Butterflies

 

My biggest hobby is butterflies - especially the European butterflies (except moths), of which I also have a collection. It is so exciting that all my holiday every year is spent on trips around Europe to look for butterflies. Sometimes I travel alone and sometimes together with a colleague. I have travelled together with both Danish and foreign colleagues - or amateur lepidopterists, as we prefer to be called. I have especially travelled together with a Belgian lepidopterist several times in southern Europe.
I am regularly in contact with lepidopterists in Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, Spain and Greece. Some of these I learned to know by meeting them "by coincidence" on the butterfly biotopes around Europe. The contact with these people is made primarily through the Internet (e-mail). It is an easy, quick and effective way. We mainly do the following:

My interest caught me seriously, when I in 1982, at the age of 10, was together with the family on a holiday to the northern Adriatic coast in Italy. The first years in the 1980's, until about the age of 18, the age was a natural limitation to the range of activities. The family holidays were spent at beach resorts at the Mediterranean in southern Europe, where I was able to explore the nearby butterfly fauna. Here I found many commoner species which were however interesting because my interest was still quite new. But often I was dreaming myself to the inland mountains whose bluish silhouettes I could often see from far. There must be a lot of butterflies not to be found in the densely populated coast zone, I thought. But in 1990 the family holiday took me to Lake Garda in northern Italy, where there is a splendid mountainous nature with a very rich butterfly fauna in close proximity. I visited the nearby mountain massif of Monte Baldo a few times with lots of butterflies as result.
After 1990 I was able to realize my dreams of making my own planned trips around Europe. Since then it has just gone ahead.

Year Period Duration Area
1982 Late June - mid July 2 weeks Italy (Bibione, northern Adriatic coast)
1983 Early - mid July 2 weeks Italy (Ceriale, the Riviera)
1984 Late June - early July 2 weeks Spain (Lloret de Mar, Costa Brava)
1985 Early - mid July 2 weeks Slovenia (Portoroz)
Italy (Bibione, northern Adriaterhavskyst)
1986 Late June - mid July 2 weeks Croatia (Crikvenica)
1987 Mid June - early July 2 weeks Greece (Kallithéa, Halkidikí)
1988 Early - mid July 2 weeks France (Sanary-sur-Mer, the Riviera)
1989 Late June - mid July 2 weeks Spain (Blanes + Platja d'Aro, Costa Brava)
1990 Early - mid July 11 days Italy (Lake Garda)
1991 July 1 month Sweden (Småland, Gotland, Öland)
1992 Late June - late July 5 weeks Alps, northern Italy, southern Germany (Bavaria)
1993 July - early August 5 weeks Greece (mainland, northern part)
1994 Late June - mid July 3 weeks Greece (mainland)
1995 Mid June - mid July 1 month Greece (mainland), Macedonia
Late July - early August 1 week Greece (mainland)
1996 July 3 weeks Spain
1997 Late April - mid May 3 weeks Spain (central and southern part)
Mid July - early August 3 weeks Greece (mainland)
1998 Late April - mid May 2 weeks Greece (mainland)
Late June - mid July 2 weeks Greece (mainland)
Mid - late July 11 days Poland
1999 Late April 1 week Spain (central and southern part)
Mid June 3 days Poland (southwestern part)
Late June - mid July 3 weeks The Alps (France, Switzerland)
2000 Early - mid April 11 days Spain
Early - late June 3 weeks Greece (mainland, Sámos, Crete)
2001 Late May - early June 1 week Greece (Rhodes, Tílos)
Mid June 2 weeks Corsica, Sardinia
Mid July 2 weeks Greece (mainland, northern part), Bulgaria, Macedonia, Italy (mainland, southern part), Sardinia, Slovenia, Austria
2002 Mid July 2 weeks Russia (eastern part: Siberia, Primorskij Kraj region)
Late July - mid August 2 weeks Spain (northern, central and southern part), Pyrenees
Late September 1 week Greece (Sámos)
2003 Mid May 2 weeks Italy (mainland, southern part, Sicily, Sardinia)
Mid July - mid August 5 weeks Southern France, Alps (France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Slovenia)
2004 Late May - early June 2 weeks Romania, Slovakia, Poland
July 3½ weeks Spain
2005 Early April 1 week France (southern part)
Late June - early July 2 weeks Pyrenees (France), Alps (Italy)
Mid August 1 week Hungary
2006 Late March - early April 1 week Greece (Sámos)
Mid April 1 week Greece (Crete)
Mid May 1 week Greece (Sámos)
Late June - mid July 2 weeks Poland (eastern part)
2007 Late April 1 week Portugal (southern part)
Mid May 1 week Spain
Mid - late June 2 weeks France (southern part), the Alps (Italy, Switzerland)
Early July 4 days Alps (Italy, Austria)
Late July - early August 2 weeks Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, Sardinia, Corsica, France (southern part)
2008 Late March - early April 1½ week Spain (northeastern part)
Mid May 1½ week Ukraine (Crimea)
Mid June - mid July 4 weeks Laponia
2009 Early April 1 week Ukraine (Crimea)
Late May - early June 2 weeks Greece (Chíos, Ikaría, Níssyros, Kárpathos)
Late June - mid July 3 weeks Laponia
2010 Late April 1 week Romania
Late May 1 week Spain (central part)
Late June - mid July 3 weeks Ukraine (Crimea)
Early September 1 week Portugal
2011 Late April - early May 1 week Ukraine (Crimea, Khersonska oblast')
Mid June 1 week Greece (Rhodes, Sími)
Early July 1 week Norway (southern part)
2012 Mid May 2 weeks Ukraine (Crimea, Khersonska oblast', Zaporiz'ska oblast')
Mid June - mid July 3½ weeks Switzerland (southern part), Italy (mainland, Ponza, Eolian Islands, Sicily)
2013 Early June 1 week Greece (Lesvos)
Early July 1 week Sweden and Norway (southern parts)
Mid July - early August 3 weeks Balkans (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Bulgaria, northern Greece)
Mid October 5 days Spain (southern part)
2014 Late April 1 week Romania
Mid-late June 1½ week Serbia (southeastern part)
Mid July 1 week Spain (southern part)
Late July 1 week Switzerland
2015 Early-mid May 1½ week Greece
July 3 weeks Scandinavia (Laponia, Troms, Småland, Öland, Telemark, Jotunheimen)
Early August 1 week Madeira
2016 Late May - early June 1½ week Moldova, Transnistria, Ukraine
Mid July 1 week Romania
Late July - early August 2 weeks Greece (southern part), Spain
Mid November 1 week Gran Canaria
2017 Late April - early May 2 weeks Kazakhstan
Late May 1 week France (southern part)
Mid July 1 week Greece (southern part)
Late July - early August 2 weeks Azores
2018 Late March - early April 1½ week Canary Islands (Gran Canaria, La Palma, Tenerife)
Mid May 3 days Sweden (eastern part)
Early-mid July 2½ weeks France (southern part), Italy
Early-mid August 2½ weeks Canary Islands (Tenerife, El Hierro, La Palma, La Gomera)
2019 Late February - early March 1 week Canary Islands (Fuerteventura)
Late April - early May 8 days Canary Islands (Tenerife, Gran Canaria)
Mid June 1 week Greece (Crete)
Mid July 1 week Greece (central part)
2020 July - early August 3 weeks Southern France, Alps (France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria)
2021 Mid July 1½ week Greece (central and southern part)
Early - mid August 2 weeks Romania
2022 Late April 5 days France (southern part)
Mid June 1 week Greece (Ródos, Sími)
Mid July 1 week Pyrenees (France)
Late July - early August 2 weeks Alps (Italy), Austria, Czechia
2023 Late May 1½ week Spain (central and northern part)
Mid June - early July 3 weeks UK (England, Wales, Scotland)
Late November - mid December 2 weeks Cape Verde islands

Beside this I have made shorter (one or a few days) excursions in Denmark.

See photographs of butterflies here.

I and many of the Danish lepidopterists I know are organized partly in a country-wide society, Lepidopterologisk Forening, partly in regional societies. My regional society is Nordjysk Lepidopterologklub. Here I have a chair in the committee and am the editor of the journal.
I am also a member of the European lepidopterists' society, Societas Europaea Lepidopterologica (SEL).


Back to the initial page of the homepage


Copyright © Morten S. Mølgaard - Last update on December 24th, 2023