The sighting of the swimming snake at the end of day 3 was the result of a brief return to the riverside meadow at the hotel and produced little else. It led to discussion of why an area that has apparently produced prodigiously in the past should fail to do so again when others we visited proved more fruitful Itt seems effectively to be inexplicable beyond that it has perhaps something to do with the wet weather earlier in the year.
I think we found herself in the area of Stara Fuzina without being entirely sure. Anyway we spent most of the time in an upland area that was also partly wooded after a brief forage in a rich meadow..
The unmistakeable large chequered skipper appeared again at an early stage - completely unmistakeable from its underwing pattern.
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| Large Chequered Skipper |
Blue-spot hairstreaks and clouded yellow turned up again and we saw male and female versions of the mazarine blue.
 | | Mazarine Blue (f) |
|  | | Mazarine Blue (m) |
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Most of the mazarine blues we saw were female.
However the star appearance of the day was the sole (I think) appearance on the trip of the Queen of Spain Fritillary.
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| Queen of Spain Fritillary |
It was a good deal smaller than the rather glamorous name perhaps suggests. It was also the day we got first sight of the Large wall Brown.
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| Large Wall Brown |
We encountered some difficulty identifying ringlets - a definite issue in this part of the world as there are several similar possibilities including a couple of highly localised versions (such as Stygian Ringlet). An additional problem I had was that the ones I encountered repeatedly took to the wing just as the camera was about to shoot!
Some were identified as scotch argus but I wasn't entirely comfortable with this as the scotch argus wasn't supposed to be on the wing for another three weeks. Some were probably woodland ringlet but in the circumstances, I think the best thing is just to present the photos I did get for what they are worth.
 | | ? Ringlet |
|  | | ? Ringlet |
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 | | ? Ringlet |
|  | | ? Ringlet |
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One thing is certain - they are all ringlets of one kind or another!
Another element of controversy was added by this skipper.
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| Essex Skipper? |
My view is that it is a male and has a sex brand running parallel to the wing edge, making it an essex skipper. Others begged to differ.
Otherwise I saw another mystery bee, possibly another furrow bee, a moth I couldn't identify and various others that I did tentatively manage to label.
The obvious star here is the longhorn moth with its massive antennae!
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