Great stuff Chris! Old Perithia and Mt.Pandokrator are excellent butterfly locations. Particular congratulations on seeing the Cardinal - it is by no means guaranteed out there!

That was a fabulous read, Pete, and yes, the expense was well worth it to find silvicolus . Thanks David - you are right of course; worth every penny to see such a striking butterfly as the male silvicolus in the flesh! Another good read Pete. Well done and congrats on your lifers. Thanks Steve

thanks for these two quite different expedition accounts Pete. your German Skipper was ganz gemütlich :D The Cretan butterflies are wonderful but I agree, that northern chequered skipper is out of this world. And one individual - the difference between success and failure ... Guy Fascinating report...

PART TWO – CRETE If the weather in Germany had been appalling, the weather in Crete was about to move in completely the opposite direction! My wife and I flew into Heraklion very late on Saturday 8th June, arriving at our hotel in Rethymno just after midnight. We were to be based here all week. The...

As lifers become harder and harder to come by, my 2024 European butterfly expeditions had all been designed to locate specific small groups of species, and in the case of the first trip below, just one target butterfly was in my sights. PART ONE - GERMANY Until recently Germany had not been on my ra...

Great stuff Steve - a nice selection of central southern European wildlife and culture there!

This really is the worst spring I can remember for butterflies. I can only imagine that the terrible weather in March, April and May has really set things back for so many species. As the first post in this thread states, here's hoping for a glorious June! I concur Paul - I cannot recall a previous...

Looks good for ergane to me Andy! That apical spot is exactly the right shape.

Sounds like a great trip Pete, thank you . No experience with bears but regarding Wild Boar/Sangliers, here are three pictures of these critters taken with my 500+1.7 converter at a "safe" distance, I also much prefer my encounters with them on the dinner plate. take care. Thanks Jim - th...

Now that is pretty extreme! Fantastic beast - a severe ab.lugens maybe?

A wonderful write up as always Pete. Very pleased to see you mopped up on those very localised target species and so much more. It is obviously a fantastic area. I read your report with a huge amount of envy as my wife and I had our trip to this area cancelled due to Covid on more than one occasion...

What an absolute stunner Dave! Superb, and very bizarre that the same aberration has occurred several times in different years - as Bugboy says you have to think that it might be genetic rather than environmentally induced. Fabulous!

Stevieb wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2024 5:54 pm Excellent as usual Pete. Thanks for another great report.

Thanks Steve - my pleasure as always.

Great read Pete - what a trip! If it were me then I’m sure that when the bizarre evening hotel activities kicked off, and having had a quite incredible and dream-like day in the field, I would have been seriously questioning my reality! Thanks Benjamin - when I awoke on the second night to all hell...

Brilliant read Pete, always a pleasure to read your tour descriptions :) and congrats with the inky Thanks John - that magical Inky Skipper moment is going to be hard to beat!! Looks like you had a wonderful trip otherwise. I know what you mean with Inky Skipper. I suspect I saw one in the Peloponn...

PART THREE With all boxes ticked on the Lepidoptera front, we spent the last couple of days just touring around and enjoying some of the local sites, sounds and smells. For me this trip will be remembered as an intense rush of butterfly action after a rather long period of inactivity; the Inky Skip...

Wonderful stuff, Pete, and congratulations on the inky! I'm intrigued by 'The Game'. Did you learn the rules? Guy Thanks Guy - the Inky was a huge life tick for me! We were sorely tempted to ask about "The Game" but decided that this was a rare occasion where knowing the truth might actua...

PART TWO As we walked through the hotel reception, Vicki noticed that there were now two extra members of staff behind the counter and they were rifling through a lot of paperwork. “I reckon there are more guests arriving soon” she said to me as we climbed the stairway up to our room, and sure enou...

PART ONE Making it through the winter to the springtime is always a challenge for the UK-based Lepidopterists amongst us, but this year seemed even more painful than usual, with the interminably long run of dank, miserable weather. In early January, I also found myself coming out of retirement and ...

I'm not sure I can cope with this persistent sunshine deprivation for much longer. The long-term forecast looks grim. Let's hope things brighten up soon otherwise this could turn into the dullest spring in memory. It's been a shocker David - I cannot recall such a prolonged period of poor weather a...