Butterfly & Nature Photography by Silvia Reiche
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      • Reverdin's Blue
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      • Glanville Fritillary
      • Grisons Fritillary
      • Heath Fritillary
      • High Brown Fritillary
      • Knapweed Fritillary
      • Lesser Marbled Fritillary
      • Marbled Fritillary
      • Marsh Fritillary
      • Meadow Fritillary
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      • Nickerl's Fritillary
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      • Shepard's Fritillary
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      • Twin-Spot Fritillary
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      • Ringlet
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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! 
Picture
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. ​
Picture
Picture
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! 
Picture
Sainfoin bush with a Mountain Alcon Blue
Picture
Mountain Arnica with a Sheppard's Fritillary

In 2021 and 2022 I returned to this area as the amount of different butterfly species is fantastic! 
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. 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.
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  • Home
    • Update News
  • About
    • Biography
    • Photography
    • Contact
  • Blog
  • Butterfly Gallery
    • Hesperiidae >
      • Chequered Skipper
      • Dingy Skipper
      • Essex Skipper
      • Grizzled Skipper
      • Large Chequered Skipper
      • Large Skipper
      • Mallow Skipper
      • Red-underwing Skipper
      • Silver-spotted Skipper
      • Small Skipper
    • Papilionidae >
      • Apollo
      • Clouded Apollo
      • Scarce Swallowtail
      • Swallowtail
      • Southern Swallowtail
      • Southern Festoon
      • Spanish Festoon
    • Pieridae >
      • Black-veined White
      • Green-veined White
      • Large White
      • Wood White
      • Small White
      • Orange-tip
      • Portuguese Dappled White
      • Provence Orange-tip
      • Western Dappled White
      • Brimstone
      • Cleopatra
      • Clouded Yellow
      • Pale Clouded Yellow
      • Berger's Clouded Yellow
      • Mountain Clouded Yellow
    • Lycaenidae >
      • Black Hairstreak
      • Brown Hairstreak
      • False Ilex Hairstreak
      • Green Hairstreak
      • Ilex Hairstreak
      • Purple Hairstreak
      • Sloe Hairstreak
      • White-letter Hairstreak
      • Large Copper
      • Purple-edged Copper
      • Purple-shot Copper
      • Scarce Copper
      • Small Copper
      • Sooty Copper
      • Violet Copper
      • Adonis Blue
      • Alcon Blue
      • Alpine Blue
      • Amanda's Blue
      • Baton Blue
      • Brown Argus
      • Chalkhill Blue
      • Chequered Blue
      • Common Blue
      • Cranberry Blue
      • Damon Blue
      • Dusky Large Blue
      • Escher's Blue
      • Geranium Argus
      • Glandon Blue
      • Green-underside Blue
      • Holly Blue
      • Idas Blue
      • Large Blue
      • Mazarine Blue
      • Mountain Alcon Blue
      • Northern Brown Argus
      • Piedmont anomalous Blue
      • Provence Chalkhill Blue
      • Reverdin's Blue
      • Ripart's anomalous Blue
      • Scarce Large Blue
      • Silver-studded Blue
      • Silvery Argus
      • Small Blue
      • Short-tailed Blue
      • Turquoise Blue
      • Duke of Burgundy
    • Nymphalidae >
      • Purple Emperor
      • Lesser Purple Emperor
      • White Admiral
      • Southern White Admiral
      • Hungarian Glider
      • Camberwell Beauty
      • Comma Butterfly
      • Large Tortoiseshell
      • Map Butterfly
      • Painted Lady
      • Peacock
      • Red Admiral
      • Small Tortoiseshell
      • Assmann's Fritillary
      • Bog Fritillary
      • Cardinal
      • Cranberry Fritillary
      • Dark Green Fritillary
      • False Heath Fritillary
      • Glanville Fritillary
      • Grisons Fritillary
      • Heath Fritillary
      • High Brown Fritillary
      • Knapweed Fritillary
      • Lesser Marbled Fritillary
      • Marbled Fritillary
      • Marsh Fritillary
      • Meadow Fritillary
      • Mountain Fritillary
      • Nickerl's Fritillary
      • Niobe Fritillary
      • Pearl-bordered Fritillary
      • Queen of Spain Fritillary
      • Shepard's Fritillary
      • Silver-washed Fritillary
      • Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary
      • Spotted Fritillary
      • Titania's Fritillary
      • Twin-Spot Fritillary
      • Weaver's Fritillary
    • Satyridae >
      • Alpine Heath
      • Arran Brown
      • Chestnut Heath
      • Dusky Heath
      • Gatekeeper
      • Great Banded Grayling
      • Large Ringlet
      • Large Wall Brown
      • Marbled White
      • Meadow Brown
      • Pearly Heath
      • Ringlet
      • Small Heath
      • Southern Grayling
      • Speckled Wood
      • Wall Brown
      • Woodland Grayling
      • Woodland Ringlet
    • Metamorphosises >
      • Spotted Fritillary
      • Large White
      • Red Admiral
      • Black-veined White
      • Map Butterfly
      • Swallowtail
      • Peacock
      • Orange-tip
      • Brimstone
      • Small Tortoiseshell
      • Painted Lady
      • Comma Butterfly
      • Portuguese Dappled White
      • Camberwell Beauty
      • Queen of Spain Fritillary
    • Alpine Species
    • Germany - Eifel
    • Butterflies in France
    • Butterflies NL
    • Threats & Enemies
    • UFI
  • Gallery A - Z
    • Amphibians
    • Aosta - Gran Paradiso
    • Ardeche
    • Bayerischer Wald
    • Beetles
    • Bluebell Forest
    • Caterpillars
    • Cevennes
    • Dordogne
    • Holy Love
    • Hungary
    • Insects - Others
    • Jumping Spiders
    • Kleine Beerze
    • Kleine Beerze II
    • Koebosch
    • Landschotse Heide
    • Little Owl
    • Luberon
    • Lueneburger Heide
    • Mercantour
    • Mercantour part II
    • Orchids Dream
    • Pink and Purple
    • Snakes and Reptiles
    • Spiders
    • Spring Flowers
    • Strabrechtse Heide
    • Styria
    • Teutoburger Wald
    • Toxic Tales
    • Var
  • Blog Vosges
    • Butterflies in the Vosges
    • Nature in the Vosges
    • House Gallery Vosges
  • Rust In Peace
    • Citroen
    • Ford
    • Hanomag
    • Mercedes
    • Peugeot
    • Renault
    • Simca
    • Sleeping Beauty