Next to the Emperors an other big surprise was the discovery of the False Heath Fritillary which I found a few metres in front of my house near the path. It was the first time ever that I photographed this species.

An other butterfly species which I have not seen for a long time was this High Brown Fritillary​ which I also found in front of my house. For both species I will arrange some (extra) larval foodplants in my garden as I like to have them as a caterpillar.

When I arrived at dusk on Friday evening, I noticed some orange flags above our road and it was obvious that there was no relation with the WC football.
The heavy rain and thunderstorms from some weeks ago were responsible for a fallen tree and power pole.....fortunately both were 'cleanded up' in the meantime. 
When I passed this place on Saturday morning on my way to the wild meadow (see my blogs Le pouvoir des filles I and II) I noticed some black caterpillars walking on the sawed pole....when I came closer I noticed that this were Camberwell Beauty caterpillars and soon I noticed a lot of them on the brown withered leaves.

I returned to the house to get a box and started collecting caterpillars which I released in my back garden (in the Vosges) on their larval foodtree. 

In the meantime the sun had risen above 'my' wild meadow when I started searching butterflies. Instead of 40 cm the grass was now at least 1,20 metre high and immediately I noticed a Heath Fritillary.

A lot of Meadow Browns were already active and the Marbled Whites started opening their wings. On a part with lower grass and a lot of flowers I found some Black-veined Whites. Although I photographed them a week earlier in the Eifel I was glad to have them in the Vosges.

Last weekend I was in the Vosges for only two days as I was very curious which kind of butterflies I can find in June. What I found/see exceeded my expectations!
I had taken two buckets with horse manure which I placed near the path but very soon I found out that the most butterflies preferred Wanda's dogshit. So I mixed the horse and dog shit and within some minutes it was bingo!

The first Lesser Purple Emperor landed on the shit followed by a second one and some Small Skippers, Heath Fritillaries and a Comma-Butterfly.

Also a Purple Emperor landed on 'my' shit but he flew away twice as soon as I moved a little bit. When I returned to the house I discovered him in the shadow on my house wall near the empty shit buckets so I placed some bramble (with a hint of shit) near the buckets and waited......

....and there he came.....the big Purple Emperor.....the only thing I will change the next time is my lens.....this butterfly is too big for the 180 mm!