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Butterflies of Croatia

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Butterflies of Croatia Butterflies of Croatia Naturetrek Tour Report 10 - 17 June 2019 Balkan Copper Balkan Marbled White Eastern Large Heath Hyphoraia testudinaria Report and images compiled by Luca Boscain Naturetrek Mingledown Barn Wolf's Lane Chawton Alton Hampshire GU34 3HJ UK T: +44 (0)1962 733051 E: [email protected] W: www.naturetrek.co.uk Tour Report Butterflies of Croatia Tour participants: Luca Boscain (Leader), Josip Ledinscak (Local Guide) with nine Naturetrek clients Day 1 Monday 10th June Arrival at the Zagreb airport, Rastoke and transfer to Irinovac. We landed at Zagreb Airport at 12.30, just five minutes behind schedule. Unfortunately the queue at passport control was rather long, and the luggage took some time to arrive. When we got out of the Arrivals area we met Luca and Josip, our tour leaders, we went to the car park to catch our minibus and the barrier decided not to open! It took some time for Josip and Zlatko, our driver, to find the way to get any help. As they are both Croatian, we could only speculate about their chats but the delay helped to break the ice and to start the series of gags, jokes and laughs that made the week particularly enjoyable. We drove along the motorway as far a the city of Karlovac, then from there we took some secondary roads crossing woodlands, villages and lovely meadows. Some of the first birds we noticed were the White Storks sitting on the their nest on a telegraph post along the roadside. At quarter to four, we arrived to a pretty little village, Rastoke, where we had a break and we could stretch our legs. It’s a beautiful little settlement in which wooden houses are spread along a valley surrounded by a network of streams, canals and waterfalls that all converge into the River Korana. The temperature reached almost 30°C and the sunshine was bright, so we found it refreshing to keep in the shade or near the running water. Along the shore of a stream, we had a look at the patches of green emerging from the crystal waters: there were flowers of Brooklime (Veronica beccabunga) and Water Forget-Me-Not (Myosotis scorpioides), a few Beautiful and Banded Demoiselles and White-legged Damselflies, and also a number of frogs of every size. The largest ones were surely Marsh Frogs while we would have had to catch the small and intermediate ones to give them a name. From the high bridge above the Korana, we spotted some Danube Barbel , pale spotted fish, and the head of a Dice Snake, appearing like a periscope from the water. On the other side of the river, we saw a rich flora, including the blue spikes of Viper's Bugloss (Echium vulgare), Large-flowered Orlaya (Orlaya grandiflora), Bath Asparagus (Ornithogalum sphaerocarpum), Birthwort (Aristolochia clematis) and Bloody Cranesbill (Geranium sanguineum), but also, finally, the first butterflies! After a Brimstone, common in Britain as well, we noticed a Black-veined White a well-marked Chequered Blue and a rather tatty copper: checking carefully the features it couldn’t be anything else other than an exciting Large Copper now extinct in UK but still rather frequent on the continent. The birding was rather slow, probably because of the heat, so we didn’t see anything more than Common Buzzard and Grey Wagtail, hearing also the first Marsh Tits of the trip. We left at 17.00 and half an hour later we were by the hotel, the attractive Plitvička Sedra of Irinovac, where all the rooms were allocated. © Naturetrek December 19 1 Butterflies of Croatia Tour Report Our evening meal was at 19.00 in the adjacent restaurant in which we were welcomed by the typical glass of liquor: strong drinks for strong people here in Eastern Europe! There then followed a vegetable soup and a selection of tasty specialities made with meat, eggs and spinach. For people that were not tired yet, the leaders led a digestive walk into the garden and the countryside behind the hotel. There were no sounds of birds, but checking by the few lamps we noticed on the walls moths and spiders like Brown Silver-Line and Cucumber Green Spider plus a single European Glow-worm Day 2 Tuesday 11th June Plitvice lakes National Park and Homoljac fields. Today we had breakfast at 7am, because we intended to visit the Plitvice lakes in between 8 and 9am. It is in fact a Unesco Heritage Site and the most popular national park in Croatia so, especially in summer, it can be particularly busy and the authorities try to manage somewhat the influx of visitors assigning to the groups a precise schedule of entry. The group members who, despite the early start, had a short wander around the hotel, observed Cuckoo, White Wagtail, Black Redstart and Greenfinch and we left at 8.05 to drive for about 20 minutes. When we arrived at the entrance of the park, we didn’t have to queue at all thanks to our reservation and in a couple of minutes we were enjoying the marvellous view of the first turquoise lakes and waterfalls below the viewpoint. Then we began to descend slowly noticing a number of interesting plants and flowers on the sides of the path, including Bird-nest (Neottia nidus-avis) and Common Bee Orchids (Ophrys apifera). The first part of the trail is always the busiest, especially as we had to walk across some narrow foot-bridges: it was a pity it wasn’t a little quieter, but nevertheless we saw some amazing amphibians and reptiles. Luca caught a Yellow-bellied Toad and showed the characteristic colourful under parts, then he pointed out a big female Common Toad and the rare Horvath’s Rock Lizards It’s a species endemic to Dalmatia that can be hardly distinguished from Common Wall Lizard, although its habitat, typically in almost vertical rocky cliffs, and some not so obvious features like the variable width of the tail rings are helpful clues. The water of the lake, a deep azure blue, was populated by hundreds of fish among which we identified Chub and Rudd. Later on, the crowd of tourists spread, allowing a much more relaxed walk over foot-bridges by the waterfalls and a trail that bordered a number of lakes surrounded by beautiful patches of Beech (Fagus sylvatica) woodland. While we were chasing some Azure and Common Blue Damselflies we were surprised to see the predation by a Grass Snake of a little frog or, later on, a fight between two large male Green Lizards The demoiselles of the two Calopteryx species were particularly common while we spotted a single Common Clubtail. 2 © Naturetrek December 19 Butterflies of Croatia Tour Report When we arrived by a food stall, the temperature was enough high to tempt us into the shade to enjoy a well- deserved drink or ice-cream. Then we had to queue to get onto a ferry that navigated smoothly through the largest lake of the area. Despite the number of tourists, the ride was very peaceful and we relaxed on our seats admiring the landscape until we arrived by a small pier where we transferred onto another ferry. We finally landed on the same side where we started our visit, but we had to climb back the long way up to the car park where Zlatko was waiting for us. Despite the heat, the walk was partially shaded by a number of trees and made interesting by the sightings of a Queen of Spain Fritillary, colourful males of Serin and Chaffinch, Hawfinch, Nuthatch and some cute Bank Voles. There were no picnic spots around, so we drove for 30 minutes to the countryside nearby Homoljac. Here we took a dirt road that reached an isolated settlement that looked abandoned. However, an elderly lady came up to us and Zlatko remembered that he had met her before during the Balkan war, so after a talk with her we were allowed to have our picnic there. Such a traditional countryside hosted a lot of interesting birds like Turtle Dove, Hoopoe, Cuckoo, Wryneck, Skylark, Whitethroat, Red-backed Shrike and Corn Bunting that we observed or heard during a wander while the leaders set out the buffet. We had just begun to eat when light rain started and finished only when we went for a walk. Unfortunately now the grass was wet and it took time for the insects to reappear. Therefore we concentrated more on the plants, noticing Toothed (Neotinea tridentata) and Green-winged Orchids (Anacamptis morio) and seas of clovers, rattles, daisies and bellflowers. With the sunshine a lot of butterflies climbed the stems and, getting warmer, started to fly. Among the group, the most active was Barbara who exhibited her netting skills, catching non-stop new subjects to pot, identify and show to the other members of the group. The most represented were blues, including Small Amanda’s, Turquoise and Common. There were also pretty day-flying moths, like Speckled Yellow, Black-veined Moth, Latticed Heath and Blood Vein. Observing Woodland Ringlet, Knapweed Fritillary and a wonderful patch with tens of Hungarian Iris (Iris variegata), we descended by a monument dedicated to fallen of the Second World War where Josip helped to translate and interpret what was written. On the way back to Irinovac, we stopped by a bend where Luca had noticed some orchids: there was in fact a spectacular meadow covered in Military (Orchis militaris) and Green-winged Orchids, White (Cephalanthera damasonium) and Narrow-leaved Helleborines (Cephalanthera longifolia). © Naturetrek December 19 3 Butterflies of Croatia Tour Report We arrived at the hotel at 6.30, so we fixed the supper for 19.30 and we had trout and typical Croatian crepes called “palačinka”.
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