Bulgaria Day 1

I signed up for thje "Flowers and Butterflies of Bulgaria" with Greenwings, looking to relive some of the excitement of last year's holiday in Sri Lanka with less strain and travel.  I knew that I would keep up with the flowers even less than in the UK but that interesting bird and insect sightings would also follow.

Short-tailed blue

After arriving at Sofia airport we stopped off at a nearby river and meadow in sunny weather and the sightings began immediately as clouded yellow and marbled white were quickly seen and were to remain a feature at virtually every location.  Lesser fiery copper and scarce swallowtail soon followed as did short-tailed blue and pearly heath.  These were all first sightings for me but somehow I was most pleased with the blue, which does occur rarely in the UK - irrational, I know.

Nearer the river we heard a nightingale and a green woodpecker, got a good view of an essex skipper (the one I didn't find at Birkdale Forest last year) and our guide Simeon captured a banded demoiselle damselfly in his butterfly net.  Unlike Sri Lanka, it is allowed in Bulgaria to net butterflies. We also had much more freedom to stray from the established paths.

Amongst other butterfly species to turn up at this location were comma, ringlet, meadow brown and common blue.

Banded Demoiselle

Large Skipper

Pearly Heath

Our next stop was at an area of upland heath meadow surrounding a quarry and the commonest species was the rosy starlings that whizzed around all over the place.  They didn't seem quite as pink as the one I saw in Sri Lanka last year but this may have been explained by seasonal differences in colouration and the bright sunlight.

Adonis blue at rest

This was the only time we saw a bee hawk moth, an impressive imitation indeed and I was very pleased to see the adonis blue in flight, as I had heard how beautiful it is.

Other butterflies I saw were the nyobe and spotted fritillaries, great banded grayling, bath white, small heath and small skipper.  More adventurous members of the party got some good bird sightings but easier was the bee eater on the telegraph wires directly next to the road.

We also had some dragonfly sightings including common darter and broad bodied chaser as well as a huge unidentified wasp.

After that we headed off on a rather long and windy journey to our first base at Tehsel in the Western Rhodopes.

15 October 2015

Events to report in the way of direct sightings have calmed down considerably.

There was photo last week on Dumfries and Galloway Wildlife and Birding of a redwing arriving in the Caerlaverock area, so I turned my attention away from trees and plants and took the binoculars on yesterday's bike ride for the first time in a month.

The result was yeat another lovely Autumn run in steady sunshine once the chill South East wind had died down, but absolutely nothing of major interest sighted apart from a small flock of curlews by the Nith.

Other subscribers to Dumfries and Galloway Wildlife and Birding have also seen green woodpeckers and, more impressively a turtle dove down by the seashore somewhere. Here green woodpeckers are on the edge of their range and I shared my theory that they move around a good deal, making them hard to tie to a location. But I did not know we even have turtle doves.

In the garden, a coal tit has been appearing on the bird table, which I at first attributed to a change in feed to include sunflower hearts.  But in fact I think one often turns up at this time of year.

Birds often take a tour of the silver birch in the front garden looking for aphids and other insects. This year I have on at least three occasions seen a red admiral settling on the leaves of the silver birch. I don't recall this happening before and so can't help wondering why they are doing it. Are they taking sap off the leaves?

Tuesday 11th March

Better weather at last.  Skived off decorating to take a look round Rusko north of Gatehouse to check for green woodpeckers.  Bumped into the local gamekeeper who told me exactly where to look - but no sign!  Only notable sightings were several coal tits, a nuthatch but more interestingly three peacock and one small tortoiseshell butterflies.  This is nearly two weeks earlier than the early butterflies I saw in 2012.

Gamekeeper also told me he has seen increasing numbers of ravens, a golden eagle at top of Laurieston Road, peregrine falcons, red deer, two otters playing in floodwater, a sparrow hawk flying zigzags in front of his truck and a buzzard killing a baby pheasant.