Aosta - Gran Paradiso 2020 - 2021 - 2022 & 2024
After two trips in 2018 and 2019 to the Mercantour it was time to visit an other mountain area for butterflies in 2020.
Due to corona it was uncertain for months if our plans could continue as we had plans for the Aosta/Gran Paradiso region in Italy. Fortunately the borders openend on 15th June and on 27th June we (Frank, Gerard and I) travelled to this alpine region. During two weeks we stayed in a small (and quit/uninhabited) hamlet surrounded by meadows full of butterflies.
Early in the morning we visited meadows in the valley's of the Gran Paradiso National Parc and we were impressed by the beauty and nature of these valleys!
Due to corona it was uncertain for months if our plans could continue as we had plans for the Aosta/Gran Paradiso region in Italy. Fortunately the borders openend on 15th June and on 27th June we (Frank, Gerard and I) travelled to this alpine region. During two weeks we stayed in a small (and quit/uninhabited) hamlet surrounded by meadows full of butterflies.
Early in the morning we visited meadows in the valley's of the Gran Paradiso National Parc and we were impressed by the beauty and nature of these valleys!
Cogne Valley
Finding butterflies was not that easy as I expected larger numbers. Day by day we found more and more freshly emerged butterflies. The first day we discovered in the National Parc a very beautiful meadow full with Common Sainfoin (onobrychis viciifolia) and in every sainfoin bush we found a lot of butterflies and caterpillars of a (or more) blue species, too much to photograph them all that morning. Two days later we returned to that meadow and I couldn't believe what a saw....a complete destruction by grazing cows. All sainfoin plants were gone and with them the caterpillars and butterflies.
Butterflies on sainfoin:
Roosting butterflies on bog:
Bog is also the larval foodplant of the Titania Fritillary. As we found a lot of bog meadows in the Gran Paradiso National Parc we also found a lot of Titania's. But, unfortunately also these bog meadows disappeared day by day due to hungry grazing cattle.
As the first photo suggests, we saw and found also lot of Apollo's. At day they were crossing our terrace of the accommodation and on some places we found a lot of them roosting on flowers near paths.
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During our stay we counted more than 80 butterfly species and some very common species we did not see. As the amount of butterflies was growing day by day the number of species can climb easily!
During my walk on the last evening I found the first Scarce Copper which was sitting on faded clover next to the path near the accommodation....a nice farewell gift!
Sainfoin bush with a Mountain Alcon Blue
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Mountain Arnica with a Mountain Fritillary
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In 2021 again I was the same two weeks in Aosta as in 2020 and again we were lucky that the borders were open (Corona) but this time it was much colder and a lot of butterflies were not emerged yet. But I will not complain as the meadows with flowers in this alpine area were beautiful and with six eyes searching we found 75 beautiful butterfly species.
Mountain Fritillary - Boloria napaea
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Geranium Argus - Aricia eumedon
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In 2022 it was a different kind of story due to the high temperatures. This time I stayed almost four weeks and at arrival early July it was visible that the drought had caused 'damage' to the flowers as almost the most bog and sainfoin bushes were brown instead of pink. During the four weeks I counted 101 butterfly species.
In 2024 I visited the Aosta region again, this time from mid June until mid July as I wanted to catch two species, one the caterpillar of the endangered Piedmont Anomalous Blue and the Iolas Blue who is an early flyer. Both wishes were fulfilled but as it was an cold spring a lot of butterfly species started flying late (mid/end July) and some species from previous years I did not see at all (like the Mountain and Shepard Fritillaries). 2024 was also the year in which heavy rainfalls flooded the Cogne valley and washed away a complete bog meadow in which I found a lot of butterflies, like the Titania.
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During my stay in 2024 I counted 97 butterfly species and the erebia's and some blue species just started flying when we had to leave. Unfortunately I did not find any boloria napaea/pales in the area where they used to fly.