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Butterflies  from the Julian Alps, Italy

26/7/2019

1 Comment

 
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In the Alps, I was wearing a floral  blouse and butterflies settled on me.  The attraction was not the floral print.

​'​I didn’t need a floral blouse to be overtaken by butterflies yesterday......
.....craving salt, they massed on my  sweaty rucksac,  pole handles and  me!

As I took the welcome shade of a large limestone boulder high up on the alti plano alp where marmots burrowed and screeched a warning of my presence the butterflies descended. I was mobbed!



Delicate, small, pale cream tinge of blue green on under- wings and brown on upper- wings with  a furry dusty pale blue body and intricate round markings in orange around upper- wings
They mopped up my sweat with long proboscis and wiped their antennae  with their forelegs in deliberate fashion as if saying ‘ thank you very much that was just what I needed ‘ now ready to fly off and mate’.... but they didn’t -  just kept fluttering around me
It all added to the alpine aural experience as  occasional  marmot screeches broke the tranquil buzz of many many bees and hover flies flitting from corn flower to aquilegia to arnica to alpenrose
Here I rested after a 500m ascent from my high parking place to admire the unfolding mountain scene. With map in hand named all the peaks in these Italian Julian Alps and many into Slovenia too'
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'They look 90% like Common Blue.....but appear to have a slightly more prominent row of black spots!  My first thoughts are this area has at least 10-15 different species of Blue and that this is a relative but not a Common Blue.' C W. 


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I like the way the light strikes these Alpine butterflies. And the different aspects they show.  
1 Comment
an orienteer
7/8/2019 10:03:24 am

its almost as if I was there!

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    Jan Wiltshire is a nature writer living in Cumbria. She also explores islands and coast and the wildlife experience. (See Home and My Books)

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