After three days based at Alexandroupoli near the border between Greece and Turkey the tour re-located westward to seek out more butterfly specialities of the region. The Rodopi are a long mountain range across north-east Greece that forms the land border with Bulgaria. The fragmented peaks and deep gorges of the higher western section supports an especially rich flora and fauna with numerous endemic plants, due to a mixture of central European and Mediterranean elements.
From our base at a village, Volakas in the western Rodopi we attempted to explore various sites over the final two days. I had been attracted to this tour by the opportunity to add a number of early flying species to my life list that I reasoned might be more tricky to observe later in the season. Those included Southern, Mountain and Krueper’s Small Whites, Grüner’s Orange Tip, Eastern Greenish Blacktip, Small Bath White and Powdered Brimstone; that I would rely on the expert leadership to identify.
Of those targets Grüner’s Orange Tip was the only butterfly located due to continued wet weather, and the fourth trip lifer. After my success in finding Moroccan Orange Tip and getting pictures of Greenish Blacktip in February (see here), experiencing another regional member of the genus was high on my wish list. Grüner’s is on the wing from March to May in Greece, the southern Balkans, Turkey and eastward as far as Iran.
By comparison with the regular Orange Tip seen in Great Britain, Grüner’s (pictured above) is smaller with lemon-yellow suffusion in its upper side and greener-toned wing tips. In tone and colouring it thus appears perhaps mid way between the regular and bright yellow Moroccan and Provence Orange Tips I had observed previously. This item was flying in good numbers at Potami on the Despatis River below Mount Falakro.
Missing out on the other trip targets can only be described as disappointing. Our transfer day (12th) during which a two hour stop was planned at Nestos Gorge, that could have yielded the different Small Whites, was washed out in spectacular fashion. Then on the final day (14th), when we visited Mount Orvilos, cloud and rain followed wherever we tried to reach brighter skies, setting in as soon as and every time the group got out from the minibuses. By then the relentlessness of the weather pattern that dogged this trip was frustrating me so much that I just wanted to get out of there and on the plane back home.
The tour’s second window of opportunity had occurred on Saturday (13th) when numbers of butterflies were encountered in prolonged sunshine at the Potami site. Wood White was recorded several times through the week and now there was the opportunity to compare the regular and Eastern species. In the top row pictures below the all brown antennae tips and white patch on the unh wing are diagnostic of Eastern Wood White.
This was a clearer identification for me than at nearby Mount Vrondou in May 2017. The spring populations of EWW are the easiest to distinguish from other species because of these distinctive heavy underside markings. The Balkan populations, including those in Greece, form the western limit of the main range of the species and occur as a separate sub-species to the outlier populations in north-western Italy and south-west France.
Three blues of the region were also active at Potami. I was able to get pictures of female Eastern Baton Blue (below, left) for the first time, a species I had experienced once before in southern Greece last July. This tiny east-European blue flies in two broods from April to June, then in July and August. I also captured my first open-winged images of Green-underside Blue here (centre), after another had posed nicely on some Asphodel (right) earlier in the week. I had observed the common and very widespread species once before too, in les Cévennes in May 2016.
The third of these Euro-blues at Potami was the attractively patterned Chequered Blue, another species that I first observed in les Cévennes towards the western end of its range. This butterfly (below), that occurs through much of south-eastern Europe, displays marked regional variation and is on the wing earlier in this area of Greece than elsewhere. I also found Short-tailed Blue for the first time at one stop on 14th, but did not get a publishable picture.
Two Fritillaries produced half decent images at different sites. I had gone into this trip still needing an acceptable top-side study of the pan-European ranging though English vagrant Queen of Spain Fritillary. The picture (below right) is possibly as close as I have come yet. The two under-side images from a site, Granitis earlier on 13th are quite pleasing if allowance is made for the butterfly’s rather contrived re-positioning.
Another fairly widespread European fritillary I had recorded just once before in les Cévennes is Weaver’s Fritillary. Also at Granitis I gained under-side studies for the first time, that are rather attractive though likewise contrived. This triple brooded species is also known as the Violet Fritillary due to the purplish hue of the unh wings that the pictures (below) show quite well. They fly from April to September.
I would not recommend this tour except for seeing False Apollo, simply because the weather during that ultra-rarity’s flight period appears to be so unpredictable. Gaining my other trip targets was always going to be a gamble, as is booking travel to observe butterflies in advance anywhere; and most of what I missed may also be seen later in the season. I feel I am due some respite now after untypical conditions during or leading up to my trips to Sardinia and southern Greece last summer also impacted adversely upon what could be seen in those places, and the same was true in les Cévennes in 2016.
The trip just described had tip-top leadership, very knowledgeable participants and a good group dynamic; but for me that all counts for little when the conditions were so unforgivingly foul for much of the time. The bottom line was that after just two wet days this year in Greece prior to our arrival we had sunshine for parts of just two days in the field. That is butterflying of course, and I am well used to the grey stuff following me from my home just the short distance to the Chilterns escarpment. Translate that into seven days in a far flung corner of hopefully sunny southern Europe and I consider this experience was moderate value for the £1500 spent, purely due to the weather of course and in no way a reflection upon the tour operator.
The tour group outside our hotel in Volakas: from left Mel Mason (Malvern), Tony Moore, Liz Mason, Dave Potter (Worthing), Nick Ballard at rear (Hull), Bernard Watts (Norwich), Mel Lloyd (Weymouth), Liz Lloyd, Helen Burnett (Solihull), Aidan Whitfield (Bedford), myself (Oxford), Emma Whitfield, Martin Warren (leader) and Michael de Courcy Williams (guide)
The full species count for this-two centre tour, with life-list additions in bold, is: Swallowtail (P m gorganus), Scarce Swallowtail, (Eastern Festoon), Southern Festoon, False Apollo, Large White, Small White, Green-veined White, (Eastern Bath White), Eastern Dappled White, Orange Tip, Grüner’s Orange Tip, Clouded Yellow, Brimstone, Wood White, Eastern Wood White, Green Hairstreak, Small Copper, Grecian Copper, Sooty Copper, Short-tailed Blue, Green-underside Blue, Chequered Blue, Eastern Baton Blue, Brown Argus, Camberwell Beauty, Peacock Butterfly, Large Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral, Map Butterfly, Painted Lady, Queen of Spain Fritillary, Weaver’s Fritillary, Small Heath, Speckled Wood (P a aegeria), Wall Brown, Grizzled Skipper, (Oberthür’s Grizzled Skipper), Mallow Skipper, Dingy Skipper – total 40
(Butterflies in parentheses were seen by other group members but not myself).
Ramblings and Scribblings 