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JANUARY

Very cold start, plenty of snow lying at all but the lowest levels. Warmer towards the end of the month.

FEBRUARY

Cold dull start below stratus at low levels in Switzerland and France. Above about 1000m warm at times and sunny. Some butterflies reported above this level.

MARCH

12th - Still cold with more snow falling than for the rest of the winter. The snow melts quickly now with a strong sun. Still no butterflies - no surprise given the weather conditions.

18th - Finally broken the duck while skiing from Champèry in Switzerland to Avoriaz in Savoie, France. My first butterfly of the was a Small Tortoiseshell (A. urticae) flying over snow at 2000m half way up this valley in this typical winter habitat.

19th - A trip to the Valais with veiled cloud and temperatures reaching about 12C, produced excellent results: Queen of Spain Fritillary (I. lathonia, a single tiny male), Brimstone (G. rhamni, a single bright yellow male), Small Tortoiseshells (A. urticae) and best of all 15 Large Tortoiseshells (N. polychloros). This latter species is putting on an even better display than last spring. It appears that it may be going through one of its well known population swings. In this clearing I found 3 flying at a time and at least 8 individuals.

APRIL

2nd April The sun was hot in the morning near Martigny. This brought out the first Green Veined Whites (A. napi) and a gorgeous Peacock (I. io). Large Tortoiseshell numbers appear to have dropped off while Queen of Spain Fritillaries are gaining in numbers.

7th April Typical mixed weather for spring - hours of snowfall on the 5th then temperatures at 15 degC on the 6th. And a few Small Tortoiseshells in the better periods.

14th & 16th April Things really started moving with our April Pilgrimage to SE France. We were lucky with the weather during this years late Easter holiday. We arrived around Digne Les Bains on a sunny hot Good Friday. It started well with Black Eyed Blues (G. melanops) showing well for the camera (undersides only). Several gorgeous Scarce Swallowtails (I. podalirius) put on a show but I was unable to photograph them. Similarly for the Spring Ringlet (E. epistygne) which still eludes my efforts of a good photo. This species is seriously precocious. Even at 1000m in mid April it was showing signs of old age. Interestingly it was fairly common (3-6 at any one time) until about mid day when suddenly they disappeared. I suspect the rising temperatures at the end of the morning were the cause (over about 15C) - someone once told me they are very sensitive to high temperatures and prefer the cooler conditions that are the norm at this time of year. It is great to see the whites flying in numbers at this time of year. They really liven up the early spring - Orange Tips (A. cardamines), Provence Orange Tips (A. euphenoides), Cleopatra (G. cleopatra), Brimstones (G. rhamni), Western Dappled Whites (E. crameri), Large Whites (P. brassicae), Small Whites (A. rapae) and the first Wood Whites (L. sinapis) plus a few others...

The number of Painted Ladies (C. cardui) was striking. They were a constant feature near the coast on 16th. Oddly the direction appeared to be NE rather than N as I would have thought would be normal. However, on reflection for these butterflies to arrive directly from the south would be a seriously long journey. Rather they will have arrived from Spain or Italy - Spain being the preferred option as they were flying from the SE.

I was very surprised not to find the Chapman's Green Hairstreak (C. avis) at my regular patch. It appears that is was already finished - I checked a good number of Green Hairstreaks (C.rubi) that are fond of sitting on the avis foodplant, the "Strawberry Tree" (Unedo arbutus). But to no avail. We then found a slightly more elevated area of maquis scrub and I found a single worn C. avis feeding avidly on the Provence Lavender - a real favourite for the Green Hairstreaks. To my amazement I found a stunning, freshly emerged Southern White Admiral (L. reducta) at the same place. I managed a few lovely photos of the underside of this super-fresh specimen.

More good news came in the form of the Provence Hairstreak (T. ballus). My site for this extremely local species appears to have survived another year. The limited cultivation that directly affected the best area for the species appears to have been abandoned. Interestingly both ballus and the Southern Festoon (Z. polyxena) were both greatly delocalised compared to all previous visits to this same habitat - this is, I suspect, how these local species stay alive with changing habitat preferences. I was then privileged to investigate another colony, some distance from my original site. Numbers here were low but the females were of stunning bright orange upper sides that show up so clearly in flight.

The Provence Orange Tip put on a good show with a mating pair hanging below the flower head of the foodplant with an egg already deposited on the young flowers - the larvae feed on the seed pods that develop after fertilisation. I was fascinated to see a male of this species fluttering low to the ground for no apparent reason. A closer look revealed the dismembered wings of a recently deceased Cleopatra. The pale yellow of these wings was indistinct against the surrounding yellows of the flowers and young greenish yellow herbage. Yet the male P Orange Tip had located the wings. I suspect this must be something beyond our normal vision - namely Ultra Violet tints that is known from the Gonepteryx genus.

29th April After a warm week 3 in April, the weather turned cool cloudy and wet last week. Some leaves are finally appearing on the trees but the season is still a long way behind the norm. A trip to our Chequered Blue (S. orion) site in Valais this afternoon produced just half a dozen species and perhaps only 20 butterflies in total, and no orion.

MAY

May continues to be mostly cold and dull here in Switzerland with the occasional day above 20C to remind us that spring is supposed to be here. So I did no butterfly trips until mid May

13th May A trip to our usual patch near Martigny in Valais produced better results than the last few disappointing visits. Spring flowers were out at last and there were butterflies to be seen despite the breeze. We found a lovely pair of mating Green Underside Blues (G. alexis). A wandering male Baton Blue (P. baton) was taking salts, this was the first individual we have found here. Glanville Fritillaries (M. cinxia) are in good numbers as were Adonis Blues (L. bellargus). Highlights were half a dozen Southern Small Whites (A. mannii), three Provencal Short Tailed Blues (E. alcetas) and dozens of Chequered Blues (S. orion). My friend Guy Padfield had managed a single de Prunner's Ringlet (E. triaria) before I joined up with him at the site.

At another site nearby we found the year's first Mountain Dappled Whites (E. simplonia). We usually find these at the end of April but not in this late season.

14th May I went solo for 3 days of intense butterflying in lieu of a week's holiday cancelled due to work. I was off early in the morning to drive down to the Spanish border. Here I found the gorgeous Spanish Fritillary (E. desfontainii), all in very good condition. Flying with them were Chequered Blues (S. orion) which were noticeably bluer than the dark butterflies of Switzerland. Unfortunately the weather closed in in mid afternoon which put an end to butterfly activities.

15th May Poor weather in the Pyrenees forced me back to my usual hunting grounds of Provence. This is no bad thing but after driving all that distance I had hoped to explore the Pyrenees Orientales for any other interesting things that might be down there. Anyway, back in Provence a strong colony of Iolas Blues (I. iolana) welcomed me. Finding the larval food plant is key to this species and it took me 45 minutes to locate the first plant, just a few dozen meters from my parked car, and then just seconds later I had found both sexes of iolana at the same place. More bushes produced more iolana. They were almost all worn and the flowering of the Colutea foodplant was nearly finished with many bladders already large and swolen. So I think the flight period is more likely best during the first week of May at this low level coastal colony. Painted Ladies (C. cardui) were pouring in off the sea during this time and taking nectar from the Red Valerian growing at the roadsides. Also flying here were the very smartly dressed Western Marbled Whites (M. occitanica) - infact these were common across S France during my 3 day trip - and a couple of Spanish Gatekeepers (P. bathseba) drifted through.

In the afternoon I moved to the foothills of the Massif de la Saint Baume. There were 30 species flying in this area including the lovely Yellow Banded Skipper (P. sidae), Marsh Fritillaries (E. aurinia), Western Dappled Whites (E. crameri) and Pearl Bordered Fritillaries (B. euphrosyne). There were even a few old Provence Orange Tips (A. euphenoides) still on the wing, although these were more common at higher levels where I moved to at the end of the day.

16th May Another favourite area in the Var produced some excellent butterflies as usual. Early in the morning I found two perfectly fresh Twin Spot Fritillaries (B. hecate), Provence Chalk Hill Blues (L. hispana), Purple Shot Coppers (L. alciphron) and Osiris Blues (C. osiris). But again the skies turned dark so I headed north for home heading for the promised rain storms.

However, the dull weather was localised and I found gorgeous skies as far north as Gap. So I stopped off and profited from a lovely hillside hosting a good colony of Portuguese Dappled Whites (E. tagis), already passed its best for this season. Lower down the hillside I found 4 lovely Iolas Blues (I. iolana) but could not locate any specimens of the foodplant so I was not able to photograph these lovely fresh individuals. A little later I checked the colony of Iolas Blues I found last year but here the Colutea were not yet in flower and there were no Iolas Blues to be found. I was lucky though with a stunning Eastern Wood White (L. duponcheli) that was flying nearby.

Back in Switzerland the weather was truly dreadful with very heavy rain, flashing of lightning and only temperatures hovering around 10 C.

20th May The rains have lessened but the temperatures haven't only improved marginally unto today.

27th May A quick visit to a local bog after the clouds parted and temperatures soared to 15C produced a single Violet Copper (L. helle) several Orange Tips (A. cardamines) and nothing else. It's just too cold!

28th May A hot day! Imagine that! A trip to the Valais to Visp produced excellent results with highlights being the Rosy Grizzled Skipper (P. onopordi), a very rare butterfly in Switzerland, and Olive Skipper (P. serratulae), a very rare butterfly in my personal records. Other highlights were very good numbers of de Prunner's Ringlet (E. triaria), the year's first Apollos (P. apollo), Northern Wall Brown (L. petropolitana) and an early Zephyr Blue (P. pylaon trappi). The latter butterfly may indicate that in the Valais the season is catching up towards normal, at least for some species.

31th May Cold weather is back with daily maximums hovering around the 10 to 12C level. Snow came down yesterday as low as 1000m so this will put the breaks on the season recovery!

JUNE

2nd June My parents arrived yesterday to cold cloudy wet weather. Today was a slight improvement but temperatures reached only 12 C. However the sun was on show so we went for a walk at my local Violet Copper (L. helle) site (see 27th May entry). Up here it was only 8 C so no butterflies found at all. The wind was also cutting so we retired down to the lake side and stayed indoors!

3rd June Warmer today, reaching 15 C down in the Valais. New life tick for my father - de Prunner's Ringlet (E. triaria). Very nice Sooty Coppers (L. tityrus) were flying with a few aging Duke of Burgundy Fritillaries (H. lucina). We returned to Vaud and to Guy Padfield's Violet Copper (L. helle) site, found the target to give my father his second lifer of the day. It was rather cold though and the butterflies weren't flying much so when they landed they were difficult to refind as we were struggling up and down the sodden slopes. Interestingly all the plants had been crushed by the week's snow giving the place an eerie dead feeling.

5th June ROMANIA. We arrived in bright sunshine on the 4th but drove directly into an immense thunderstorm which really set the scene for the coming week in the Transylvanian hills. It is a very long drive from Bucharest to the Cluj area - approximately 7 hours. Better to pay the difference in flights and fly directly to Cluj.

Today's weather was generally cool and overcast, temperatures hovering around 16 C. We managed a couple of short breaks in the cloud at two sites:

1) near Sibiu where we found a strong colony of Scarce Fritillaries (E. maturna). This gorgeous butterfly appears to be very dark in Romania compared to the French populations I know. Also nearby were a couple of stunning Large Coppers (L. dispar).

2) near Turda we found a couple of nice meadows and were blessed with one or two very short patches of sunshine. We found some rather worn Black Hairstreak (S. pruni). Chestnut Heaths (C. glycerion) were fairly common. Of particular interest was a colony of Knapweed Fritillaries - the undersides were particularly white and the unh marginal marks were strong and bold. This indicates possible Melitaea telona. This species is known from the Middle East and Turkey and recently confirmed from Hungary. It also appears to be present on Sicily. We found a female and passed this onto a fellow lepster - he now has an egg batch so we wait intently to confirm, hopefully, M. telona from Romania. The definitive features are found in the larvae. M. phoebe has larvae with black heads, larvae of the M. telona complex have brick red heads. UPDATE: 18th November - larvae from our female have black heads.

Our hotel was located in the middle of the hills - the local nature was excellent. We ate in the local restaurant - fully open to the elements we dined at temperatures hovering around 10 C with all our coats before hurrying back to bed to keep warm.

6th June We woke to a cloudless but very cold morning. Sadly by 8am the cloud was back with a vengence and we were limited to 20 minutes sunshine in the morning. We spent this in the hills around the hotel. Our 20 minutes of sun brought our gorgeous flowery limestone meadows to life. We were hoping to find Spinose Skipper, Muschampie cribrellum but the only Hesperiid we found was the Grizzled Skipper, Pyrgus malvae. We also found Nickerl's Fritillary, Mellicta aurelia. Clearly the small fritillaries were not Heath Fritillaries (M. athalia) being very dark. Identity was confirmed using Lafranchis's "Butterflies of Europe" genitalia drawings. Great to see a single perfect Eastern Baton blue, P. vicrama and some worn Eastern Short Tailed Blues, E. decoloratus. A hail storm put the end to our wanderings in these hills and then the rain started.

Fed up with the cold, cloud and rain we headed off east out of the hills and onto the plateau. Here it was noticeably warmer. Additionally the clouds were much less angry. We spent a lovely few hours walking the low hills and vineyards around Blaj. We found a single very fresh female Zephyr Blue, Plebejus pylaon seriphus, so very different from my Swiss butterflies of the subspecies trappi. The ssp. seriphus is notably smaller (in general) and the unh white marks are less striking. Our only Marbled Fritillary B. daphne was only just emerged and was flying amongst the vines.

7th June Again it was cloudy over the mountains but it was sunny over the planes. It stayed sunny for most of the day. It was hot to the point that when we left the area in mid afternoon most of the mud had dried! (Except in places of standing water such as the numerous puddles.) Good to see Large Coppers (L. dispar) along the edges of the mostly abandoned vineyards. There were more fresh Zephyr Blues here on dryer parts. Amongst the Safflower Skippers (P. carthami) that were scuttling across the dryer parts of the grassy flowery limestone hillside were two examples of our main target for the holiday: Spinose Skipper (M. cribrellum) plus two of the equally rare (in Romania) Tessellated Skippers (M. tessellum). They were freshly emerged except one which showed wear of a couple of days. They are actually marginally larger than the Safflower Skipper, which itself is one of the largest skippers. We were expecting this species to be found on the driest parts of the hillside but they were mostly found at the lower edge of the dry grassland frequenting the flowers growing in the damper meadows.

We drove back into thick black clouds in the mountains but searched one or two new meadows anyway. There were a few Geranium Argus (E. eumedon) sitting quietly on various flower heads apparently aware of the coming torrential downpour that was to last about 3 hours.

8th June We spent all morning driving round to the hills to the west of Cluj. But perpetual thick angry clouds prevented us enjoying the visit. So we returned towards our hotel. The clouds were breaking here so we returned to our Geranium Argus site of yesterday. We enjoyed about 1hour of hot humid nearly unbroken sunshine. Good numbers of Scarce Fritillaries (E. maturna) and Geranium Argus. Several Clouded Apollos (P. mnemosyne), Maps (A. levana), Duke of Burgundy Fritillaries (H. lucina) and Chequered Skippers (C. palaemon). Two events were particularly memorable: a successful return back up the meadows to search for my father's hat followed by an unsuccessful return for his dropped spectacles. This left him with just one lens out of two pairs of glasses - the remaining pair of specs had bizarrely shed a lens sometime during our first day. The second most memorable event was the discovery of a Fenton's Wood White (L. morsei). It showed very clear hooked wingtip and was much whiter than the common Wood Whites (L. sinapis and/or L. reali) with which it was flying. It was also marginally larger.

9th June A cloudy morning again but noticeable warmer than the usual cold start in the mountains. We took advantage of the impasse in weather by walking up the Turda gorge. A lovely wild place in limestone hills with interesting grassy flowery meadows all around and steep rock faces in the gorge itself. Some of the bridges crossing the river were rather rotten which added to the charm if not the safety of the experience.

The clouds started to thin out so we returned to the west of Cluj. Wonderful flowery hillsides but we didn't find anything new or of particular note. Of course the clouds were a perpetual threat but we did enjoy plenty of sunny spells.

10th June Dense thick clouds and a very cold morning greeted us again. It was our last day in the region but we simply couldn't face the prospect of waiting for a break in the clouds again so we left immediately for our return to Bucharest. We stopped in a few places on the return but didn't find a great deal of interest with one exception. Near the "nodding donkey" oil wells north of Pitesti we did find a few Common Gliders (N. sappho) but once again cloud built up at this site and we failed to see the butterfly again.

South of Bucharest we drove through some of the forests on the plains. Abundant Green Veined Whites (A. napi) were swarming around mud patches taking in salts. Otherwise the area was rather limited in butterflies. Back to Bucharest in time for a huge thunder storm to hit.

11th June A quick dash down to the Danube river near Giurgiu before the flight. We arrived just before we had to leave (it took longer than we expected). The river is trapped in a wide floodplain and due to the exceptional amount of rain the region had suffered recently the floodplain resembled a swamp. Impossible to penetrate the interesting looking meadows on isolated dry patches of slightly raised ground that could be seen through the trees. No Freyer's Purple Emperors (A. metis) for us! We nearly missed our flight back to Rome but luckily there was a 30 minute delay. Similarly for our connection at Rome but all ended well.

17th June An afternoon trip to a woodland outside Geneva produced very few species but a lot of butterflies. Principally we were interested in possible Poplar Admiral (L. populi) but were again frustrated. Weather conditions were very humid and lightly overcast which should be good for making tree top species descend to lower levels. However we were very well compensated by many many hundreds of White Admirals (L. camilla) and many dozens of Woodland Browns (L. achine).

18th June A day out in Valais with Guy Padfield. It was a hot morning but by early afternoon the clouds had covered the high peaks and begun descending to lower levels. In the morning we had over 30 species in one locality mid way along the Rhône Valley. It was good to see a few Southern Small Whites (A. mannii) and Bath Whites (P. daplidice), which are both apparently resident here. A single Ilex Hairstreak (S. ilicis) made an appearance but it was not photographable. Zephyr Blues (P. pylaon trappi) were fairly common and most were avidly taking salts from damp patches of mud. Southern White Admirals (L. reducta) are always lovely to see, particularly in Switzerland where it has only a very restricted range. Provencal Fritillaries (M. deione berisalii) were common, only a few Heath Fritillaries (M. athalia) amongst them. The huge Safflower Skipper (P. cartharmi) made fleeting passes, whipping over the dryest parts of the hillside, and from time to time visiting the damp mud patches with trappi.

At higher levels up a side valley we encountered the descending clouds. However, this didn't prevent Guy finding a life tick in the form of the Alpine Grayling (O. glacialis) which he failed to photograph as his camera failed at the very crucial moment. I did capture the moment with a photo of Guy and the butterfly, so we have a record of this important moment. de Prunner's Ringlet (E. triaria) was still flying up here at around 1600m altitude with numbers of Mountain Dappled Whites (E. simplonia). Surprisingly we also found a pair of Baton Blues (P. baton) which isn't often encountered in the Alps (by me at least).

24th June It was a relatively short trip to the Valais today. Just as last Sunday the clouds came in early in the afternoon, cutting the butterflying activity dramatically. I was looking for the Asian Fritillary (H. intermedia) this morning, it being reported from this area. I had no site information so it was with immense amazement and excitement that I found a single butterfly on my very first stop of the day. I thought I was going to be at the early end of the season as the butterfly isn't reported as flying until the end of June. Given that this season was very late in spring, and that this individual was already rather warn, I suspect mid or even early June is a more realistic flight time. I took a trip to the end of the valley at around 2000m. Up here the season was still not started.

At another spot I found at around mid day I found another pair of intermedia flying with some very fresh Cranberry Blues (V. optilete) and Alpine Graylings (O. glacialis). There were also very fresh Dusky Grizzled Skippers (P. cacaliaea) dashing around. There were also good numbers of Norther Wall Browns (L. petropolitana) on the wing plus the lovely dark Large Blue (M. arion) of the mountain variety obscura.

25th June I spent the morning in the western part of Vaud looking for damp meadows from which many of the Maculinea species are reported. I didn't find any Maculinea but I did find some nice meadows. I managed a new species for me in Switzerland - Pearly Heath (C. arcania).

JULY

1st July A very hot day, I drove down to the mountains near Chambery, France. I was very pleased to eventually find my target species, the Poplar Admiral (L. populi). Even more pleased that it was flying with the Woodland Brown (L. achine), White and Southern White Admirals (L. camilla and L. reducta) and Lesser Purple Emperor (A. ilia) in the same small streamside clearling. In summary populi is a truly special butterfly. Firstly it is enormous! I think it must be the biggest butterfly in Europe, certainly bigger than the Apollo and the Swallowtail (P. apollo, P. machaon). It is also very graceful in the air. It is a gigantic wing that hardly flaps yet rises and changes direction effortlessly. My photo-performing butterfly was sharing a stone in the middle of the stream with a male ilia. The ilia was dwarfed by the populi. Unfortunately the two were never on the stone together for more than a few seconds so I don't have a photo showing their relative sizes.

Nearby on a hot grassy hillside Great Banded and Woodland Graylings (B. circe and H. fagi) abounded, settling frequently on the hot road surface. Unfortunately this habit led to many road deaths. In the early morning I found the year's first Purple Hairstreak (Q. quercus) basking wings open in the sun. Unfortunately my photos of this beautiful insect did not come out.

In the afternoon I drove up to high levels (2000m) where the snow was just melting. Olive Skippers (P. serratulae) were making the most of the wet muddy melt water runoffs, sharing waterside slots with very fresh first Grizzled Skippers (P. malvae). Beautiful male and female Moorland Clouded Yellows (C. palaeno) quartered the grassy slopes and the first couple of Sudeten Ringlets (E. sudetica) evaded my camera.

2nd July I spent the day in the Jura with a fellow lepster Philippe Bricaire. He took me to some of the excellent sites he has found in this region for which I am very grateful. First off was a fairly low level Mountain Alcon Blue (M. rebeli) site. We were at 900m on a very dry grassy hillside. In this unlikely habitat we found a couple of Lesser Marbled Fritillaries which we both usually associate with damp meadows. Eventually we found rebeli in good number flying over a small patch of the meadow. The females avoided flying but failed to evade the relentless males that were flying in amongst the grasses looking for them. We found several mating pairs but failed to find the food plant. Finally Philippe found a female laying on one of only a handful of Gentians we managed to find. The small budding plant was covered in eggs - I wonder how the plant survives the kind of attack that the larvae would launch in due course!

Nearby on a Cranberry covered heathland was by far my lowest site for the Moorland Clouded Yellow (C. palaeno). We found a female laying on the Cranberry. Finally we moved onto a wet grassland area. Here we found hundreds of the very local and declining Large Heath (C. tullia). In the high temperatures they were very restless and photography was nearly impossible. Just as the rebeli were doing this morning, the females were resting deep down in the grasses to avoid the attention of the relentlessly searching males. We found a small patch of flowers in a sheltered area amongst a few bushes. This was a haven for butterflies with both tullia and the Chestnut Heath (C. glyerion) flying together. Most exciting and very unexpected were many dozens of Violet Coppers (L. helle). Many of the males were resting on surrounding trees and shrubs in some sort of territorial behaviour. Some of the helle were very fresh but most were aging - not surprising as I consider this to be very late for even the oldest examples to be on the wing. Thanks Philippe for a great day out!

8th July I visited the Zermatt region in the hope of stumbling across the very local Warren's Skipper (P. warrenensis). I arrived in the cloud. As I climbed up towards 2000m I could see the blue sky in patches through the swirling cloud. Suddenly at around 10:00 the cloud cleared and I was treated to a thoroughly fulfilling day in the mountains. First off were many dozens of Mountain Clouded Yellows (C. phicomone) which were settling nicely and allowing photographs in the post-cloud coolness. The Mountain Fritillary (B. napaea) was very common and flying with equally abundant Grisons Fritillary (M. varia). Small numbers of Shepherd's Fritillary (B. pales) were flying with napaea at higher levels.

In wetter places Dewy Ringlets (E. pandrose) (already mostly worn), Dusky and Alpine Grizzled Skippers (P. cacaliaea and P. andromedae) were concentrated plus a small number of Alpine Marsh Fritillary (E. aurinia debilis). At the highest level, around 2400m, I found a single spectacular Cynthia's Fritillary (E. cynthia) which posed for photos. Also here, amongst the screes were reasonable numbers of Alpine Grayling (O. glacialis).

The Lycaenids put on a very good show. I have some photos of puddling blues that contain 7 species! Highlights were very good numbers of Glandon Blue (P. glandon), Cranberry Blue (V. optilete) and Alpine Argus (A. orbitulus).

Near a stream I found good numbers of Warren's Skippers (P. warrenensis). I was sceptical about how different this species would appear in the flesh, but it was actually rather easy to pick out. Firstly it is rather small, certainly much smaller than the few Carline, Large Grizzled and Dusky Grizzled Skippers (P. carlinae, P. alveus, P. cacaliae) it was flying with. The forewings are noticeably narrow and the white markings are generally small but not inconspicuous. The upper hindwings are almost unmarked. The underside looks similar to the alveus. Above all it is the size that allows relatively easy identification. I was very close to getting a remarkable photograph of warrenensis resting on the ground right next to a Small Apollo (P. phoebus) but the both flew just as I took the photo.

A little lower down I found several Spotted Fritillaries (M. didyma) flying, improbably, with Silvery Argus (P. nicias), Large Blues (M. arion obscura) and Cranberry Blues (V. optilete).

Down at about 1000m I picked up a whole new set of butterflies including Meleager's Blue (M. daphnis), Ilex Hairstreak (S. ilicis), Southern White Admiral (L. reducta), Great Sooty Satyr (S. ferula) and a single early Rock Grayling (H. alcyone).

9th July Today I spent rather more locally. In the morning I visited nearby Bern to look for Dusky and Scarce Large Blues (M. nausithous and M. teleius). I was amazed to find both species flying commonly over the damp meadows amongst the bobbing purple globes of their larval food plant Great Burnet (Sanguisorb). They were predominantly males on show but the females generally flew much less. The males were patrolling amongst the Sanguisorb inspecting anything that might be a female, such as leaves or other butterflies. The females were trying to avoid the males.

I then returned home via a site I found last year. I was extraordinarily happy to find many dozens of individuals of the very rare Cranberry Fritillary (B. aquilonaris). The were flying very damp open woodland with a ground cover of Bilberry. There were relatively few females but those that were present showed the violet sheen common in the closely related Mountain Fritillary (B. napeae).

15th July A tremendous day in the Alps of the Valais. The sky was bright blue and temperatures high. Guy Padfield and I started high at around 2400m. Most impressive were the many dozens of Small Apollos (P. phoebus). Equally notable were the hundreds of Painted Ladies that were streaming south all day. Not a single individual was travelling in any other direction. Gorgeous glossy near-black Sooty Coppers (L. tityrus) were attracted to the large white Compositae. A single Silvery and several Alpine Argus (P. nicias and A. orbitulus) were attracted to the abundant flowers lining the side of the track. One perfect male orbitulus allowed some photos after very patient stalking.

A dozen Alpine Marsh Fritillaries (E. aurinia debilis) were offering cover to half a dozen worn Cynthia's Fritillaries (E. cynthia) amongst very common Shepherd's and even commoner Mountain Fritillaries (B. pales, B napaea). For the ringlets it was the Mnestra's (E. mnestra) that dominated the show, followed by Swiss Brassy and Dewy (E. tyndarus, E. pandrose). Large Ringlets (E. euryale) were also common which was surprising given that there were no trees or other cover which I normally associate with this species. Silky Ringlets (E. gorge) are always good to see and there were half a dozen on the wing today. We failed to find Sooty Ringlet (E. pluto) where we found them last year but this was compensated by an Alpine Grayling (O. glacialis) that I hadn't seen here since 1997.

The skippers put on a very poor show, only three species present but including the first Silver Spotted Skippers (H. comma) of the year.

Unfortunately I never completed my blog for 2006.