Switzerland

May-July 2014

Map of Switzerland showing the locations of Vaud and Valais cantons.

I spent most of the late-spring/early summer in Switzerland again this year. The first part of my trip explored the Jura Mountains, near Geneva, in the Vaud canton before moving into Valais for the remaining 6 weeks. As with last year, my main focus was to photograph the abundant alpine flowers, but I also had the added objective of familiarising myself with the local butterflies.

An alpine meadow in Valais

Switzerland has one of the highest diversities of butterflies in Europe with just under 200 breeding species, and many of the alpine meadows often appear to have clouds of these beautiful insects floating above the flowers.

Apollo (Parnassius apollo)

Reports containing a selection of photos can be found in the following links:

Part 1 : Jura Mountains, Vaud - 22nd-27th May
Part 2 : Valais/Wallis - 28th-31st May
Part 3 : Valais/Wallis - 1st-8th June
Part 4 : Valais/Wallis - 9th-15th June
Part 5 : Valais/Wallis - 16th-23rd June
Part 6 : Valais/Wallis - 24th-30th June
Part 7 : Valais/Wallis - 1st-7th July