Here is a view from our balcony!! 20241120_075848 (2).jpg I did think that the poor weather was helpful as it slowed the butterflies down. However, on our last morning we had a lovely sunny morning and I couldn't believe how many butterflies there were flying around and landing, too. Many of them la...

Hi Wanderer, A lovely set of pictures and many species I had hoped to see during my very wet stay last year! For Moth A I think Lesmone duplicans is most likely, I agree with Guy on Eurema, or Abaeis albula and for Butterfly C I agree with you both, Eunica malvina. For the skipper I think it is Zari...

Thanks Pete, There were so many big spectacular rain forest species I was hoping to see, but I am more than happy with all that I did see. I have to admit that it was frustrating travelling all that way and being thwarted by the weather. I was amazed that so many species were quite amenable and woul...

White Enops, Polyctor cleta. White Enops IMG_2375.JPG All very much a theme of brown! I was hoping to see some of the spectacular blue Skippers, but not this time! Of course, these were just the ones I was able to photograph. There were a lot more species that flew past and didn't land for a picture...

Probably the easiest thing to do is list the Skippers alphabetically. I saw so many of them along the track, but also quite a few in the hotel grounds. I have spent hours trying to identify them all. I have so many pictures of slightly different butterflies, which I am assuming are just variations o...

There was a track that lead from opposite the entrance of the hotel, past some helipads. This was the start of one of the hotel's nature walks, which we went on one day. As it climbed the surrounding hills it turned into more of an "It's a Knockout" style mud slide! So, thereafter I just s...

It is difficult to know where to start with what I saw. I'll start with the species I saw in the hotel grounds. The first butterfly I saw from our balcony was a Confusing Sister, Adelpha iphicleola, although I didn't manage to get a picture of it until the following day to confirm its identity. Thes...

I promised Pete Smith that I would post on here about my visit to Costa Rica, but it didn't turn out as expected, so apologies to everyone for this appearing to be a diluted version of Pete's visits. Back in April 2023 we booked a two week holiday for March 2024, coincidentally in exactly the same h...

That sounds like a fantastic trip Pete. The butterflies there look so interesting and it must have been fantastic to find guides who were knowledgeable about butterflies to show you around.
Now I have another place to add to my bucket list!! I wonder what my wife would say to that!!!

Wow! What fantastic pictures. I have followed Robert on Facebook for a couple of years and have his fabulous book on the Butterflies of Honduras. I would love to go to Emerald Valley some day. It sounds so good.

Loving your pictures David. I remember being "dragged" to the Pyrenees when I was a kid by my Dad, who lived in France. At the time it seemed very hot and tedious with my Dad charging off up the mountains in search of some rare bird of prey, or something. I am afraid I wasn't impressed wit...

Thank you so much Guy, I am not disappointed at all. Although cirsii would have been a new species for me, I would far rather have a positive ID than not know for sure. Interestingly, even with the information you have given me, I wouldn't have reached malvoides using Tolman or Lafranchis. The Sierr...

I wonder if anyone can help me with the ID of the attached Skipper. Seen in the Sierra Nevada last week. I was thinking Pyrgus cirsii, but I am far from confident with my Skipper ID ability!!
Thank you.

Thank you Jack,
I will try not to put it in a puddle or run over it!

Thank you so much Guy. Please don't feel responsible about my camera choice. There really isn't very much choice in the price range! I am looking forward to giving the camera a good try out, if we get any decent weather, which doesn't look too likely in the near future!! We had a bit of brighter wea...

Final update on the Lumix FZ330: It seemed that the fault with the camera was how it processed or stored the pictures. The butterfly would be beautifully in focus as I depressed the button, but the preview was noticeably very poor. Having been sent back for repair twice without resolving the issue I...

I have seen this species in Tenerife and Mauritius. In Mauritius the males are always white and the females have a white or yellow form.

That is a great haul Pete. I guess a "problem" with visiting such places with enormous numbers of species is that, with so many being so similar, it is very difficult to identify them unless they stop for a while, or allow a nice picture of the upper and underside! This isn't really too mu...

Fantastic report, Pete, of what sounds like a wonderful trip. I noticed you had posted a couple of weeks ago, but decided to save reading your post until all our Christmas guests had left, so that I could concentrate on it better!! It looks like you saw a great variety of butterflies. Some of those ...

Thank you for thinking about me Guy!! That is the sort of standard of picture that my FZ150 produced and still does (but not consistently). An update on the FZ330 saga: I contacted John Lewis again and said I wasn't happy with the camera and asked for a refund. They said they wouldn't accept it back...