Friday 8th June 2012 – return to Golemo Beliowo (Golyamo belovo) It was now our last full day in Bulgaria and we returned North-West to the beautiful village of Golyamo belovo, around an hours drive from Velingrad. On the way we only stopped once – at a large parking dirt track beside the main road...

Hi all, I'll definitely leave this to the experts...of course, there are always differences in the way the sunlight hits the wings and the processing of the image afterwards based on preferences will vary the colour slightly. I'm happy to go with either diagnosis but Osiris is at least a new species...

You've done it again , Michael. Great CY open wing shot. Are you using sports mode or do you just get lucky like with the Grayling last year? Hi David, I think it's just luck and spending a lot of time with the butterflies...I'm not sure if the individual was doing a bit of mating display or tellin...

Thursday, 7th June – Velingrad meadows (continued)... http://i1103.photobucket.com/albums/g470/MichaeljField/Bulgaria%20Trip%20May-June%202012/IMG_4465edit-1.jpg The rather dusky-looking Glanville Fritillary in the wildflower meadow. http://i1103.photobucket.com/albums/g470/MichaeljField/Bulgaria%2...

Thursday, 7th June – Velingrad meadows We had already decided that on the very last day of the trip we would travel again to Golyamo belovo, so for Thursday (the penultimate day of our trip) we would stay locally at Velingrad. I wanted to take some landscape shots to support some of the places we’d...

Mikhail wrote:The 'Bull frogs' are Green Toads Epidalea viridis, close relatives of the Natterjack. Pseudophilotes vicrama= Eastern Baton Blue.
M.

Thanks Mikhail - regarding the Pseudophilotes vicrama - that serves me right for having about 3 different European guides by my computer

Michael

Wednesday 6th June – return to the edge of Eleshnitsa Village (continued) The good weather continued as we followed the main dirt track further along the landscape: there were plenty of muddy puddles in the middle of the path, and one still had a Bullfrog in it. I wasn’t sure if this Bullfrog was d...

Hi all, Regarding the female Blue with the upperside shown, here it is again with an underside photo of the same individual - neither were great shots but perhaps useful for the ID. I'm quite happy if this and the last underside Blue shown were both Balkan Zephyr Blue (Plebejus sephirus) - certainly...

Hi Roger and Mikhail, oops :oops: - regarding the larval webs - I made the mistake earlier in the week due to the glossy look of the younger stages, to my untrained eye much closer to Black-Veined White caterpillars. I'll go through my posts a bit later this week to update the ID's. If the blues are...

Wednesday 6th June – return to the edge of Eleshnitsa Village The weather forecast for the last three days in Bulgaria left us all set for good weather, so on Wednesday we took the near-two hour journey South to the roadside walk I had found on Saturday near the village of Eleshnitsa. We arrived ju...

Hi Roger,
I'd never considered Dappled Whites, so I'm sure you're right. For the region it would be the Eastern Dappled White (Euchloe ausonia). Thanks for the help .
Michael

Tuesday 5th June, East edge of Velingrad Town (continued) The sunshine and warmth surprisingly continued for at least a couple of hours, but soon we could see the oncoming thunderstorm coming from the direction of the town. We headed back to the car, but on the way I noticed the first Thistles out ...

Tuesday 5th June, East edge of Velingrad Town As the forecast for Tuesday was due to be the worst of the week, we took a short ride early in the morning just to the east side of the Village, to the small bit of scrubland we had visited late afternoon on Sunday where I’d seen a Black Hairstreak colo...

Hi Paul, I wasn't sure if you'd gone or not as planned. I've no doubt I'll be envious and excited by what you saw on your trip when you've posted :wink: . You'll probably have seen some of the species that I was hoping too but missed. Interesting that the landscape had changed quite a bit by the tim...

Hi Ian, thanks - there's definitely more to come, with three of the last four days in perfect sunshine and some different species to finish off the report... :) I should also say, somewhat ashamedly, that I am 'nipping back' to Bulgaria for a week in August, to try and see some of the species I miss...

Hi Guy, thanks for your comments - I definitely struggle with the blues and the skippers, so thanks for the suggestions. I thought that by law of averages some must have been different from Pyrgus malvae (Grizzled). Before I took went on the trip I had some suggestions on locations from Nikolay Shti...

Monday 4th June – Trip to Batak Lake (continued)... After a couple of hours at the side of the Batak Lake we ventured back to the car with very soggy feet and boots – nevertheless we persevered with the area and drove further along the road, finding another spot further away from the lake, which ha...

Monday 4th June – Trip to Batak Lake Our second week in Bulgaria, and another early morning start, this time we drove from Velingrad to Batak lake, which is under an hours drive just on the outskirts of the town of Batak, to the South-East of Velingrad. In fact we had probably driven past Batak Lak...

Sunday 3rd June – Velingrad meadows (south) and route to Lepinitsa cave (continued) It was quite hot now and we drove further south towards a walking path that would eventually lead to the Lepinitsa Cave, a locally-known spot of geological interest. There was quite a strong low river stream to cros...

Sunday 3rd June – Velingrad meadows (south) and route to Lepinitsa cave After travelling quite a bit for the last two days, we decided to stay local on the 5th day. We returned to the south of the village on the 843 road, near the river crossing and hillside meadows I’d briefly visited during storm...