20th January: An abnormal winter so far. No snow at all on the local mountains and very little rainfall. After a very mild autumn and December, the temperature went right down for the first three weeks of this month (average -1°C during the day and -6° to -7°C at night) , so, as to be expected, no butterflies on the wing. The last 10 days of the month have been much milder, especially in the miiddle of the day, but unfortunately I haven't been able to get out much.
31st January: In between the local village carnival preparations in  the morning and playing with the local band in the early afternoon, I managed to go for an hour's walk on the hill behind our village. Fairly warm hazy sunshine took the temperature up to about 10°C and brought out a couple of butterflies - my first sightings of the year: a Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera), spotted first, and sunning itself just a few feet away, a Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae).  Sorry no photos.

1st March: After a weekend of rain in the valley and snow on the mountains above 1000m, a warm, sunny, but breezy day. Cycling home from work at lunchtime, the first butterfly I spotted was a Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni), one of about six I saw over the next 2 hours. Also on the wing not far from where I live were 3 or 4 commas (Polygonia c-album) (photo), a single peacock (Inachis io), a Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta), a couple of Small Tortoiseshells (Aglais urticae), 4 or 5 Walls (Lasiommata megera) , dozens of Large Tortoiseshells (Nymphalis polychloros) (at least one flying up from the ground or swooping down at me every 30 metres of my walk) and 3 Nettle-Tree butterflies (Libythea Celtis) (poor photo, photo).  Here is a view of the path and in the background, a few kilometres away, the snow-covered mountain near Folgaria (photo).
19th March: The weather was cold for most of  the first two weeks of March with several more snowfalls down to about 900m,, but the last few days have produced warm spring afternoons. I got out for a short walk on both sides of the valley today, starting at abot 11am and getting home at about 3pm. Here are the views from the two sides (photo looking southwards towards Pomarolo and Rovereto, photo looking westwards with Castel Beseno on the left and Monte Bondone to the right). My sighting for the day consisted of numerous Large Tortoiseshells (Nymphalis polychloros) and Brimstones (Gonepteryx rhamni), several Small Tortoisehells (Aglais urticae), Commas (Polygonia c-album), Nettle-tree butterflies (Libythea celtis) and Green-veined Whites (Artogeia napi), one Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) and Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera)and one Clouded Yellow (Colias crocea)(photo), the first of the season.
26-31st March: We are in Spain about 50 km north of Alicante for 5 days. The weather is predictably much warmer than in north Italy with clear blue skies and  temperatures ranging from 12°C to 25°C. Unfortunately, most days there is a fairly strong breeze.
26th: My initial expectations of seeing far more butterflies than in Trentino as we stopped at various likely-looking spots while travelling up the coast were somewhat dampened with sightings of only 5 butterflies - 3 Small Whites (Artogeia rapae), 1 Swallowtail (Papilio machaon) and 1 Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria). However, the following day (27th), after finding several Geranium Bronzes (Cacyreus marshalli) in the garden, I got out for a run at about 16.30 and followed the Rio Algar inland for 2-3 kilometres. Nothing for the first kilometer, but as I crossed some waste land on the edge of the orange groves, a few more species revealed themselves: several Small Whites (Artogeia rapae), 1 Bath White (Pontia daplidice), 2 Clouded Yellows (Colias crocea), 3 or 4 Speckled Woods (Pararge aegeria), 1 Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta), 1 Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera),  2 Long-tailed Blues (Lampides boeticus)(although not the first time I have seen them, these are my first presentable photos - photo, photo). My last sighting was, what I believe is, a Black-eyed Blue (Glaucopsyche melanops)(photo, photo) -  a completely new species for me. Here is a photo of the location (photo).
28th: When planning our stay in Spain, I had seen a local coastal hill/mountain on the map and thought it worth spending a few hours exploring. On setting off, it appeared that the so-called Serra Gelada was very well-known, because there were hundreds of other tourists with the same idea. Easter Monday means everyone must go for a walk! The easy path to the lighthouse (photo, photo), where most people were heading, brought no sightings of any butterflies at all and the harder path up to the 480m high peak was equally disappointing until the very summit (photo), which most of  the local butterflies seemed to have made their home. As well as numerous Wall Browns (Lasiommata megera) and Long-tailed Blues (Lampides boeticus) darting about, the latter rarely settling (it was a very warm day), there were 3 or 4 male Swallowtails (Papilio machaon) trying to establish their bit of territory (photo), constantly zooming backwards and forwards. I was just thinking that it was the perfect location for Two-tailed Pashas (Charaxes jasius) had it been a couple of months later in the year, when, much to my surprise, one appeared and settled on a bush nearby (photo, photo, photo). A little later another arrived and sparked off another territorial battle. A solitary Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius) also flew into the area a few minutes after, but although walking another 6-8 km to get down to where I had started, I didn't see any more butterflies on any other part of the mountain.
29th: Another really warm, but windy day, and a trip inland for about 20 km (photo). As well as seeing a few Cleopatras about (Gonepteryx cleopatra), I was very pleased to spot one of the butterflies that I was really looking for - a Moroccan Orange Tip (Anthocaris belia). In fact, during the day I saw 3 or 4 but, unfortunately, they didn't stop for any photo shoots. A great pity because they are really beautiful butterflies! This was the terrain  I was on  - disused, overgrown steeply-terraced olive groves with thorn bushes and loose earth and stones everywhere (photo), making any butterfly chasing impossible. Later, in another site I managed a quick mid-flight photo as another specimen flew past just to record my close encounter (photo).
30th: A very hot final day here in Spain with much less wind than the previous 4 days, but unfortunately I had very little free time to get out to hunt butterflies. I only found Blues and the only decent photos I got were of this Lang's Short-tailed Blue (photo)(photo).
1st: Back in Italy and after work in the morning, I found some time to walk up my local hill. The 3 new species about were a single Orange Tip (Anthocharis cardamines), several Grizzled Skippers (Pyrgus malvae) and some Green Hairstreaks (Callophrys rubi).
10th: We've had a couple of days of colder weather with cloud and rain, but today the sun was out and so were lots of butterflies. The most common were Orange Tips (photo), Small Whites and Wood Whites (photo) with the occasional Brimstone, Red Admiral, Large Tortoiseshell, Comma and Green Hairstreak. First sightings of the year of a Dingy Skipper (photo), a Chequered Blue (photo), a Small Copper and  some Pearl Bordered Fritillaries (who just would not sit still long enough for any photos). Our main purpose of walking along a path (photo) near this stream (photo) (photo) was to see if there were any Camberwell Beauties around, but we drew a blank on that one.Still too early, maybe. I don't think I've ever seen quite so many Tau Emperors about as I did today, though: 4 or 5 crossing paths at one moment, but, as usual, never stopping to rest during their apparently haphazard flight!
29th: After a week of very cold weather with snow on the nearby mountains - a sunny and comparatively warm day. Not surprisingly there were a fair number of butterflies on the wing on my local hill (photo). As well as the ones listed earlier this month, new sightings for the year included numerous Adonis Blues (photo male) (photo female) and Common Blues,  one or two Sooty Coppers, a few Glanville Fritillaries (photo) and lots of Berger's Clouded Yellows. Here is a photo of a mating couple.
7th:  I have done 3 excursions over the last 9 days to specific areas, with the aim of finding certain species reportedly found there. Unfortunately, only one was successful. The first trip was to Veneto, where I was looking for the Southern Festoon. I didn't have much time available and my hour-long walk was not fruitful. (I had a good day though!) Here is a photo from the foothills of Monte Grappa. My second, a local walk this time, didn't give me any opportunities for photos, but did bring about a sighting of a fast-flying Camberwell Beauty. The third one was up a local mountain in search of the De Prunner's Ringlet, seen in May last year but a couple of weeks later. As the butterflies I saw last year were already worn and old-looking, I thought I might find some earlier this year. I was obviously too early. There was very little around above 1,000m. Here is the view from about 1,800m asl: (photo, photo) The most common butterflies spotted during this first part of May have been Brimstones, Orange Tips, Wood Whites, Chequered Blues, Small Blues, Green Hairsteaks,  Common Blues, Adonis Blues, Dingy Skippers, Speckled Woods.
8th: A couple of new species for the year seen near this stream not far from Rovereto (photo): this Red Underwing Skipper (photo, photo) and what I think is a Reverdin's Blue (or Idas Blue) (photo, photo) Can anyone help?
14th: A cool, rainy week with the weather forecast for this coming weekend being just as bad. The few hours of sun in the morning did, however, allow me to go for a local walk. I was hoping to see some Green-Underside Blues and some Duke of Burgundy Fritillaries, but the only new species for the year was a Spotted Fritillary of which I saw 3 or 4 (photo).The other very interesting find was this magnificent Cream-spot Tiger moth (photo, photo).
21st: A trip up on Monte Baldo, walking from 1,350m asl up to 1,760m asl, to see if there were any De Prunner's Ringlets (Erebia triaria) flying here. Nothing of any interest at this height yet though, especially after some recent snow, but some great views. (photo, photo, photo, photo)
22nd; On my local hill. Plenty of Glanville Fritillaries (Melitea cinxia), Chequered Blues (Scolitantides orion) and, what I had come to look for, the first Green-underside Blues (Glaucopsyche alexis) of the season (photo, photo, photo)
27th: After two mountain walks earlier this month to try to find some De Prunner's Ringlets (Erebia triaria), at last success! Unfortunately, as I had to work in the morning I only got out when it was already very hot and although there were numerous De Prunner's flying on the mountainside, they never stopped for any photo opportunities. Having resorted to my net and twice managing to capture a butterfly only to see it escape before I could even look at it (not just poor net technique, but difficult terrain to hunt on!), I finally got a got a look at a fresher-looking butterfly with redder markings than those photographed last year. Unsuccessful photos, though! All I got was this (photo) and this (photo). Here is a view of the ridge of the mountain (photo) about 200m above where the butterflies were flying (the butterflies were down the steep slope on the right of the ridge, but none on top.) All the E. triaria I saw were between 1,250m and 1,450m asl.
28th: Another walk on a mountain, but this time ar around 1000m asl. The most common butterflies here were Woodland Ringlets (E. medusa) (photo) and Geranium Arguses (Aricia eumodon) (photo of underside and photo of upperside), but there were also lots of Common (Polyommatus icarus), Adonis (Polyommatus bellargus) and Little Blues (Cupido minimus), Green Hairstreaks (Callophrys rubi), Brimstones (Gonepteryx rhamni), Orange tips (Anthocharis cardomines), Wood whites (Leptidea sinapis) Glanville Fritillaries (Meltitea cinxia), Pearl Bordered Fritillaries (Boloria euphrosyne), Small Heaths (Coenonympha pamphilus), and Duke of Burgundy Fritillaries (Hamearis lucina) (photo). On the way down I also saw this Northern Wall Brown (Lasiommata petropolitana) (photo) and some Black-veined Whites (Aporia crataegi).