Return to The Dolomites.

 In early July I co-leaded another wonderful butterfly tour to the Dolomites with Naturetrek. This was my 3rd time on this trip, and as ever, it was a fabulous experience being in such a wonderful part of the World. Every day there were superb landscapes and some stunning wildlife to admire.

The hotel we use is also set in a stunning area, with some of the best meals around, being attached to a Michelin star restaurant that uses the same chef for the small family run hotel.

The morning view from my room!!

The Hotel.

As it was, the weather during the early part of the year in the Dolomites was just as mixed as in the UK, with wet cool conditions that had pushed the butterfly season back a little bit. We did see several species that we would have expected to have finished, but it also meant we missed a few species that we would have expected. However, during the 8 days spent out in the field we still saw many delights up in the mountains and also in some of the lower areas.

As ever, when I am leading, or co-leading a tour I take very few photos, but a few that I did take and like are below.

On the way from the airport at Venice, we stopped near the gateway to the Dolomites, climbing up what was probably only classed as a high hill. On the way up we saw many Woodland Grayling that were warming themselves up on the road. As we got higher other species started to appear, and near the summit we all got out of the vans to see what we could find. The roadsides were full of many species, with some lovely False Heath Fritillaries that were my favourites at this first site. In previous years these have been very worn, but here, along with the Southern Heath Fritillaries were very fresh. This included a female Southern Heath Fritillary that was crawling up the grasses. Possibly only just emerged, she climbed up, rejecting the advance of a male, and then opening her wings wide once she had reached the top of the grass and had transferred herself onto some Bedstraw.

A newly emerged Southern Heath Fritillary.

Female Southern Heath Fritillary.

Whilst searching around we also had a very fresh Chalkhill Blue and a few other delights as well as hearing a Corncrake, just a couple of weeks after Lisa and I had heard them on the Isle of Iona on our Mull trip.

Male Chalkhill Blue

Large Wall Brown resting on the crash barrier!!

Pearly Heath.

One of the best butterflies on the tour was the Asian Fritillary. A species that only one couple had seen on last year's tour. The late season certainly helped here though, as we spotted several on our first day in the mountains. We also saw them in other areas that they were not known from, so perhaps it was a particularly good year for them this year.

Asian Fritillary.

On the same day further down the valley we found a mating pair of False Heath Fritillaries. I was really keen to get some shots of this couple, as the female was extremely fresh. As well as getting a nice image of the under-wings I was pleased to get the female as she opened her wings to reveal that she was actually an aberrant form with extended orange markings.

Mating False Heath Fritillary (aberrant female).

Mating False Heath Fritillaries.

On another day I managed a different False Heath Fritillary open wing showing the normal pattern.

False Heath Fritillary.

The most showy butterfly on the tour had to be a stunning Apollo. Unfortunately, it didn't settle in a particularly nice position, but I was still well pleased to at last get an close up image of one of these iconic butterflies.

Apollo.

Apollo.

Apollo.

After many searches on Mull for the Slender Scotch Burnet, and failing, it was quite a surprise to find that there were several of them in the vicinity of the hotel, as well as further along the valley. Not the very rare sub-species that is found only on Mull, but still nice to see.

Slender Scotch Burnet.

Wood White.

Black-veined White.

Roosting Black-veined White.

Amanda's Blue.

In one meadow I spotted a female Six-spotted Clearwing resting on the top of some grass. A beautiful small species that is rarely seen.

Female Six-belted Clearwing.

Back in the valley, on our return to the airport, we stopped near a river. Here there were many butterflies in the lowlands. Here I saw my first ever Large Chequered Skipper and Great Sooty Satyr. Here we also had Swallowtail, Provencal Short-tailed Blue, Scotch Argus and some of the group also had a Purple Emperor.

Provencal Short-tailed Blue egg laying.

Large Chequered Skipper.

Great Sooty Satyr.

As mentioned earlier, the weather had been cool during the early part of the year, and there was much more snow on the mountain tops this year. However, the scenery was just as stunning, and perhaps even more so due to this!!

Another view of the hotel from the nearby meadow.

Hopefully I will return again next year!!