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The last weeks we were busy outside, creating new flower and vegetable beds, building an insect hotel, planting water lilies in our pond and enjoying fluttering butterflies. Yesterday I noticed the first Map Butterfly and this morning my butterfly season started when everything came together:  After this start I hope to find more butterflies in my garden....a few days ago I created a new vegetable garden with cabbage plants so at least some whites species must come soon.
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Today my Christmas Holiday started and it's time to slow down a bit and to choose a butterfly photo from my 2024 album. The 2024 album is an album with the fewest butterfly images ever.....not much butterflies in Aosta/Italy, not much in the Eifel/Germany nor in my own garden. The absence of butterflies is disturbing and the decline of insects must be stopped!  Brown Argus (the one and only) in my garden in July 2024 I hope that better days are coming soon and I wish you all Merry Christmas and the very best for 2025! Merry Christmas - Prettige kerstdagen - Frohe Weihnachten - Joyeux Noël!!
This year I realized one of my long-cherised dreams, which was 'seeing fluttering butterflies from my bed after waking up'. This spring I created two butterfly beds, one in front of the house and one in front of the bedroom. The quality of ground in front of the bedroom was a problem as it all was hard rubble/stone with yellow sand and not removable. I bought fertilized garden soil and put a layer of max 10 cm on top of it; after this job was done I bought plants which can be found 'in the wild' on places without much soil. The growth started slowly but after my return from Aosta I found fluttering butterflies:  In the weekends during the summer it was wonderful to wake up and to sit in bed with a cup of coffee and enjoy the fluttering butterflies.
Two weeks ago I collected again a big lot of stones for free, to built the next butterfly bed in spring. In a few years the complete garden will be transformed into a nature/butterfly paradise with a lot of wildlife. A lot of work needs to be done and that is the reason why I'm not posting here regularly at the moment. But, my garden has much to photograph so as soon as I have more time available I will share some stories here!
I'm back in the Netherlands and since days I'm very busy removing the weeds around my house. Five weeks vacation means a lot of work ;-). Exactely one week ago, I was at my favorite Aosta spot and I found a fresh Turquoise Blue which was roosting on Black Rampion. I took some photos with closed wings and searched for other roosting butterflies. Two hours later it was time to return to this butterfly as I wanted to catch him with open wings. When the sun came over the edge this little beauty opened his wings and it became clear why his name is "Turquoise Blue".  Turquoise Blue - Polyommatus dorylas That day I also found a freshly emerged Scarce Copper and Damon Blue and I wished I could have stayed another week. The counter remains at 96 butterfly species, not bad but I missed at least 10 other species.
The last week of my Aosta trip has started. I’m here now for four weeks and until now I counted 86 butterfly species. I still miss a lot (mostly blue) species. Very slowly it’s getting warmer but finding roosting butterflies early in the morning is still hard working. Normally around the accommodation there are always roosting butterflies/nice species to find but now it seems to be ‘off season’ and it took until yesterday before I spot the first Apollo. This morning we visited on other valley than usual and after a long walk we entered the world of the Glandon Blue. Actually I was hoping/searching for the Alpine Blue but unfortunately we did not find this species; instead we found at least 15 Glandon Blues. The majority of the Glandon Blues were roosting on Alpine Cat’s tail (phleum alpinum) and photographing them on this plant was due to the heavy wind almost impossible.
Fortunately I found two Glandon Blues roosting on other (with a thicker stem) plants. As the sun almost touched the mountain edge I choose the butterfly with the purple flower in the hope that it was male. Very quickly the sun came over the edge and within a minute the complete flower field was sunny; the butterfly next to me opened the wings first….it was a brown female. After two minutes ‘my’ butterfly opened the wings and it was a male….I created some shadow and he allowed me some images before he left.
Maybe in a few days I will return to this place as photographing the Alpine Blue again is on my wishing list for years.
My wish list for Aosta included three things: the Iolas Blue, the caterpillar of the Piedmont anomalous Blue and the caterpillar of the Apollo. One and a half week ago I visited the hotspot of the Piedmont anomalous Blue and very soon I noticed three ants on Sainfoin and when I looked closer I saw a beautiful caterpillar. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me so I had to get it first...when I returned one ant was still protecting the caterpillar. As no image of the caterpillar of this species was available on internet, nor in books, I contacted one of the researchers of this species and she confirmed that this was the caterpillar of the Piedmont anomalous Blue.  Larvae polyommatus humedasae - caterpillar Piedmont anomalous blue I was very happy that I found the caterpillar of this species and with the confirmation I also knew that I photographed this caterpillar before in 2021.
The first week Aosta has passed by very quickly and until now we counted 40 butterfly species. Summer temperatures needs to rise and summer species still needs to emerge; a few days ago I saw in a higher area some fresh Orange-tips flying. But, I will not complain as I have no ‘choice stress’ and we often visited the area of the Iolas Blue as I wanted some decent photos of this species. On Wednesday we also visited this area after breakfast but all butterflies in this area were already flying around. I noticed a male Iolas Blue and dropped my camera bag on the path when suddenly a black snake crawled next to my bag. The first snake I have ever seen in Aosta, I was too much flabbergasted that I forgot to use my binoculars but I guess that it was a dark Western Whip Snake. No photos of the Iolas Blue as the sun was shining and they were flying around without resting. Yesterday, after two days of rain, we visited this area again and found a roosting Iolas Blue (I guess that she was surprised by the rain on Friday as between the showers the sun was shining shortly).  Female Ioloas Blue - Iolana iolas Unfortunately she was sitting on a spot with the longest shadow….so I waited three hours before she opened her wings. Although I plamped the twig of her larval foodplant, the heavy wind blowed her up and down during three hours and taking pictures with open wings was a kind of mission impossible.
Sitting three hours in the shadow and waiting for the sun was also not convenient for the cold I already have for weeks. So next week we're going to take it easy.
Yesterday evening we arrived in Aosta and after we unpacked the car we immediately went out, looking for butterflies. The meadows are full with alpine flowers but the butterfly season has yet to start. As we were tired after the long drive yesterday, I did not set my alarm clock this morning and after a cup of coffee we went out, not expecting much.
Two Green-underside Blues were roosting on Common Sainfoin and one of the Almond ringlets was sitting on a flower instead of low in the grass. As there were not much other butterflies we made plans to visit an other area after breakfast with the hope to find a new species: the Iolas Blue. This species flies on the southern slopes of the mountains. After we entered the area we spotted the first big blue butterfly and it became clear that it was not going to be easy as it is a powerful flyer, the slopes are steep and there are not many of this species. Long story short, one male and female were resting for a short time and I found an egg.....not bad for the first day in Aosta.
We will definitely visit this area again!
The last six months I was very quiet on the internet because my partner and I bought an old farm house and we had to move all our stuff. Since we moved in, a lot of jobs had to be done as it’s an old house with thick (not isolated) walls and single (not double) glass windows. We have a big garden which we want to change into a butterfly paradise and we want to grow our own vegetables. The first step we took is not mowing the grass/flowers anymore as I noticed that a lot of other plants like thistles are growing in-between. The second step was that we planted a lot of hedges and fruit trees. Due to the cold and wet spring season and the jobs which needed to be done I was not in the mood to go out and search for Orange-tips and other butterflies. Two weeks ago we had a sunny weekend in the Netherlands and in the evening I found a roosting Orange-tip in the garden so it was time to charge my batteries again!
The next morning I tried to catch the butterfly with sunrise but a big forest nearby unfortunately blocks the sunrise completely. But I will not complain as I’m happy with my new home.....and the little present the Orange-tip left.  Female Orange-tip Since Saturday I'm back in the Netherlands after two quiet weeks in France...on our way back home we crossed a busy village in the Netherlands where we had to wait long for some traffic lights and an open drawbridge. In a small meadow I saw a lot of butterflies, mostly white species but also some blue species and Small Coppers. On Sunday morning the alarm clock went off earlier and just before sunrise we entered a small heath area to search for small coppers. The flowering season was definitely over as the heather was brown.
We found about 15 roosting Small Coppers and except two coppers they all had a horizontal roosting position. By the time the sun was shining strong they changed their position and the ones with less dew drops opened their wings. Unfortunately the wind became too strong for decent open wings photos.
Next year I plan to visit this area earlier. In the meantime summer returned and I hope to find more roosting butterflies soon.
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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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