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.

Sri Lanka Day 8

Our last trip was to the Kaludiya Pokuna Forest near an old Buddhist site and again gave us the chance to walk around a good deal in search of new species.

Once again there was a lot of blue flashes from blue mormon and common jay (of which I got the best shot to date) and we caught sight of the attractive mime butterfly, a new addition.  Blue glassy tiger was another one I got in the camera, probably by now forgetting what I'd photographed and what I hadn't.

Blue glassy tiger

Common jay

Once again also I fell victim to a bit of elusive butterfly chasing when a couple of chestnut streaked sailors turned up but all I got was a blurry in-flight shot rather and an unconvincing profile of a bedraggled specimen when it settled. The other new sightings were the tamil yeoman and the white-banded awl, plus I got another snap of the peacock pansy.

Chestnut streaked sailor

Peacock pansy

However, it should be added that the butterfly we saw most of today and everyday since we left the wet zone  was the common crow. This butterfly was absolutely everywhere in big numbers and, by the last few days we weren't even paying them much attention. There was also an interesting black and white day-flying moth which I don't have a record of but it was quite a striking wee fellow.

Moth

By Day 8 we were almost dividing into a group of three who were chasing butterflies and the other three who were more focussed on birds, some of which I missed.  I was however pleased to spot a rosy starling in flight as I have often hoped to see one somewhere in Europe.  Apparently they are on the increase in Sri Lanka but I think that no-one else saw it.  There was also further confirmation of the white-browed fantail, which I had seen taking refuge in treetops on a couple of occasions when no-one was around to confirm.

A lot of the birds replicated previous sightings but I was pleased to see a black kite once again.

I couln't leave without getting a photograph of one of the shelters the rice farmers use at night when they are on the lookout for wild elephants.  We saw several of these.  It seems elephants are very keen on rice as it nears harvesting time and can cause mayhem.

Elephant shelter

Putting down bait for the butterflies didn't work today, so eventually we started the trail back to Katanayike via lunch.  There was still time to see this land monitor and nesting sea eagles en route.

Land monitor

Sea eagles