Having missed last year's butterfly season due to my ankle injury, I was eager to do some proper butterflying this year and finally got to do my first real butterfly outing in almost two years earlier this week. I visited my favourite butterfly reserve near Couvin but it seemed very quiet at first, with an unexpected Kingfisher and a Black Kite making it look as if the birds were going to have the upperhand. This Black-veined White was the first butterfly I saw and, together with Small Heath, the only ones present in good numbers but there were also quite a few Adonis Blues, which only have a few Belgian colonies, around.
By the end of the day, though, I'd somehow managed to identify 20 species, including other rare species restricted to this area such as Scarce Swallowtail and Large Wall Brown, with two Red-backed Shrikes as an additional bird bonus.
