizzled Skipper (bakkesmyger) which I was hoping would be Large(r) |
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| Northern Wall Brown (bergringvinge) |
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| and a Large Wall Brown (klipperingvinge) |
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| finally I saw a Violet Copper (fiolett gullvinge) that was violet |
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| another individual with less violet sheen |
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| a Wood White (skoghvitvinge). Cryptic Wood White (engsmyger) also occur in Norway and maybe I need to dissect this and examine its genitals to be sure what it is but it is a female and from my reading of the literature its lack of black wing tip means non cryptic |
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| another Northern Chequered Skipper and my first female |
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