Blog 2018 about butterfly photography by Johannes van Donge

Summer holidays 2018

This year the summer holidays fell quite late, so we went to Italy by car at the beginning of August. I actually think this is a bit late for butterflies. And so I didn't spend that much time looking for butterflies. The only species I had planned to look for in advance was the Erebia neoridas - Autumn Ringlet.

When during our holiday we came near a place where I knew the Erebia neoridas - Autumn Ringlet should fly, we stopped for a nice long walk. The four of us went into the mountains in our slippers. It was very warm and sunny which made all the butterflies very busy, but luckily some low clouds arrived at some point.

My daughters, Italy 2018

When it started to cool down a bit I was finally able to take a photo. Nothing special at all unfortunately, but it is always nice to encounter a new butterfly species.

Erebia neoridas - Autumn Ringlet

A few days later we are swimming at a small stream and my daughters walk up with a dragonfly that they have fished out of the water. It turns out to be a Cordulegaster bidentata - Sombre goldenring. We place the dragonfly on a wall so that it can dry and warm up a bit. Once I have taken a handful of photos, the dragonfly flies away again.

Cordulegaster bidentata - Sombre goldenring

After that I don't plan to take any more pictures, but when we arrive at a bed and breakfast where several Cacyreus marshalli - Geranium Bronze are flying around, I have to grab my camera. In the end I think it is a very nice picture with the Geraniums in the background.

Cacyreus marshalli - Geranium Bronze

Tour Germany

On June 8, after lunch I started a short trip, with the aim of photographing the Colias palaeno - Moorland Clouded Yellow in southern Germany. Before I crossed the border, I spent a few hours looking for the Apatura iris - Purple Emperor.

It was quite cloudy this afternoon, but every now and then the sun managed to break through. When the sun came out after an hour of searching, the first Apatura iris - Purple Emperor floated down to sit and drink on the path. I was eventually able to find three of these butterflies quite easily and photograph them. In the end, I think these were the best photos of the entire trip…

Apatura iris - Purple Emperor

Eventually the air closed again and it became a bit cooler, so the butterflies disappeared again and I could continue my journey. My next stop was the Eifel with the intention of finding the Melitaea aurelia - Nickerl's Fritillary. Once you arrive at your destination, the sun has almost set. Still, I can find the first 10 copies fairly easily without any difficulty and I also take some photos.

If it really gets too dark, it's time for some food and finding a place to sleep. The latter in particular didn't go well, and I ended up parking my car somewhere on a forest path where I tried to sleep alone.

After a somewhat restless night, I drive back to the fritillaries in the dark. It is very cloudy, and it doesn't look like the weather is going to get much better today. When there is enough light, I photograph a handful of butterflies, and not too much later I drive further towards the south of Germany

Melitaea aurelia - Nickerl's Fritillary

The trip is going well and at the end of the afternoon I will probably look for Maculinea teleius - Scarce Large Blue that must also be found in this area. After a beautiful walk, I find piles of Melitaea diamina - False Heath Fritillary and also several Maculinea teleius - Scarce Large Blue. It's already starting to get dark, so I remember the places where the most butterflies are and go there first the next morning. Then look for a place to sleep. Because I'm already a bit tired from the previous night, I try to find a hotel, but due to a wedding, most of the areas in the immediate area are full and I end up back in my car. And as if that wasn't bad enough, it also starts to rain. Still, I fall asleep for a while, but around 1 a.m. I am startled awake by a thunderstorm, which now turns out to be a real storm.

After another night of barely sleeping, we headed towards the butterflies again in the morning. As expected after this weather, there is actually nothing left to find, but fortunately it has cleared up nicely. After a long search I manage to find some butterflies, and at just the right time I find the first Maculinea nausithous - Dusky Large Blue.

Maculinea nausithous - Dusky Large Blue

Fifteen minutes later it is already quite warm again and everything starts to crawl out of the grass and fly around happily again. To my surprise, a Peat Haybee comes to sit on a Pimpernel flower right next to me and for the first time I can take a photo of it quietly. Not a beautiful picture, but a nice sharp photo of a butterfly that is difficult to photograph.

Coenonympha tullia - Large Heath

Spend the rest of the day searching the area. On a certain stretch I eventually find about 3 Colias palaeno - Moorland Clouded Yellow, but they keep flying non-stop. At first I doubt whether I will come back the next day to see if these butterflies can be found sleeping, but because that chance is so small, I gradually head back to the Netherlands at the end of the day. I stop here and there and take a few more pictures, but unfortunately I couldn't take more of it.

Finally back home on time.

Coppers

At the beginning of May, the whole family went to the Belgian Ardennes for a weekend with our tent. The weather was nice and the children had time off, so that was a great reason to go out. As far as butterflies are concerned, it is still a bit early, but this year the Blue Fire Butterflies were also very early and so I gave it another try, like almost every year. This time I am less enthusiastic about the result, but it is always wonderful to see these butterflies flying around you.

Lycaena helle - Violet Copper

A week later I went to the Veluwe looking for the Lycaena tityrus - Sooty Copper. Also a beautiful butterfly that I had not taken a good photo of for a long time. Fortunately I managed to find a beautiful fresh female of which I initially took pictures with the wings closed. Then we decided to wait until the wings would open. As we often do, the butterfly flew away before the photo was taken, but because of the temperature it was easy to follow the creature. She soon ended up on a blade of grass and sat down to warm up in the first light of the sun. As far as I'm concerned, it's a lovely picture, with beautiful warm colours.

Lycaena tityrus - Sooty Copper

Spring in Spain

At the beginning of April I drove to northern Spain with my father-in-law for a long weekend. I really wanted to take some better pictures of the Euchloe bazae - Greenish Black-tip and the Callophrys avis - Chapman's Green Hairstreak. I also tried to photograph the Euchloe bazae - Greenish Black-tip last year, but it was very disappointing. This butterfly lives in a kind of moon/dune landscape, where it flies around like crazy.

The first day we don't see much more day of rain, rain and more rain. We drive through the entire Pyrenees, but there is no point in stopping somewhere to look for butterflies in this weather. After a somewhat disappointing first day, we go to a more southern location the next day. When we arrived at the place where I hoped to find the Euchloe bazae - Greenish Black-tip, the weather was still a bit disappointing, a lot of clouds and just a bit on the cold side. After walking around for hours I hadn't seen a single butterfly. At the end of the afternoon the clouds seemed to break up a bit and I decided to wait and see if it would get a bit warmer. Fortunately this was the case and soon I saw the first butterflies flying. Due to the changeable weather, I managed to take some nice photos of this species and I was able to continue driving happily at the end of the day.

Euchloe bazae - Greenish Black-tip

The next day the intention was to look for the Callophrys avis - Chapman's Green Hairstreak in the north-east of Spain. Here I spent the day following every greenhorn I came across to see if he might have a brown head. The hairs on the head of this butterfly are the only difference from the common Green butterfly. About 100 Groentje later I still hadn't found the right animal. When I decide to walk up and down a path again before we leave, I see a slightly browner greenie sitting there. After I was able to get a little closer, this indeed turned out to be the Callophrys avis - Chapman's Green Hairstreak. As is often the case, I don't take the best photo, but it is a lot better than I already had.

Callophrys avis - Chapman's Green Hairstreak

After this I'm tired and done. We decide to drive a bit towards the Netherlands so that it won't be too long a drive the next day.