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Witnessing and photographing the birth of a butterfly is everytime again a miracle. One week ago the last Swallowtail chrysalis emerged and after unfurling and drying its wings, the butterfly flew into freedom.
I hope that he survived the hungry birds and that the circle of life will continue!
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For the first time this year my alarm clock went off early. The reason was the Banded Demoiselle which I found the evening before and he (it was the male version) was sitting on a stuntfree place in the low vegetation. It was foggy at the Kleine Beerze and it was a pitty that the dragonfly was not sitting near the little lake as I wished a photo with this beauty and the surrounding. But, I will not complain as it was a perfect moring and in a peacefull mood and with a lot of images I drove to my work. 
Recently, I returned from France with great memories, a coloured skin and a lot of images of butterflies and other subjects. Two weeks I enjoyed the Luberon area and its picturesque small villages, the French croissants, cheese and wine and last but not least the dark blue sky! It’s a great region where I could live with pleasure. The accommodation was perfect, a big garden with a green part near the house and a wilder more stony and dry part behind, full with Wild Thyme, orchids and other flowers and it was crowded with butterflies. Shortly after arrival I noticed a Marsh Fritillary and Provence Orange-tip, so I knew that it would be an interesting stay. The garden had so much to offer that I had no opportunity to discover the direct surrounding and hills. Unfortunately time flies when you’re having fun and two weeks were too short so definitively I will return soon!  à bientôt le Damier de la succise!
….can’t you see I’m burning alive As it is very dry in the Provence, I noticed that some butterflies are looking for some liquid in the gras early in the morning and some others tried the messed pool water. So the idea was born to create a little mud pool to attract butterflies. I choose a small piece of earth and ‘cleaned’ it, which means that with a tweezer I removed little pieces of brown gras, little stalks and some other distracted elements. A few times a day I sprinkled the little pool as the water evaporated immediately. On some days the little pool was crowded en some days there was almost no interest. The rush hour was on sunny days in the afternoon around three a clock.  Libythea celtis - Breaks - Snuitvlinder - Zürgelbaumfalter One special visitor was the the Beaks (Libythea celtis) and for at least one hour I was thinking that it was an old Speckled Wood. I always noticed this butterfly in my books but I never saw him before so it was a big surprise.
Two other special guests were a very very small butterfly, the Common Zebra Blue (Leptotes pirithous) which I saw a few times but never get a chance to photograph him again and the Black-Eyed Blue (Glaucopsyche melanops).
Some Small Blue’s came every day although I could not find them near the accomodation and the fresh Scarce Swallowtail was a gift.
These are not perfect images but it's nice to discover which species are flying around! In my last blog I wrote that I have enough photo's of the Orange-tip; actually I ment the DUTCH Orange-tip. Arriving in my beloved France, one of the first butterflies which welcomes me was the yellow Provence Orange-tip. Wow.....what a beauty! Every evening I walked around and searched on yellow flowers (including his larval foodplant) for this butterfly without any success.  Then the day came that I found one resting butterfly in the daytime and while I was photographing this butterfly (with stormy Mistral) I found some little caterpillars, white and orange eggs and the same evening as a big surprise: 3 resting Orange-tips....they maked my day!  The only problem was the Mistral which drives me crazy. With two empty shopping baskets I built a kind of shelter and with some sticks I stabalized the long and tiny plant they were resting on. Despite all this efforts it was a real challenge to make photos without any movements. As one shopping basked was red and the other light blue, it must have been looked very obvious but it helped to keep the worst gusts of wind away. When the sun came up across the hill, one by one they were opening the wings and it seemed that I had three femals. Girlpower! But, the way they came, they left, as no more resting yellow Orange-tip was found, till yet.  Provence Orange-tip with a white egg Soon, a new page with all images of the Provence Orange-tip will be added to this website.
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Jibt dir dit Leben mal een Buff, denn weene keene Träne. Lach Dir'n Ast und setz Dir druff und baumle mit de Beene.
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