Slovenia Day 6

On an early morning walk I got an interesting shot of a green-veined white, looking rather darker than its British counterpart.

Green-veined White

We also got a brief sighting of a grey-headed woodpecker, a species I thought I had seen when I cycled round Lake Constance but hadn't totally convinced myself I'd got it right.

But mainly this was the day we took a long ride over 25 hairpin bends and past many cyclists to find a mountaintop site very close to the Italian border.

Unfortunately the top of the mountain was shrouded in misty cloud and we had to wait for brief outbursts of sunshine to get any butterfly action.

However it did produce a couple of specialities, notably in the form of an asian fritillary that settled down for a good while and a mountain small white.

Asian Fritillary

Mountain Small White

There were more ringlets turning up from time to time but so fleetingly I typically did not get a decent shot of them though I didn't think they were scotch argus.  Otherwise there was another mazarine blue.

Eventually we moved on and tried in vain to find a sunny spot further down the mountain. 

However someone had the idea of trying a small wetland near the hotel before our evening meal and this paid off nicely when amongst others we came across two more new species in the shape of Nickerl's fritillary and lesser marbled fritillary.

Nickerl's Fritillary

Lesser Marbled Fritillary

There were more good views of a purple shot copper and a bonus moth - a gold spangle apparently.

Gold Spangle

Apart from the moth, the asian fritillary and - somewhat to my surprise - the mountain small white were first-time sightings for me.

Slovenia Day 5

By the end of Day 4 we had relocated to our second hotel at Pokljuka, which is a mountainous area in the North West of Slovenia.

The pattern of the day was similar to Day 3, with meadows in the morning, though at higher altitude and a woodland area later on.

Some of the scenery was spectacular and we found some good areas resulting in sightings of dark green and marsh fritillary, marbled fritillary (again), finally a male mazarine blue, sooty and purple-edged copper, a large skipper, and this time a definite woodland ringlet.  One south facing meadow proved particularly prolific.

It was actually as we were moving on to the woodland area that we came upon a new blue - the alcon blue showing quite well next to the path.

Alcon Blue

In the woodlands, we also scored nicely, viewing silver-washed fritillary, marbled fritillary (again) and several commas as well as the white admiral, not to mention a couple of mating false heath fritillaries.

Silver-washed Fritillary

White Admiral

So another fruitful day, sufficiently rich in butterflies that I didn't pay much attention to other bugs or bees!