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Unfortunately the trip to the Eifel went by too fast. The beer and food was excellent just like the company. The 'only' disappointing item were the low amount of butterflies at the old spots. Since almost 25 years I'm visiting these spots and the contrast between then and now is large. Some species are completely disappeared.  Silver-studded Blue But, we also discovered two new area's and in one we found some hundreds of butterflies.....the majority was the Silver-studded Blue but it was a relief to find a place with a lot of fluttering.
Mission Bog Fritillary was not succesful, instead we found some Cranberry Fritillaries, a lot of Lesser Marbled Fritillaries and one resting Dark Green Fritillary.....together with the fun we had it was a pretty good Eifel trip!  Dark Green Fritillary
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After a busy working day, it's now time to relax and prepare my trip to the Eifel together with some members of the Palinka club. I'm in the mood for some German butterflies, food, beer and conversations. Es geht nichts über die deutsche Gemütlichkeit!  When I came home today, I noticed that two more Brimstones were born and in contrast to other butterfly species the Brimstone enjoys very slowly his new life....time enough to take some photos before I start to clean the car, pack my bag and camera stuff.
A few days ago, I saw some adults 'old' Brimstone butterflies in the forest, two males and a female searching for nectar between the flowering brambles. Yesterday, their first offspring emerged while I 'm still finding 2nd stage caterpillars in the forest. This year the deviation in caterpillar stage is much bigger than last year due to the cold period in April.  Brimstone - Canon 7DMKII, tripod, remote release, 180 mm, 1/10 sec, F 7.1, ISO 100 I can't wait to see more offspring and other butterfly species!
Nature it's on her best at the moment! Next to birds, deers also butterflies giving 'birth' to the next generation. Wherever I look, I find caterpillars, their enemies and other little creatures! Wanda (my shepard) hates them....actually not them but me walking slowly through the forest and searching for them. In almost every Alder Buckthorn (Rhamnus frangula) caterpillars are living:
I also found some caterpillars of the Red Admiral and Comma Butterfly in my garden.
Unfortunately all the caterpillars of Red Admiral which I found in my garden were parasited. When I unfold the nettle leaf I noticed an opening at one cocoon and a few minutes later I witnessed the emergence of a parasitoid wasp. The newborn wasp flew to a higher nettle leaf and allowed me one image before she flew away to search for new victims:
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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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