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Last year I wrote that 2024 was the album with the fewest butterfly images ever....I was wrong as my 2025 album is the half of 2024. The decline of butterflies is worrying and given the political developments I'm afraid nothing will change soon. Next to the decline of butterflies, 2025 was the year in which Jane Goodall went on her last big adventure. I met/saw her a few times and for me she was the most inspiring conservationist who gave everything to protect nature/planet earth!  Everybody makes a difference every single day and it's up to you which difference/impact you will make....so with Jane Goodall in my mind I wish you all Merry Christmas and the best for 2026! Merry Christmas - Prettige kerstdagen - Frohe Weihnachten - Joyeux Noël!!
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As I was a long weekend in the Large Copper area, I visited the hot spot again the last morning. This time it was a magical morning as everything was covered with dew and on my way to the Large Coppers I noticed a lot of dragonflies and made plans to photograph them too. Although I was there the evening before and remembered their roosting spots, they were all roosting in different places well hidden in the grass. The first butterfly was the male which mated the evening before.
As it was my last morning/day in this area I tried to catch them with open wings:
My plans for the dragonflies must wait for another time/visit...when I was ready with the Large Coppers, the dragonflies were flying too.
As it is now the time of the year to make plans for next year, I'm considering to visit this area again. When the first signs became clear that we were able to buy the house we are now living in, I started dreaming creating a big butterfly paradise. During the first year we only mowed some paths and the rest was free to grow. I ordered some blackthorn and hawthorn to create two hedges for birds and with this order I received, by accident, a lot of young beech plants which I was allowed to keep. As these beeches needed to be plant quickly, I decided to create two gardens. One around the solar panels and one for a future larval butterfly garden.  April 2024: The start of the future larval butterfly garden In 2024 nothing happened (except mowing) in this part of the garden as a lot of other jobs needed to be done first. In 2025 I made plans for this garden and looked for garden boxes from steel (to keep snails away). As I needed a lot of boxes steel was no option for my budget so I decided to buy 40 used logistic boxes and to treat them with black stain (to protect them against moisture/rain).
For weeks I was busy staining them and once I was ready I started placing them in the larval butterfly garden, filled them a big layer of cardboard and protected the wood with plastic foil.
The next 'problem' was the amount of soil to fill the boxes as for every box I need 0,3 m3 of soil. We drove to a kind of 'waste' point where everybody from the village can get 1m3 of free soil at a time. The advantage is that it's free, the disadvantage is that the soil is made of collected garden waste and that it contains a lot of plastic and glass pieces.  The first part of the larval butterfly garden The first boxes are filled with soil and planted with larval foodplants for some butterfly species alternated with flowering plants.
Last year, when I started creating the first flower bed I bought two Purple Top Vervain plants (verbena bonariensis). In the past I often lost them due to frost but this year they spread through my garden and I replanted a lot of them in my new flower beds….and they attracts a lot of insects including butterflies. Mid-August I noticed the first Swallowtail visiting my garden and for some weeks this species was a regular visitor, especially they liked the Purple Top Vervain:  Swallowtail (Papilio machaon) Comparing to last year, this year I had more butterflies in my garden but a big part of the garden is still grass/wild and a lot of work needs to be done. At the moment I’m busy creating a ‘larval butterfly garden’ for a lot of species. In my next blog I will write more about this special part of my garden.
After a very disappointing butterfly weekend in the Eifel last year, the Jordan brothers and I decided to visit an other area in 2025. On the internet we found some clues in an area not too far away. So this summer we drove to Germany and after arrival in the afternoon we noticed a lot of fluttering butterflies, mainly Dusky and Scarce Large Blues. The next morning we found some roosting butterflies, most of the Dusky Large blues are roosting on Great Burnet but his 'grey brother' chose other roosting plants and he was not that easy to find. As we had summer temperatures, both species quickly started flying around and the Scarce Large Blue liked the yellow clover:  Scarce Large Blue The amount of butterflies was fascinating and near the path I discovered an ants nest...not that I have seen the nest but I found four freshly emerged butterflies (both species), hanging low in the gras above the ground. The last morning I found one Dusky Larg Blue which was not roosting on Great Burnet:
It was a nice weekend with of course our traditional 'Kaffee & Kuchen' in a new region and I enjoyed to photograph other species than we usally do in the Eifel. But...I must admit....I miss the old Eifel times with meadows full of butterflies.
A big part of my garden is wild and as on some pieces little hop clover (Trifolium dubium) is growing (one of their larval foodplants) I was wondering if and when I would find the first Common Blues. On the third of August it was bingo…a female visited one of my flower beds. Two weeks later I found the first roosting Common Blue in my garden and since then I found regularly one or two roosting butterflies. My ‘sport’ is to catch them with open wings and the last weeks I learnt that the male butterflies are much easier and more cooperative (= the females flew away immediately):  Common Blue - Polyommatus icarus This autumn I will create a big clover bed to attract more blue butterflies like the Short-Tailed Blue, this rare species is found in a nature area nearby and it would be nice to have this species in my own garden :-).
In the evening I returned to this spot again and between the grass/reed I found a mating couple again. From this couple I found no images on the internet so I assume that they were not noticed by the crowd and fortunately not trampled.  Large Copper - Lycaena dispar batavus (left female and right male) During the Christmas holiday I decided to give myself a special Birthday gift…the Lycaena dispar batavus; it was 17 years ago that I visited the area and took a photo of this rare species. I booked a long weekend and I was curious if I should find and photograph this rare butterfly species again. After arrival my partner and I visited the area where I have seen lot them in 2008; unfortunately I did not find one single Large Copper. As a photographer friend was in the area too I asked him to give me a clue and it was not hard to find the right spot as it was crowded with photographers, bikes and cars. I took my binoculars and walked to the crowd which were running up and down with big lenses to catch this species. I saw two butterflies but this was not the way I like to photograph butterflies so I decided to leave and we made a walk somewhere else to find another spot; unfortunately we didn’t. After our early dinner I decided to return to the hot-spot but again a lot of people were still there. I wanted to drive past but I noticed that they were photographing a mating couple…..so I stopped, took my tripod and camera and asked if I could join the club. Everybody was friendly and I started photographing the two Large Coppers; unfortunately it was very windy and my position was not the best one to have them both sharp. In the beginning more cars, people were stopping but after a while everybody needed to go home for dinner….so suddenly I was alone with two mating Large Coppers…this was THE birthday present I dreamt of:  Large Copper - Lycaena dispar batavus Not rare or endangered, no spectaculair colours and not difficult to find....the unwanted and unhunted Meadow Brown. The only thing about this species is that they always have a keen eye when they are roosting....not the easiest species to photograph. I'm very happy to have this species around my house this year and a few weeks ago I found a roosting one in the grass:  Meadow Brown My next blog will be about a critically endagered and very wanted and hunted species...
As there were not much butterflies (and species) in my garden, some weeks ago I decided to visit an area in Germany to search for some special butterfly species. The weather forecast was not very good but I thought that I will always find other species to photograph. The first afternoon we searched hours for butterflies but could not find much; one Woodland Brown high in the tree.  Woodland Brown The second day a lot of rain came down and we needed to hide under a tree. The only high-light that day were the amount of Black Hairstreaks and that I found a couple of them. The third day I was waiting for the dream species; again a heavy rainshower came down and while we were hiding under a big tree my eye noticed a freshly emerged Black Hairstreak under clover leaves. Finally the sun started to shine for about 15 minutes but no sign of the desired species. The fourth day we waited all morning and the early afternoon only to take a glimpse of one female butterfly.....so the honour of that weekend goes to the Black Hairstreaks!
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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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