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Hi all,

I'm trying to work out where to go on holiday next year in Europe. Unlike those of you who have seen every Europeann butterfly going - and are now on to the smaller and rarer species to make up your final album - I am still trying to see and photograph some of the larger and 'prettier' (for want of a better word) butterfly species. I'm a glutton for a good photograph of a beautiful butterfly. Who isn't? At least I managed to photograph the Two-Tailed Pasha and Monarch this year. Phew!

My list of 'top' target species for next year: Lesser Purple Emperor, Poplar Admiral and Apollo.

Camberwell Beauties & Large Tortoiseshells would be a bonus, as would some of the European Coppers such as Sooty, Purple-shot, Lesser and Large Copper.

I'm thinking currently of going to Bulgaria in early July, as I saw the trip report by Peter Eeles which was very impressive; however, my wife still wants to go to the Dolomites in Italy, and we have been to France several times (we love the country) and I know some of the target species could be seen there - maybe the French Alps would be a good idea. I suppose we could always kill the piggy-bank and do an earlier trip to Europe

Any suggestions as to good locations - and best time to go?

Michael

N.B. going the first week in July means I can still try and see some of the best British species too...

LOL! I've been pontificating over much the same thing (only I am determined for it to be France - the only question is where exactly).

I have a very close Czech friend who lives in Prague and when I told her about my interest in butterflies she said "you should come to Czech mountains, there are thousands of them...)

One day I will.

David M wrote:"you should come to Czech mountains, there are thousands of them...) One day I will.

David,
there's too many nice places to go - and that's just in Europe...winning the lottery would be a good start...
Michael

Timing is everything, and first week in July hits most species.... but probably not Large Tort and Camberwell Beauty. Poplar Admiral seems to be rather an elusive thing in Western Europe at least...... if you look at the distribution guide in Collins the highest number of species seem to be in Alpine regions, and I can at least vouch for the French Alps. You can't really go wrong!!

A couple of years back I went to a place called Les Angles in the French Pyrenees, good combination of meadowland species, and more mountainous stuff... try looking at it on Google Earth, you will see the general layout... commonest Frit was Lesser Marbled, but also found Niobe, QoS, Heath & False Heath. Coppers incuded Purple shot, Purple Edged and Scarce, Blues... Amandas, Mazarine and Silver Studs, with Piedmont, De Prunner's, Large, Common Brassy and Bright Eyed Ringlets. Found Apollos eventually as well. If your interested - see blog.php?u=1281&b=225

This sort of selection is typical of many areas of rural Europe, and great fun to discover.

Hi Michael

Have you had a look at this site http://www.eurobutterflies.com/ it might help you decide on where to go.

Cheers

Paul

Paul wrote:Timing is everything, and first week in July hits most species.... but probably not Large Tort and Camberwell Beauty.

Large Tortoiseshell has specific life cycle: It can be found most easily on spring and it is on of the first spring butterflies (this year I have snapped more them from April 1st), last year from April 2nd. It occurs during in the sunny days in tne first half of April near me, when the temperature gets over 20º C on the clearings, margins and sunny forest roads in broadleaved forests. Butterflies are matting on the spring and during April (near me) or May (in the colder areas) vanish. Fresh butterflies can be overtaken in July (last year I have snapped one of them on July 18th). They fly about one week, find a place for hide and in July hibernate to the next spring. This is butterfly with the longest time of hibernation (among our ones).

Camberwell Beauty is possible to be found both on the spring and on the summer, it isn't rare near me and it rather find you. If you entry to its teritory, it will surely come to see the intruder, it will follow you, fly away and return to you and maybe sit to your cap (or nose).

Lesser Purple Emperor is more common than Purple Empreror near me and it can be seen from June to July.

Poplar Admiral maybe occurs here but I haven't see it yet. Maybe I don't know how to find it.

Apollo occurs in the only one locality in the Czech Republic where it was reintroduced from Slovakia after it extinct.

Sooty Coppers are maybe the most common coppers (maybe besides Purple-edged Copper) here.

Large Copper is quite common near me and I tend to prepare the conditions for its reproduction in my garden (there is enough of the Bloody Dock and I seed nectaring plants). The most western find of Large Copper (Lycaena dispar rutilus) in the Czech Republic is probably the eastern suburb of Hradec Králové but it is continuously spreading to the north and to the west.

I haven't seen Purple-shot Copper yet.

Paul Wetton wrote:Have you had a look at this site http://www.eurobutterflies.com/ it might help you decide on where to go. Cheers Paul

Hi Paul,
I knew the site but I'm not sure that it'll help me much - in the sense that if it doesn't have a very particular area for the species I could still be a long way from finding a target. However, the links page is good and now I'm reminded of it I will have a closer look...so thanks...
Michael

traplican wrote:Camberwell Beauty is possible to be found both on the spring and on the summer, it isn't rare near me and it rather find you. If you entry to its teritory, it will surely come to see the intruder, it will follow you, fly away and return to you and maybe sit to your cap (or nose).

Lesser Purple Emperor is more common than Purple Empreror near me and it can be seen from June to July.

Traplican,
thank you very much for the extensive detail regarding your local species, especially the life-cycle of the Large Tortoiseshell. I didn't realise they went into hibernation so early. If I can possibly do two trips I now know that I must 'pick your brain' regarding finding the Lesser Purple Emperor and the Camberwell Beauty. I have only seen the Camberwell Beauty as bred captives, but it is a beautiful butterfly and I would love to photograph it in it's natural habitat.

If you could PM me some of the localities of these species, that would be useful to look at. Many Thanks,
Michael

Paul wrote:A couple of years back I went to a place called Les Angles in the French Pyrenees

Paul,
thanks for that - I did look at the blog, and I am both jealous and amazed at the photos and the species you saw. I did once go on holiday near Saint Laurent de Cerdanes - my wife (good navigator that she is) tells me we weren't that far away. Unfortunately we didn't do much butterfly hunting (we did a bit of golfing and some walking) - but as you know with butterflies the devil is in the detail. I would be very grateful if you could PM me (or post here, if you're happy to) some of the destinations which were the best locations for the butterflies in the French Pyrenees. I will have another look at the blog as the info may be contained there anyway.

I often find going abroad that it's not so much working out which country to go to, it's finding out where exactly to go. Britain is the same - which is why the map references on the sites / butterfly map pages is such a good section of this website. Regarding going abroad, for example, a year or so back we went to Switzerland, to Vitznau which is near Lake Luzerne (some of the pages on my website). Although we did see butterflies, we must have lost several days trying to find good walks, or finding out that some walks were poor for either wild meadows or the butterflies themselves. Admittedly in temperate countries you may loose days to overcast or rainy weather too. I am trying to avoid the same scenario of having to loose days looking for the specific sites when going abroad next year...hence trying to plunder brains of the good folks here!

Michael

The Pyrenees are an obvious place to consider.

When I was living in France (in Toulouse) I went to a wedding in Foix in the foothills of the Pyrenees. This event was in mid-July and as I drove the 60 or so mile route I was absolutely amazed to see the landscape go from parched brown and relatively flat to lush green and hilly within the space of less than 10 miles. The houses suddenly reminded me of those you often encounter in Scotland, made from stone rather than brick and looking far readier to oppose the elements than their counterparts a few hundred metres lower down.

Watch out for bears though - whilst I was studying there, the French government took delivery of 6 Serbian bears which they released to roam wild in the Pyrenees. Apparently, the indigenous bears had been decimated through shootings by locals so severely that the govt reckoned there was justification for importing ones from abroad.

Similarly, if you stay in Perpignan, not only have you the benefits of being in a Mediterranean coastal resort but within minutes you can successfully drive up pretty high peaks and all of a sudden you're surrounded by lush, verdant terrain (check out a village called Collioure if you really want to see heaven on earth).

Ah, yes. coincidence... we spent our second week in Colliure, after being in Les Angles ( good triangle with Perpignan) .... Southern White Admirals, False Ilex Hairstreaks, swallowtails, Striped Grayling, Dusky Heath, Spanish and Southern Gatekeepers, Lang's STBs, Ger Bronzes, Provencal Frits ..... some good sites around there too.... before I went there I Google Earthed the whole area and printed out maps of interesting looking hillsides... cuts down searching time, as you can work out access etc
Collioure