Butterflies of the Balkans – , Macedonia and Greece Saturday 19th June - Saturday 2nd July 2010

Trip report by Greg Herbert (a tour participant)

Whilst many of you were being bored by a dull England performance against the USA in South Africa, I was on a bus to Gatwick Airport to catch a very early Easyjet flight to on the 18th June 2010 to start a 14 day holiday butterflying in the Balkans.

The six of us on the tour were met at Sofia Airport by our guide - Assie, Mr Assen Ignatov who is an accomplished butterfly and bird photographer, with many of his photographs published. With our group gathered up, introduced to each other, we set of in the direction of the Monastery, a drive of about two hours. Once off the main road we started on our first walk about – along a dirt track up the side of a hill, here we found many species found back home, which I will not list, however there were a number of Map Butterflies flying around, the only ones seen for the next eight days. So on to our hotel where a Common Glider was flying around the Western end of the building in the evening sunshine.

Sunday dawned warm and sunny; the mini bus took us the short distance to our first walk along the Iliina River valley, a side valley, off the main valley leading to the Rila Monastery. In the grassy meadows beside the river were numerous copper butterflies, Scarce, Sooty and Balkan; Mazarine Blues and Black-veined Whites; Niobe, Twin-spot, Queen of Spain, Marbled and Spotted Fritillaries; Woodland Ringlet, Large Wall Brown; Olive and Chequered Skippers. As lunch time approached so did the clouds and a thunder storm brought a halt to any butterflying so Assie took us to a restaurant for lunch a leisurely affair as the heavens stayed open. The clouds did roll away late in the afternoon but the ground was saturated so we returned early to our hotel.

On Monday we set off for the Macedonian city of Prelip, we stopped several times in Meadows, at roadside woodlands and at the top of a mountain pass; in the meadows we saw our first Eastern Dappled White, whilst in the woodlands were Niobe, Q of S, Spotted and Lesser Spotted Fritillaries. On the mountain pass were Chapman’s and Turquoise Blues with Sooty Coppers, I was returning to the bus as my camera batteries had expired when I disturbed a Large Tortoiseshell. Also seen were a Balkan Marbled White, Dil’s and Great Banded Grayling.

The 22nd June saw us exploring the mountains around Prelip, here were numerous Clouded Apollos, Balkan Clouded Yellow, Sloe and Ilex Hairstreaks. Purple-shot Copper, Little Tiger and Short-tailed Blues made there appearances as did my first ever Cardinal, the largest of the European fritillaries and Esper’s Marbled White with lots of Bedstraw Hawk Moth caterpillars also found at the side of the road was a Large Blue, Yellow Banded Skipper, Purple Shot Copper, Southern White Admiral, Camberwell Beauty and Pearly Heath.

Wednesday 23rd was overcast with bright intervals but was to turn stormy later in the afternoon. New species today were Grecian Copper, Osiris and Zephyr Blues and Blue Argus; Knapweed Fritillary and Russian Heath completed the days tally.

The 24th saw us on the road to the Galitchitsa Mountain National Park. The Hotel on the edge of Prespa lake was the only hotel/pub for about twenty miles in any direction in this largely Muslim country. Our mobile ‘phones welcomed us to Albania, actually on the other side of the mountain. The Pelicans on the lake entertained the ornithologists amongst us and the rest of the group as we supped Ouzo in the late afternoon sun. In the mountains earlier in the day we saw a Greek Clouded Yellow, Idas and Amanda’s Blues, Freyer’s Fritillary, Large Grizzled and Safflower Skippers were the new species seen.

Off to Greece on the 25th through a gorge noted for it’s Wall Creepers (very colourful birds) at the lunch stop a Poplar Admiral showed itself to some of our party (not me) but I did see the Southern White Admiral and Scarce Swallowtail. Then across the border into Greece and on to our hotel at Sidirokastro. On the way at the edge of Kerkini Lake we found a mating pair of Large Coppers, Lang’s Short-tailed and Short-tailed Blue and Lattice Brown.

Saturday 26th, the start of our second week, we circumnavigated Lake Kerkini disturbing on our way round Southern Swallowtail, Little Tiger and Eastern Short-tailed Blues, Eastern Bath White and Ilex Hairstreak.

Sunday 27th saw us heading over some high mountains on the border between Greece and back into Bulgaria. Whilst still in Greece, North of the city of Serre, at a cross roads our road was metalled, the other a sandy track, were (I have included the English species here) Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral, Comma, Southern White Admiral, Camberwell Beauty, Large Tortoiseshell, Map; Cardinal, Queen of Spain, Silver-washed, Niobe, Twin Spot, Marbled, Lesser Marbled, Glanville, Knapweed and Heath Fritillaries. 18 species of Aristocrats all seen in about 400m of each other, on examining the photographs, the Large Tortoiseshell turned out to be a Yellow-legged Tortoiseshell – one of Europe’s rarest butterflies.

Monday 28th, Day 10, on to the Phalakron Mountains in Southern Bulgaria where we saw our first Mountain Small White and Southern Grayling along with 35 species already noted.

Tuesday 29th and deeper into the mountains up the Mesta Valley above the village of . In some damp meadows were numerous species of copper butterflies particularly Balkan Copper, some of the wild flower displays were beautiful.

Wednesday saw us on the slopes of Mountain one of the best butterfly localities in Bulgaria near the Vihren Hut with numerous Clouded Apollo, a solitary Duke of Burgundy, several Nickler’s and Assman’s Fritillaries; Eastern Large Heath and our guide saw a Chequered Skipper.

1st July saw us travelling from to Govedartsi along mountain roads, beside lakes and reservoirs the only new butterflies seen today were Chestnut Heath and Oberthur’s Grizzled Skipper.

Friday our last full day was our day high up at the top of the Rila Mountain reached by a cable car up to about 10,000 feet where we hoped to see Cynthia’s Fritillary. As we walked along the paths at the mountain top we found Dewy Ringlet but then it started raining, as we came to lunchtime the rain got harder, hot soup in a mountain hut warmed us, but the rain persisted all the way back to the gondola and to our hotel. Our first really wet day and our final new species.

Saturday was back to Sophia and Gatwick with many memories and thanks to Assie and Spatia Wildlife, our holiday organisers for a splendid trip, many new butterflies, good food and accommodation and a hair cut for £1.75 including a 20% tip! Spatia are running this trip again in 2011 go to www.spatiawildlife.com to check it out.

Our total species count was 120 this included 43 British species. Contact me at [email protected] for a full list. As one of our group was a keen birder I also have a list of the birds seen.

Greg Herbert

Map Butterfly

Large Wall Brown

Yellow-banded Skipper

Queen of Spain Fritillary

Camberwell Beauty

Yellow-legged Tortoiseshell