3rd: Happy New Year! A mild sunny afternoon and the first butterfly of 2025 - a Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta). The view from the path, above where I saw the butterfly is here (photo). In addition, a bit further on during my short walk, a Humming-Bird Hawkmoth buzzed over my head and settled for a few seconds on the stone wall here (photo)(photo).
13th: We continue to have fairly cold nights  (around -2 - 0°C ), but warm sunny afternoons (7 - 9°C) and unsurprisingly the occasional Red Admiral can be found during the warmer part of the day. Today, one flew by me in this vineyard near my house (photo). Sorry, no photo of the Red Admirals - the didn't stop for a photo shoot! Last picture of one, however, was two weeks ago (December 30th 2024) in the middle of Venice (See excursion notes 2024 for the photo)
27th: We are in southern Lazio and the winter climate is generally much milder and more temperate than where we live in the north of the country. So ... a lot of warm, sunny days, a fair amount of rain, including some thunderstorms and really heavy rain and many grey, cloudy days too. The first butterflies I saw were in Terracina on the coast - a Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera), a Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) and a Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui), taken just outside the walls of the old town on the hill (photo)
30th: A walk on Monte Circeo and on and alongside the stony track were the same species of butterfly as three days ago. Here a Wall Brown (photo), a Painted lady (photo), and a Red Admiral (photo) just near the summit of the mountain. Beautiful views (photo, photo) and great exercise walking up to the top but the cool temperatures and hazy sunshine did not make for an ideal day for butterfly-hunting.
21st: Back in Trentino and it's obvious that spring is nearly here because a Brimstone (Gonepteyrx rhamni) flew into the garden. 
2nd: Today at lunchtime I went for a two-hour walk on my local hill towards the neighbouring village. This is a view of the path I set out on (photo) and one from it (photo). It was a beautiful day and, as expected, there were several species of butterfly flying - 4 Large Tortoiseshells (Nymphalis polychloros), 3 or 4 Green-veined Whites (Pieris napi) (photo), 1 Small White (Pieris rapae)(photo), 1 Wall Brown  (Lasiommata megera) (photo), 2 Brimstones (Gonepteryx rhamni) and 2 Nettle-tree butterflies (Libythea celtis) (photo). 
3rd: I went on a similar-length lunchtime walk again today but this time in a lateral valley much shadier than here in the main valley. (10 minutes after this photo was taken, the sun disappeared behind the mountain) There were very few flowers around and unsurprisingly not so many butterflies on the wing - only 3 species: 1 or 2 Brimstones, new for the year a Small Tortoiseshell resting on a sunny stone wall (photo), and 2 Large Tortoiseshells (a photo of one of them here - Interesting how at this time every year, vineyards and, more specifically, the concrete supports to the grapevines are often the protogonists of my photos.) Anyway, to end on a more positive note, to make up for the shortage of butterflies there were scores of Light Orange Underwing moths (Boudinotiana notha) flying around everywhere (photo).,
4th: Today on a hill on the sunny side of the main valley (photo) I saw 4 Large Tortoiseshells (Nymphalis polychloros), 1 Nettle-tree butterfly (Libythea celtis)(photo), 2 Brimstones (Gonepteryx rhamni), 1 Green-veined White (Pieris napi), 2 Small Tortoiseshells (Aglais urticae), 2 Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta) and 1 Comma (Polygonia c-album)(resting on the upper part of this wooden fence - photo).
5th: What beautiful weather we are having at the moment, as you can see from this photo of the lake near Levico (with temperatures way above the average for this time of year)! One new butterfly for 2025 today, seen along the path by the lake - a Peacock (Aglais io)(photo) - and also a better photo of a  Comma butterfly (Polygonia c-album). Also observed flying were 4 Large Tortoiseshells, 1 Green-veined White, 1 Brimstone and 2 Small Tortoiseshells.
8th: Here are some photos on a footpath near a local lake (photo). And here is the Large Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis polychloros) seen on the rock in the previous photo on some heather (photo).
10th - 17th: The middle of this month was characterised by lots of rain (causing more floods in certain parts of Italy) and some snow on the mountains above about 1,600m.  There was no point in going out for any butterfly excursions.
19th: Up on the local hill, there are not many flowers out yet, but spring is definitely on the way (photo). Here is a beetle I found crawling through the grass (photo) and here is a Green-veined White (Pieris napi)(photo).
20th: Although the air is still cold early mornings and evenings and temperatures are a little below the average, it's generally drier and sunnier and the springtime butterfly species are starting to appear. I've only had time and inclination for a few short trips out locally. Seen today at the bottom of the valley - new for the year - were Orange Tips (Anthocharis cardamines), Clouded Yellows (Colias Croceus), a single Mallow Skipper (Carcharodes alceae)(photo), a Small Copper (Lycaena phlaes)(photo), a Brown Argus (Aricia agestis)(photo) and a Nettle-tree butterfly (Libythea celtis) (photo). Here is the path by the vineyards near my house (photo) and here is a photo looking in the opposite direction towards the higher mountain at the back of the village.
30th: As it was a warm sunny day today, I went for a walk along a local stream (photo)where I hoped I might some some early Camberwell Beauties (Nymphalis antiopa). No such luck but pleanty of other butterflies - about 20 Brimstones, 3 or 4 Orange Tips, 6 or 7 Green-veined Whites, 7 Commas, 4 Large Tortoiseshells, 2 Red Admirals, an unidentified, small, light-coloured Blue and - new for the year -  a Green Hairstreak (Callophrys rubi)(photo) and a Wood White  (Leptidea sinapis)(photo).  On returnng home by the vineyard along the road I photographed this Provençal Short-Tailed Blue (Cupido alcetas) (photo, photo), presumably the same species as the one I saw by the stream a little earlier.
3rd: Twelve months ago I had planned to drive over the mountains to the neighbouring region of Veneto to look for the Southern Festoon (Xerynthia polyxena), but due to 4 closed mountain passes I had to give up my trip and did an excursion closer to home. Today was a warm, sunny day and the main mountain road was open, so, not being in any particular hurry, I set off at about 10am. I stopped once on the way near here (photo) where I took this photo of a Nettle Tree butterfly (Libythea celtis). I arrived at my destination on a south-facing hillside at about 11.30. I was pretty confident about finding the species in this area because it had been photographed here by a friend last year and the year before more or less on the same dates in April. However, after over 2 hours walking through grassy meadows and across wooded gullies (photo) (photo), I was beginning to lose hope. Seeing a couple of new species for the year cheered me up, however. Here is a Weaver's Fritillary (Boloria dia)(photo, photo) and a Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus malvoides) (photo). Walking back the way I had come across a particularly dry meadow, the first of two Southern Festoons finally appeared. Neither settled very often, but continued to fly up and down the meadow in and out of the young trees there, but with patience I did manage to get some photos. (photo of upperside) (photo of underside). Returning to my car, my thoughts were on how few Festoons I had seen in an area where I had thought they were more abundant. However, literally two metres away from where I had parked there was a small patch of dried grass dotted with young, bare trees (photo) and flying there were 2 more Southern Festoons. Maybe they aren't so uncommon, after all! I forgot to mention this Duke of Burgundy Fritillary(Hamearis lucina) (photo), which I had come across just before I got back to my car. A good day out!
9th: Early April: This is the time of year when "blue family" butterflies start emerging - the Lycaenidae family. Here is a Provençal Short-tailed Blue (Cupido alcetas) (photo) and a Chequered Blue (Scolitantides orion)(photo of upperside)(photo of underside), taken locally on the 9th of the month, a Short-tailed Blue (Cupido argiades)(photo), three Common Blues (Polyommatus icarus) (photo)(photo)(photo on dandelions) and a Brown Argus (Aricia agestis)(photo), taken 9/10 days later. (Heavy rain for 5 days or so prevented me from going out in the intervening period). Also seen during these three excursions were 5 or 6 Painted Ladies (Vanessa cardui) (photo), this Common Heath moth (Ematurga atomaria) (photo) - very common at the moment - and this lovely fungus (photo) growing from a broken tree trunk.