Note: Despite my good intentions, I have realised over the last two or three years that I cannot keep up with posting details and photos of all my various butterfly-hunting excursions, especially during the summer months. I have therefore decided to just post highlights of my trips - hence the new page title - leaving out many of the less interesting destinations and the more common butterflies. 

17th: After a very cold first 12 days of the month, the daytime temperatures are now a little higher (7-9°C) and on my local walk today I came across my first butterfly of the year - a Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae). Here is the location (photo). The butterfly was struggling to get out of the long, dry grass but, before I could lift my camera, it freed itself and then flew off down the hill and out of sight. So - no photo at all!
19th: Weather cold again with snow and rain. No butterflies.
13th: A very warm day today so I went out for an afternoon walk on my local hill. 6 butterflies seen  - 1 Small Tortoiseshell in a nearby vineyard (photo), 3 Large Tortoiseshells going up the gravel path (1 photo here) and 2 unknown butterflies which flew above my head just a couple of minutes from home. (Either Red Admirals or Large Tortoiseshells judging from their size and flight, but as the sun was behind them I couldn't see their colours)
25th: A few very warm days with temperatures going from 3°C up to 17°C. A couple of short walks brought sightings of 5 or 6 commas (photo), several Large Toroiseshells, a few Brimstones, this Small (?) White (photo), a Red Admiral, a Small Tortoiseshell, a Peacock (photo) and a Speckled Wood (photo) - all of which were seen in or near the local vineyards.
1st - 6th: We have treated ourselves to an organised trip to Jordan. Very lucky to get here at all with the geo-political chaos all around us, but everything very tranquil in Jordan itself. Travelled around a lot - to the Dead Sea and the River Jordan, then to Jerash 40km or so to the north of Amman and then over 300km south to the desert of Wadi Rum before returning via the Dead Sea to Amman. I was a little disappointed at the lack of butterflies around. I know it is early in the year and the wrong season for most of the species I have never seen before. However, in the Roman archeological site near Jerash (photo), as well as a single Painted Lady,  there were lots of different whites on the wing. Here is a Bath white (photo), a Green-striped White (photo) and a Dappled White of some kind (photo) (Eastern or Western - I have no idea). Near the River Jordan I caught a glimpse of a small Lycaenidae, but didn't get near enough to see it properly before it disappeared and in the desert there was another clearly blue Lycaenidae, but again it wasn't possible to get a photo or a clear view.
12th: Back in Trentino, northern Italy, with very warm weather for the time of year. Here is an Orange Tip (Anthocharis cardamines) (photo), a sure sign that spring is on the way. And another symbol of the spring season - a cherry tree in full blossom - with a Large Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis polychloros) feeding on it (photo)..
5th: I am spending a busy couple of weeks in southern Lazio. Last week was wet, windy and distinctly cold so there were very few butterflies on the wing. When the weather improved, in amongst the many olive groves I was pleased to find some Eastern Dappled Whites (Euchloe ausonia), which I had seen at different times over the last two years (rather poor photo here). The surrounding area had large rocks dotted everywhere with grassy meadows in between, covered in thousands of daisies (photo). Other butterflies seen were Orange Tips (photo) (the females of which are easily confused in flight with the Dappled Whites), Sooty Coppers (Lycaena tityrus) (photo) as well as Swallowtails (Papilio macchaon), Brimstones (Gonepteryx rhamni), Cleopatras (Gonepteryx cleopatra), Large Whites (Pieris brassicae), Green-veined Whites (Pieris napi), Walls (Lasiommata megera), Small Heaths (Coenonympha pamphilus),  Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta), and Green Hairstreaks. (Callophrys rubi),
25th: The highlight of this month was most definitely the 25th, when, after visiting several locations earlier in April, I finally found a Camberwell Beauty (Nymphalis antiopa) - still in fairly good condition after its long hibernation period. Here is the location (photo) near this stream (photo). I should say that the butterfly found me rather than the other way round, as it was a very hot day (29°C!) and after walking for an hour, I was rather sweaty and the butterfly came down from the trees, circled around me a couple of times and simply settled on my outstretched arm to feed (photo, photo). Over the next hour or so, it flew around, settling in various places, sometimes on logs (photo), sometimes on the trees, sometimes on my head and hand (photo) and once to drink from the wet rocks in the stream. Here is a photo showing its exact position in the middle of the stream and here is a close-up shot having carefully manouvred myself halfway across the stream - without falling in, for a change! (photo). A very pleasant early afternoon spent in the company of a lovely butterfly!
13th: A short break primarily to visit our daughter in Croatia but with an initial couple of days near the River Zyrmanja. No Dalmation Ringlets or Yellow-banded Skippers as there were two years ago, but a very lucky find after a spur-of-the moment stop as we were returning to the campsite - a Millet Skipper (Pelopidas thrax)(photo)(photo), a new sighting for me - much further north than I would have expected. Near the campsite in a grassy meadow was this Hungarian Skipper (Spialia orbifer) (photo) ... or is it a Red-underwing Skipper (Spialia sertotius)? Unfortunately I didn't get an underside photo. A few kilometres north in a dryish, stony, grassy meadow were a few Marsh Fritillaries (Eurodryas aurinia) (photo) and in a wetter flowery meadow a Southern Festoon (Zerynthia polyxena)(photo).
20th:  I also made a special journey to a marshy area not far from Zagreb to look for two species - the first a Purple-shot Copper, which I thought might already be flying - and the second a butterfly which had eluded me last year when I went to Piemonte - a Scarce Fritillary (Euphydryas maturna). The first site was here (photo) - a very pleasant walk along the grassy banks of the ditch (photo) with sightings of Sooty Coppers (photo), Small Heaths, various Fritillaries and one single Large Copper but no sign of any Purple Shot Coppers. I then had a very frustrating car journey when, having driven along forest dirt-tracks for several, endless kilometres, I came to a sign, just 8 minutes from my second destination, which indicated that the bridge ahead was closed (unsafe). At that moment my mobile phone ran out of power with me consequently getting lost in the marshes and spending nearly an hour getting to the area where I wanted to be. It was well worth the effort, however, because I found the butterfly I was looking for quite quickly and spent a good 45 minutes in its company. Like in April with the Camberwell Beauty, the Scarce Fritillary found me, so to speak, by suddenly appearing around my feet, constantly fluttering at ground level looking for damp patches of earth to settle and feed on. Here is the location (photo) and here are some photos of the butterfly (photo, photo, photo). A passing car finally disturbed the butterfly so I decided to walk further along the forest road in case there were other butterflies around. Here is a Large Copper (Lycaena dispar)(photo), a Knapweed Fritillary (Melitaea phoebe)(photo), a Common Glider (Neptis sappho) (photo) and here are two more photos of another Scarce Fritillary flying (and occasionally settling) along the forest track (photo, photo).
9th: Today while my wife was on a shopping trip to Brescia, I ventured into the valleys to the north of the city to see what I could find. I had visited this paarticular one at the beginning of July last year and it had proved interesting then with numerous sightings of Large Chequered Skippers. Today, among the more common butterflies on the wing, it was great to find a White Admiral (Limenitis camilla) (photo), a number of Woodland Browns (Lopinga achine)(photo) a Southern White Admiral (Limenitis reducta)(photo) and a Lesser Purple Emperor (Apatura ilia) (photo).Here is a shot of the last two feeding from the ground together with a comma (Polygonia c-album) (photo). Just before taking this photo, there was also a Large Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis polychloros) with them.
18th: A new species for this site today! Taking my butterfly enthusiast friend's advice, I drove to a location on a fairly nearby mountain especially to photograph the Sloe Hairstreak (Satyrium acaciae) - a species I had never found before. There were plenty of them just where my friend said they would be. So, here are some photos (photo, photo, photo).
24th - 25th: My first trip to a higher-altitude location this year and lots of new species for the season seen and noted. (For a full list, please look at my year list for 2026.) Unfortunately, a major problem on my camera (my fault entirely) ruined some of the potentially fantastic photos of the alpine butterflies I saw. Let's start with some of the scenery: (photo) (photo) (photo) - beautiful, as I'm sure you'll agree. Some of the butterfly species are here, several taken with my mobile phone: a Cranberry Blue (photo), an Alpine Blue (Plebejus obitulus)(photo), a Large Blue (Phengaris arion) (photo), a Moorland Clouded Yellow (photo), a Small Pearl-Bordered Fritillary (photo), and a mating couple of Titania's Fritillaries (photo). What a pity about the photos of the beautifully-fresh Grisons Fritillary, the (for once) patient photogenic Shepherd's Fritillaries and the hundreds (yes, hundreds!) of Mazarine and Alpine Blues encountered all puddling together on the path up to 2,387m asl - to name only a few! ... Maybe next year...!
3rd-6th: The highlight of the beginning of the month was definitely IncontrALI - a 3-day conference including daytime field trips and evening moth-hunting sessions, organised by the Associazione Lepidotterologica Italiana) - this year in Capracotta in Molise. I and my wife had an extremely interesting, informative and thoroughly enjoyable 3 days spent with other butterfly enthusiasts and many really experienced experts. Although the weather wasn't the kindest to us, being windy and quite cool for the time of year (the day before there had been heavy rain and storms over much of central Italy), on our daytime and evening excursions, collectively we managed to record a great number of species. New for me was Escher's Marbled White (Melanargia russiae) (photo)(photo) with the photos being taken in this meadow at about 1,500m asl (photo) on our 2nd day excursion. Another two species that I was particularly pleased to see again were the Osiris Blue (Cupido osiris)(photo) and the Purple-shot Copper (Lycaena alciphron)(photo) - although both butterflies looked distinctly worse for wear. The last day of the conference involved a day-trip to Monte Gallinola in the Parco Nazionale Matese (photo, photo). Again, there were lots of  butterflies with the most common being Niobe Fritillaries (Argynnis niobe) (photo), which were everywhere. However, my favourite photo is of this Purpled-edged Copper (Lycaena hippothoe) (photo)(photo). It was the first time I had been to the Molise region of Italy but, after this very positive introduction to the area, I definitely intend to return there again.
10th and 22nd: In Lazio. Sightings of Purple Hairstreak (Favonius quercus), as usual high in the trees and not easy to photograph, (photo feeding on a fig), Cleopatra (Gonepteryx cleopatra)(photo), one of many on the wing, Southern Gatekeeper (Pyronia cecilia)(photo)- many around - and Meleager's Blue (Polyommatus daphnis) (photo female)(photo male), now a regular presence in July at this location (photo).
12th: To find a Turquoise Blue (Polyommatus dorylus) this year I had to travel further inland towards the centre of Italy to a high mountain just inside the Lazio region. There were a few flying in a couple of locations that I visited. Here are a couple of photos of the butterfly (photo, photo) and one of the stony and dry, main location at 1,800m asl (photo).Also seen were several Arran Browns (Erebia ligea) (photo) and Chalkhill Blues (Polyommatus coridon) (photo) among many others.
Furry Blue Hipparchia , Monte Campo