Trip to Tübingen

This wasn't a dedicated nature holiday, the main aims being cultural and relaxation in various forms.  Some of the sightings I did make were annoyingly fleeting, making identification tricky.

One day though, I visited the University Botanical Gardens with its impressive array of gardens and trees.  On the way from the nearest bus stop there were a couple of butterflies and an elusive black redstart.

Once there, I had my first sighting of a common blue in an area of rewilding and a spectacular stripey bug on an exotic plant.

Common Blue

Minstrel Bug

Apparently it's an Italian Striped Bug or Minstrel Bug.  Also fleetingly sighted for the first time this year were common darter and marbled white.  On some steps a nomad bee was so active that I couldn't get a picture of it.  This was a pity as all the bees I saw afterwards were honey bees or obvious forms of bumblebee.

On the way to a bike hire place, I had a couple of forays along the River Ammer, where there were a few trout rising and this slightly puzzling duck with a blue sheen on its head feathers.

There is a thing called the Blue-headed Mallard in America and the beak certainly looks mallardy but on balance I think this is probably some sort of hybrid.

Mallard Hybrid?

Another teaser occurred during my one bike ride on a decrepit city bike.  At the edge of a farm field I happened on a couple of large pipits of a long thin body shape and a palish chest marking.  Of course, they moved on soon after I stopped.  It was hard to make them out properly against the light but I reckoned that tawny pipit was likely.

A couple of days later, I caught sight of a butterfly flying along the hedgerow that had all the signs of being a brown hairstreak, my first ever, but of course it did not land.  Later on I was amused to find a pair of Egyptian Geese casually surveilling the punts and  sunbathers by the Neckar.  

Egyptian Goose

I ended up in a Biergarten by the river, feeding fragments of bread to a decent sized carp - almost as satisfying as catching one.

The last day of my holiday was a dedicated nature outing.  I took a bus to Bebenhausen, which offers a number of walks on the southern tip of the Naturpark Schönbuch.  

The first thing I saw, before even leaving the village was a small white butterfly - except something about it struck me as unusual.  I think in fact it was a Southern Small White.  If so it was pretty much right on the Northern edge of its established range but I'm pretty confident about this one.  The giveaway is that the black edging extends slightly down the outer edge of the upper forewing.

Southern Small White

Although the forecast was for very hot weather, it took a while for the clouds to disperse.  When they did, another white appeared by the side of the Fohlenweideweg - a fair number of wood whites, always nice to see as they do not occur in the North of Britain.

Wood White

Their weak, erratic flight means that wood white sites are very precious as the butterflies are unlikely to relocate over any distance.

Ironically the real fun butterflies started when I took a wrong turn and went down a wee overgrown lane.  I was surprised to find that the dominant butterfly here was the pearly heath.

Pearly Heath

I'd seen the pearly heath several times when I was in Bulgaria but did not know it extends across mainland Europe.  

Several expected items turned up including another common blue, and, looking smart, meadow brown and ringlet.

Meadow Brown

Common Blue

Ringlet

I also spent some time confirming that the small skipper I saw was a small skipper, as Essex or Lulworth Skipper were also feasible.  Anyway, it is.

Small Skipper

More troublesome was a very small and worn female blue that kept fluttering around the path track without settling more than briefly.  My feeling is that it may be a Silver Studded Blue but without better images, it's hard to be sure, 

Silver Studded Blue?

Then there was the one that completely defeated me, as I couldn't find anything that resembled this rather smart-looking black moth.  Or maybe it's not even a moth at all?

Unidentified Flying Object

It almost looks like the translucent wing tips are reflecting the treetops above.

Last of all. the most joyful appearance went completely undocumented when a massive purple emperor came down and flattered briefly in front of my midriff.  I waited around for half an hour for it to return but there was no further sign.

Dolomites Days 3 and 4

Day 3 was again spent at altitude on longish walk to a refugio in the Rosengarten area.  By contrast Day 4 was at lower level in the Eggental valley.  The sightings are in alphabetical order but I can tell you where each were seen if you request it in a comment.

A first sighting for me was the provencal short-tailed blue plus pretty much all the moths and more exotic bugs but it was the chequered blue and the rosey footman that were thought by the guides to be obvious rarities.  The one that got away was meleager's blue, seen only by our Italian guide, Luca.

People in the group were most excited about the scarce swallowtail and the white admiral plus the standard swallowtail that eluded my camera but I had seen all these before at other locations, notably Bulgaria.  The same is true of the valezina variation of the silver-washed fritillary.  The more normal version was also around the Eggental, nectaring on buddleia.  White admirals were all over the place there, flattering through the riverside trees, but it took a visit to the field of a (rather annoyed-looking) farmer to find one that settled nicely on a flower.

I found it tricky to spot identify the mountain green-veined whites which didn't look very green at all.

Although common here in the UK, we saw only a couple of commas and one small copper during the whole holiday.  If you look carefully at the small copper, you will see it has a number of blue spots on the upper hind-wing.  Apparently, this means it was a third brood specimen.

It was ironic that we saw both purple and white-letter hairstreak, both species I was thinking of tracking down in my return home, as Luca revealed that neither species had been seen on any of his previous tours to the area.  Incidentally, the purple hairstreak, best seen here in oak trees towards dusk was happily eating honeydew on sallows at midday.

Indeed we discussed several examples of wildlife behaving differently from country to country.