Lepidopterally yours

Despite what you may think, I don’t just spend my time sitting at the computer composing posts that apparently get less and less relevant with every passing day. I still go walking, both alone and with companions, both here on the Kaiserstuhl and in the Schwarzwald. Yesterday (Saturday) was an example. I’d promised myself I’d do that milk run of mine – the 14 km back from Endingen – and despite the weather not looking too promising I started out.

The first hour out of Endingen is an uphill traipse made amusing only by the story of the road signs (‘The quick change act’, posted in June 2017). Yesterday it was warm and still and decidedly humid, and I was glad therefore to get up out of the woods and onto the crestline path. It was time then also for a five-minute break. From then on things went brilliantly, especially as the sun came out and the breeze freshened. My route for the next hour took me along the edge of the dry grasslands – the Trockenrasen – that characterise the centre of the Kaiserstuhl. There, flying everywhere, were hundreds of butterflies, particularly of a species that I’ve subsequently discovered is called the Weisser Waldportier (https://www.deutschlands-natur.de/tierarten/tagfalter/weisser-waldportier/); in English it is called the Great Banded Grayling (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brintesia). There were dozens of these wonderful things – they’re large and very distinct – and they were flitting around everywhere I looked. They were far too fast for me to photograph, so you’ll have to believe this picture from the internet (http://www.lepiforum.de/lepiwiki.pl?Brintesia_Circe).

Brintesia circe

Evidently they love this type of environment and evidently they fly from June to September. Yesterday was ideal, and I had the privilege of being there to watch them.

Lepidopterally yours etc.

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