15-16 July. Alta.
Day One. Vast open tundra plains, mournful calls of Golden Plovers echoing out, Temminck's Stints, Wood Sandpipers and Ringed Plovers breeding aside cottongrass bogs, a wonderful setting. With unbroken sunshine, the plan for this day was to explore some of the higher hills – herds of Reindeer sauntering past, but an obvious scarcity of butterflies immediately apparent. Possibly slightly related to a strong wind, but I think more likely the peak of the season was over. Either way, I had to work for my rewards here, many kilometres of drudging the tundra for an occasional butterfly that all too often went zooming off in the wind!
Of the handful of species seen, Dewy Ringlets were the most common, followed by Pale Arctic Clouded Yellows. Other than these, two Arctic Graylings were the highlight and one Polar Fritillary, both unfortunately not submitting to photographs! In a lower damp area, also added one Bog Fritillary and two Frejya's Fritillaries.
Middle afternoon, with cloud beginning to build to the west, I decided to drop down to the coast – the main target of my trip resided down there, namely Arctic Blue. Predictably, there was little sun down on the coast and at my chosen spot for my target the sun weather did not look very promising at all. Started by fluffing one identification – thought I had found Arctic Woodland Ringlets only to then realize they were Arran Browns (didn't know these occurred so far north)! As for blues, a brief spell of hazy sun brought out quite a number of Idas Blues and Common Blues, plus a Small Copper, but then pretty thick cloud set in and it seemed all was over. Departing the locality however, a steep back of loose scree looked just perfect for Arctic Blues ...maybe I could find one roosting.
The biggest problem here was my leg and arm – steep scree, a leg with a collapsing knee and an arm with limited mobility do not make happy bed fellows! Fortunately there was nobody present to watch my ungainly climb up the shale, it was very much a scramble on all fours, slipping back down many times. All for no butterfly! Next problem was how to get down – no way my knee was going to stand that, so I sat on my butt and slid down! Midway down, I spied a spied a tiny little butterfly quietly roosting on a stalk. Stopped my slide and there he was, a perfect (albeit slightly tatty) Arctic Blue, complete with ghostly white patches on the underwing. After managing to reorientate without falling, I even got the photos I wanted, good result.
As I was about to leave the butterfly, I then noticed a break in the clouds, perhaps it would be sunny for a few moments. And indeed it was, enough to tempt the Arctic Blue into activity, opening its wings to reveal to slate blue uppers, a perfect colour match to the scree. Five or ten minutes of activity from the butterfly, then onward down the slope I continued. Excellent end to the day.