Postcard live from the field today in the French Alps, from tour leader @selbypaul.bsky.social: Our Summer Butterflies of the French Alps group are finding themselves surrounded this morning by unprecedented numbers of one of Europe's most beautiful butterflies, Cynthia's Fritillary!

Having seen a stunning 93 species the day before, yesterday on the Mariposa Butterflies of French Alps tour proved equally amazing. Titania's Fritillary, Silvery Argus, Eros Blue and last but not least Small Apollo, largely thanks to Paul Selby's brilliant knowledge @mariposanature.bsky.social

A mouth-watering postcard from the field from tour leader @cach22.bsky.social, currently leading our Summer Butterflies of the French Alps tour with @selbypaul.bsky.social. They're a dream team of leaders, with a fabulous group, in a European butterfly wonderland. Go Team Mariposa!

Good morning & welcome to a new week! We've had a rush of bookings for orchid tours lately, so our featured tour of the week has to be Orchids of Tenerife, a chance to break the bleak coming winter with a special orchid tour led by @thenewgalaxy.bsky.social. www.mariposanature.com/tours/botani...

We saw a huge number of butterfly species on Day 4 of the @mariposanature.bsky.social French Alps holiday. We're now up to an incredible 125 species. But sometimes the relatively common species stand out. Such as this male Purple Edged Copper

Tour update 🚨 With the last 2 places for Spring Butterflies of Marvellous Morocco secured today it's now fully booked for 2027. For details & availability of our full portfolio of butterfly tours, please look at our handy tour calendar: www.mariposanature.com/calendar @europebutterfly.bsky.social

4th full day of @mariposanature.bsky.social Spanish Pyrenees holiday with increasing heat & numerous butterflies, especially puddling Blues & Skippers. The highlight was the Mountain Alcon Blues laying eggs on Gentians - easy to find as they’re white. A brief fly-by of Apollo but not for stopping!

Everyone loves an Apollo! 😍 They're having an incredible year in the Alps in 2026. Huge numbers everywhere. Just one of the utterly stonking 93 butterfly species seen today on Day 3 of the @mariposanature.bsky.social French Alps holiday. We're now up to 117 species in total.

Clouds we didn’t mind seeing on Mariposa Nature Tours Butterflies of the Arctic trip last week: Northern Clouded Yellow, Moorland Clouded Yellow and Pale Arctic Clouded Yellow. What a trio! 🦋💛 #arcticbutterflies #hardycreatures #mariposanaturetours

Delighted to find good numbers of Balkan Fritillary today, on Day 2 of the @mariposanature.bsky.social French Alps holiday. This species can only be found in a few places in the Alps and is very scarce. We're now up to 79 species seen!

Day 1 of the @mariposanature.bsky.social French Alps holiday got off to a cracking start. 44 species in just 2 hours on a 200 metre track, quite astonishing. This localised and hard to find Foulquier's Grizzled Skipper being the unanimous highlight.

Still looking back on the highlights of two days ago on the @mariposanature.bsky.social Butterflies of the European Arctic holiday. This Northern Clouded Yellow suddenly turned very compliant after a long chase! The green underside in stark contrast to the bright yellow upperside in flight

While we've been seeing a wide range of the Arctic's rarities this past week, butterflies don't have to be rare to be fabulous. This massive, intensely-coloured polaris subspecies of Small Copper was a flaming gem today as we headed for Tromsø and the close of the tour.

Another star of yesterday's @mariposanature.bsky.social Butterflies of the European Arctic holiday was this appropriately named Arctic Fritillary. An incredible find!

Day 6 of the @mariposanature.bsky.social Butterflies of the European Arctic holiday brought many many delights. This Lapland Fritillary being one of the highlights I'll share in the coming hours.

Final butterfly of the day yesterday with my @mariposanature.bsky.social group was a lovely Frigga's Fritillary. Named after the Norse goddess Frigg, the queen of Asgard, famous for her ability to see the future, and to weave the destinies of humanity. I had a quiet word...

Day 5 of the @mariposanature.bsky.social Butterflies of the European Arctic holiday was the best so far. Arctic Grayling and Arctic Ringlet being real hard to find specialists. Freija's Fritillary, Frigga's Fritillary and Northern Clouded Yellow also seen.

Tour update 🚨 With two places reserved today, our popular Butterflies of the French Alps tour now moves to guaranteed departure status for 2027, meaning another guaranteed donation to support the work of our friends at @europebutterfly.bsky.social. www.mariposanature.com/tours/butter...

After watching the ossianus ssp of Bog Fritillary flitting over treacherous bogs in Swedish Lapland it was great getting up close & personal with eunomia in Serbia. Freyer's Fritillary, M. arduinna, was at times the most numerous nymphalid but care is required to separate from Glanville, M. cinxia.

Postcard from the field, from tour leader @dunnjons.bsky.social: They say there are trolls present in the Norwegian mountains. We didn't see any of them today, but we found two other mythical, highly sought after beings instead - Arctic Grayling and Arctic Ringlet. @europebutterfly.bsky.social

Postcard from the field from tour leader @dunnjons.bsky.social, presently in the Arctic with our group: Sunshine was in precious short supply today, but some golden highlights were there to be found - Vanilla-scented Bog Orchid, and Moorland Clouded Yellow.

Unusually cool and frustratingly grey. These Moorland Clouded Yellow and Cranberry Blue did their best to cheer us on Day 3 of the @mariposanature.bsky.social Butterflies of the European Arctic holiday. The scenery remains epic!

Day 2 of the @mariposanature.bsky.social Butterflies of the European Arctic holiday involved some stunning views. Just look at those cloudscapes. 😍

Postcard from the field from tour leader @dunnjons.bsky.social in the Arctic: Our first full day of Butterflies of the European Arctic draws to a close - though of course, it's not getting dark here! - particular highlights were Pale Arctic Clouded Yellow and Cranberry Blue. #butterflies

Despite some flight disruption, Day 1 of the @mariposanature.bsky.social Butterflies of the European Arctic trip was still enjoyable. Our visit to the world famous Tromso Botanical Gardens was almost otherworldly in terms of the botanical delights we saw!

My Sheffield garden meadow today. Why would anyone choose a lawn (green desert) instead?

Day 7 of the @mariposanature.bsky.social holiday to the Italian & French Alps had to contend with our first grey skies. Despite this, we were delighted to see this Large Tortoiseshell, Alcon Blue & Purple Shot Copper. It took us to a record 118 species for the week, with a day to go

There's so much negativity expressed on social media - it's predictable, boring, and depressing. So we love it when we open our emails and find such positive feedback from our guests, in this case from the recent Abruzzo spring butterfly tour. Thank you, everyone!

Day 6 of the @mariposanature.bsky.social holiday to the Italian Alps saw us cross over the Col de la Lombarde into France. Perfect weather conditions saw us increase the butterfly species count to 111, including Safflower Skipper and Oberthurs Grizzled Skipper.

Postcard from the field, from tour leader Paul in the Italian Alps: The scenery here is simply spectacular, an incredible stage upon which the most brilliant butterfly drama is playing out - many new species were enjoyed yesterday by our guests, including the mighty Camberwell Beauty.

Postcard from the field from tour leader Michele Viganò, also in the Italian Alps with our group this week: Not just butterflies... our eyes are wide open and we're receptive to nature's wonders in all their forms, not least orchids, like this tiny Nigritella corneliana.

While we're as much a fan of a colourful butterfly as the next wildlife tour company, we're not so shallow as to be obsessed with 'butterfly baubles' - we appreciate subtle beauty too, like this elegant Lesser Lattice Brown enjoyed by our group in Serbia this week. @europebutterfly.bsky.social

Have you encountered a busy little bee lately? Other wildflower pollinators are available, and don't come with the same Emperor Commodus vibes... 😉 This week's @wildflowerhour.bsky.social challenge is #PollinatorPals - let's be seeing your flowers with pollinators doing the do!

Day 5 of the @mariposanature.bsky.social holiday to the Italian Alps brought many new butterfly species, taking us to 108 so far, and counting. The highlights included these Camberwell Beauty, Purple Shot Copper and Titania's Fritillary

I absolutely love the orange hues on the southern form of this female Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria ssp. aegeria), photographed in the French Pyrenees 🇫🇷

We'll be seeing another postcard from the field from tour leader David in super Serbia later on, but let's just revel once again in that sumptuous Poplar Admiral he and our group enjoyed such a memorable encounter with yesterday... 😍

Tour update 🚨 As of this evening, Summer Orchids of the French Alps 2027 is now fully booked, which leaves Orchids of Sardinia 2027 as our #Twosday special, with just 2 places left available on it to join @dunnjons.bsky.social & Michele Viganò next April... www.mariposanature.com/tours/botani...

Of course, there's another @mariposanature.bsky.social orchid tour I lead that qualifies for #Twosday, and that's the flagship #OrchidsOfRhodes. It's full for 2027, and for 2028, so we're running a second week in 2028... which has 2 places left available... www.mariposanature.com/tours/botani...

It's not just about species numbers on @mariposanature.bsky.social butterfly holidays. An occasional early morning walk from our Italian Alps hotel can bring the wonderful delights of torpid roosting butterflies. Which allows excellent photo opportunities.

Today's #Twosday: we've 2 of our popular orchid tours in 2027 just 2 places left available on each of them. Orchids of Sardinia teams top Italian orchid-hunter Michele Viganò with 'Orchid Summer' author @dunnjons.bsky.social on this fabulous Italian island. (1/2) mariposanature.com/tours/botani...

Postcard from the field from tour leader Paul with our butterfly tour in the Italian Alps: Hot on the heels of David and our current Serbian tour, our group in Italy are absolutely flying, with some fabulous butterflies enjoyed, and 93 species seen already. And seen well!

Exploring forests at 1,700m ⛰️

Good morning and welcome to a new week! Our Serbian butterfly tour, currently running, is full up for 2027, but we're getting enquiries for 2028 - so it's now open to book! A tour in unspoilt countryside, where myriad rare butterflies abound. (1/2) www.mariposanature.com/tours/butter...

I *cannot* wait to co-lead this stunning tour next year! 😍 My Team Mariposa pal @selbypaul.bsky.social had an incredible time there last year with his group, and my Mariposa co-founder David Moore, in Serbia with our group right now, described the butterflies yesterday as 'viscerally good'!

We think guests on wildlife tours shouldn't be expected to choose between quality and quantity - we prioritise high quality encounters with as much nature as possible. Our guest testimonials and images speak volumes about that approach. We don't accept second best, and nor should you.

Postcard from the field from tour leader @selbypaul.bsky.social in the Italian Alps: While the good butterflies kept on coming today, there were plenty of further distractions to be had for our guests, not least in the form of immense Trumpet Gentians bluer than even the sky overhead. Bliss!

Day 4 of the @mariposanature.bsky.social holiday to the Italian Alps was spent mostly at higher altitude. The views and alpine botany stole the show, albeit Mountain Green Veined White was a nice addition the butterfly species list, which has now topped 100 species after just 4 days.

Reverdin's Blue. One of the many highlights on Day 3 of the @mariposanature.bsky.social holiday to the Italian Alps. We're up to 93 species already!

Second full day of the @mariposanature.bsky.social Serbia tour. I'm not usually superstitious but I refused to say 'False Comma Tour' in case I jinxed it! After cool cloudy conditions yesterday, today dawned hot & sunny, even so it was hours of sweat & fears before all came good....and relax!😅

Postcard from the field from tour leader David Moore in Serbia: We're ecstatic today after enjoying superlative views of heavyweight European butterfly rarity, False Comma. Some 100 species seen after just 2 days here - and this one in particular, this one's special. @europebutterfly.bsky.social