Excellent Paul - you won’t be disappointed! Yes, David, I think she’s a fairly typical female. They can certainly be quite heavily marked - perhaps even more so than this individual. We tend to see around 140 - 150 species, but we’re getting better at tracking down some tricky ones so we should be a...

millerd wrote: ↑Sat Nov 05, 2022 10:52 pm My third offering…

Yep - that’s April sorted for UK butterfly calendars for evermore……

9D05CF6C-7DAA-4152-9EA4-C922D782BA3F.jpeg EB766101-225C-4283-A0D7-A0094D6C73DF.jpeg 68164435-E087-41B4-BD02-B5F9407DB9E1.jpeg 9A19CEE0-9A91-44E3-BF46-F71BE8FF79B9.jpeg 12038607-AB88-4671-B6AD-6EE29267E1CA.jpeg D69458BE-F05B-412D-A720-D88DEE13D07B.jpeg After Olgunlar we spend a day returning to Erzu...

Section 3 - Olgunlar 0383E1BD-0986-4A97-AA06-764D132570DB.jpeg An hour or so from Barhal, our final base is located in the Hastaf Valley between the towering peaks of the Gungormez range to the south and the Kackar range to the north. Our hotel is to be found at 2200m, where the single track road en...

Thanks guys - it’s taking a bit of sorting out but I’m nearly there…… Disappointingly I’ve not seen any butterflies on bear scat so far - possibly these fruity deposits are just a little too benign. The rotting horse head pictured with Scarce Tortoiseshells at Gungormez however, was clearly a real b...

Just seen your brimstones in the favourite photos thread. Sorry to have missed these at the time, but I’ve been back through your diary and read the report now. Just wanted to add my appreciation along with everyone else’s - really fantastic images - brilliant stuff!

Hoping to make this again but will have to confirm closer to the time

E4B7B8BC-D9A9-4B50-840C-6F354BEF5A84.jpeg As we ascend we encounter huge congregations of mud puddling blues, with Meleager’s, Eros, Aedon, Anatolian Zephyr, Silver-studded, Idas, Damon, Iphigenia and Ripart’s Anomalous being particularly common. 964DEE6C-D25D-4B20-8FCF-A0F15344CF4F.jpeg 58531ED0-5...

Section 2 - Barhal and surrounding valleys. 581E3F6F-0626-488A-BA56-3E905B746E9E.jpeg Our first base is situated on the southern slopes of the Kackar. Here the humid beech forests of the northern Black Sea slopes give way to mixed forests dominated by pine or scrubby oak. In this zone the surroundin...

I’m glad it’s of interest guys. Indeed the excitement really lies with the lycaenids, and as as I trawl through my photos of several trips I’m reminded just how much I focus on them! I’m struggling to find pictures of many of the species in different families that I’d like to represent. As mentioned...

Having completed our day at Gungormez (honestly I could spend a decade there), we head north along the D950. We could reach our destination in the Kackar with 4 hours of driving but we break up the journey with several stops along the way. The road follows one of the Coruh tributaries passing first ...

About 20 miles north of Erzurum lies the small village of Gungormez, and for us, this is undoubtedly the highlight of the area. Of course there are many of these small villages in similar valleys scattered throughout the region, but Gungormez is the one we know, and it never disappoints. The cattle-...

Section 1 - Erzurum Province DAB4EC56-EFBF-4393-8A60-421BD2862EBB.jpeg This section will cover a variety of habitats that we visit in Erzurum Province. We travel for several hours across this region when transiting between our arrival point at Erzurum Airport and our first main base 100 miles to the...

956A2ADB-D70D-47AA-8D5C-F2A782BA4140.jpeg I thought I’d do a trip report (of sorts) for probably my favourite place to go butterflying - the Kackar Mountains of NE Turkey. The Kackar Mountains are wild and beautiful and as with the very best pockets of Eastern Europe, to walk through villages and u...

Top stuff Trevor - as usual at this time of year you’re still out having excellent butterfly filled days when many of us have started to focus elsewhere. The walls have been fantastic - lovely photos.

Agreed - what a super final shot! The others are really very good as well Dave - certainly better than my efforts this year.

Excellent work with the parasitoid Pete - just goes to show the value of good old fashioned field work!

Looking forward to the next book along with many others I’m sure!

Great to see your excellent shots from today Katrina. It was hard to drag myself away with the clouds parting and so much of the afternoon still ahead, but I was thankful to be there at all - what a welcome end of season bonus this is becoming! Hopefully catch up again soon.

Superb shots Trevor. Knowing what was coming I’ve been looking forward to your post all evening! I really must go back and find myself one of those pristine males - what a stunner.

Not to compete with all the excellent pics coming out of Worthing in recent days (and still to come!), but I did take a few of the group, and as many are UKB stalwarts I thought I should share them here. Apologies for dashing off without saying goodbye - as usual I’d already risked missing school pi...