I went back to Italy this morning, hoping to get better pictures of nettle tree butterfly and also intending to scout for southern festoon. I don't think it's recorded from that region but it's just about in range and there's always hope.
There wasn't much hope today, though. The forecast of mostly sunny was sort of correct, in the sense that the sky was mostly blue, but the few clouds there were covered the sun almost the whole time. Everything was lurking, waiting, often by the track, so I kept putting things up, but very little was flying. In the few sunny intervals everything got up, but these never lasted.
Nevertheless, I saw certainly over 100 large tortoiseshells. They were simply everywhere - on the track ahead of me, gliding around the trees even when it was cloudy, zooming up in pairs and threes from either side as I walked and generally omnipresent. Here are three individuals - no longer the brilliant, pristine individuals of some weeks ago ...
The other constant companion was green hairstreak.
That numbered dozens, rather than hundreds, mainly because it was slightly more local. I thought I was going to get a series of very interesting shots at one point, when I spotted a little
ménage à trois, but a
quatrième arrived and put them all up.
Nettle tree butterflies were also lying in wait near the path during the cloudy times - and they were simply impossible to spot. Here's one I saw land among leaves and then simply couldn't find when I got there. I took a shot of where I thought it was, just out of interest, and it is there, unconcealed, in the photo - but I'm damned if I could see it in real life:
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2014/celtis29march2014a.jpg)
(it's not even hidden - when you see it you won't be able not to see it)
As soon as the sun appeared, the nettle tree butterflies materialised and flew into the nettle trees - then before I could get any decent pictures the sun would go in again! Here are the best of the few I got:
Firsts for the year were a few chequered blues, three swallowtails and a single wall. Here is one of the chequered blues:
I took few photos worth posting, but here are a peacock, a small copper and a grizzled skipper:
The view:
The full species list for the morning (I was on the site from 11h00 till 14h00):
Swallowtail, small white, green-veined white, eastern Bath white, orange tip, brimstone, wood white, small copper, green hairstreak, chequered blue, nettle tree butterfly, red admiral, peacock, large tortoiseshell, Camberwell beauty, small tortoiseshell, comma, Queen of Spain, wall.
Guy