It’s almost unbelievable, but due to the warm weather a lot of butterflies were still active. A few days ago I saw an fresh emerged Speckled Wood and this guy......any idea what kind of butterfly this is?
Be my guest and guess!

Again I visited this beautiful area and again I stayed at the St. Georg accommodation which is situated on the hill with a great view and in the middle of hiking paths and beech forest. Again one week was too short! 

The weather was varying from cold, wet and stormy weather to summer weather with at least 20 degrees. At arrival a lot of beeches already were coloured yellow and orange and with rain I drove to a small kind of valley where I found a lot of old beeches and where I could look through the forest. With some little creeks this was a beautiful place to photograph; unfortunately the soft rain moved over into a kind of tropical rain shower. I returned a few days later to this place when temperatures were much higher and the sun was shining; although it was very beautiful it was hard to photograph with my wide angle lens as the slightest sun spot causes a kind of over exposure. 
Beforehand I had in mind to photograph a lot of different, beautiful and eatable mushrooms; I wanted the Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) and/or Penny Bun (Boletus edulis) with in the background the huge forest. Unfortunately I did not find both. From a local I learned that most eatable mushrooms are gathered already. After a long walk (more a run) in the early evening I found some Fly Agarics but unfortunately they were growing between some high brown grass.

Fortunately I found an other kind of Fly Agaric.....the bad smell brought me to him!

One morning, when I stepped out in the first light to photograph the sunrise in the hills, it felt like somebody had put on the heath outside.....summer arrived again and in the noon I saw some butterflies nipping on rotten apples. 
Again I took my camera but instead of tripod I choose my beanbag and angle finder as I wanted an other perspective. Due to the warm weather a lot of Common Frogs (Rana temporaria) were jumping near the creeks and in a beech forest nearby a lot of beautiful caterpillars of the Pale Tussock (Calliteara pudibunda) came out of the trees.

How time flies! As I mentioned before, one week was too short as every day felt like an other and new adventure. Next to the nature encounters I was impressed by the kindness of the local people. 

More autumn photos of this lovely forest region and its inhabitants can be found in the chapter Teutoburger Wald, I added an autumn gallery. 

With beautiful autumn weather I returned to the area where I had found the autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale). This plant looks similar to the spring crocus but blooms in autumn after the leaves have died. As the sun was shining slightly, some flowers were open. As these little plants are growing in wet and nutritious meadows I was dressed in a rain suit and equipped with an angle finder. Lying down in the grass and concentrating on the ‘best’ composition I heard some noise in the distance. A group of hikers were looking at me......I waved to them to show that I was alive and continued photographing these lovely flowers.

As I also found an exposed Ink Cap (Coprinus comatus) earlier, I walked into the forest to photograph this mushroom. It took me some time as I tried to catch the falling drops of the cap.....unfortunately I had to use a slow shutter time and it was a mission impossible to catch them falling. I make the rounds and when I crossed an other path I met some hikers. It seemed that this was the group hikers which had seen me before and they were very anxious to know what I had photographed. I showed them my autumn crocuses and had a little talk with them. 
Later on I realized that I need business cards to hand out as here in Germany (Teutoburger Wald) almost everybody starts a conversation and is interested in what I’m doing.

While I was busy photographing a moth on a beautiful coloured leaf I noticed something shiny. In a dry rolled up leaf at least five mint leaf beetles (Chrysolina menthastri) were resting after a cold night. They were waiting for the sun to warm up and getting active again. As soon as the nights are getting too cold they will search for a suitable place to hibernate.

In the meantime I arrived in Germany in the forest region which I visited this spring, the Teutoburger Forest. The beeches are coloured orange and yellow and after a short inspection of ‘my area’ I found some remaining flowers of the autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale).  Unfortunately at the moment it is too stormy and wet for photographing anything but as soon as the weather will calm down I will go into the forest to search for photogenic and eatable mushrooms.

Sometimes it is necessary to say goodbye and change a few things in life. The most important lesson which I learned in the last two years is to let people go. It hurts very badly but people who think that they can hurt on purpose and writing ugly and mean emails are not my kind of people. Again I lost a dearly person but the situation showed me how important it is to focus on the nice things in life!

The second change took place on this website. One year ago I decided to return with a new website which I named ‘Fascinating Creatures’. I still like this title but my major passion are butterflies and their photography. Farewell Fascinating Creatures and welcome ‘Butterfly photography’.

Early September it was very nice summer weather and a lot of chrysalises emerged and a third generation butterflies was flying. I found some fresh Map Butterflies, Speckled Woods and Holly Blues but at that time I was too busy with other things. The day before yesterday I made some plans for mushrooms but once I was outside my attention was attracted by butterflies which I couldn’t resist. 

Be a butterfly and spread your wings
Enjoy life whatever autumn brings
Learn to fly, low and high
Believe in yourself and reach the sky!

This story starts with a black pony and a Belgian car driver who almost collided with this black pony.....the driver wanted to continue his way and I was the only person nearby. At home my pets tumbled down from the window sill and till today they are ignoring me for bringing home such a big animal!

Unfortunately I couldn’t reach the owner of this pony so I walked to the pasture and here my real story starts as in the middle of two agricultural meadows, in a very very small rough piece of nature I saw a lot of butterflies.
Two week earlier I searched for the Small Copper and here he was.....I walked back home and took my camera and tripod (the pony was tied up on a tree nearby and very busy devastating the grass in the public area).

At my return the sun was disappeared and in the first place I couldn’t find this little orange butterfly as he was resting with closed wings. But I won! Due to the clouds this butterfly behaved quietly and the colour of the images became more softly. 

The story of the black pony is not finished yet; at this moment the grass is still growing a little bit but within weeks he will not have anything to eat......