essex buzzard

[David M]

Several Mountain Small Whites were found here...

Grrr. Now you're absolutely killing me, Mark. Do you intend to post a full species list so we can all see what you encountered during the course of your trip?

[essexbuzzard]

Just back from our short break to west Cornwall. More to come on that in due course. After I've reported from Dorset! And then there's Aston Rowant. And Lydden TE downs...

Right, I must finish Armenia. On the way to our last lunch stop, we passed several valley towns and villages, and many had stork nests.

At our lunch stop, butterflies were plentiful, but mostly species we were now familiar with. However, this grizzled skipper I'm not certain on, it was more brown than the others I had seen:

[Wurzel]

Not a clue from me on your Grizzle Essex though it looks like not a Grizzlie if that makes sense

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[essexbuzzard]

For afternoon, we visited the Norovank gorge. This is one of the places we saw collectors at work. There were certainly plenty of butterflies, including our last mud-puddling blues.

Here is a blue Anomalous blue, possibly A. furdussii pseudactis;

This is Osiris Blue which was present all week, but this was my first open winged picture ,for certain;

All week, I had been finding Eastern Bath Whites,but this is my only open wing picture;

[essexbuzzard]

We had seen a few Amasian Satyr, but this worn adult is the only one that settled long enough for a picture;

This fritillary is clearly of the Knapweed group, new to me,i think it's Freyers Frit;

A Southern Comma was a nice find;

Here is another Nettle Tree, found by Esther;

To finish off the day,here is another grizzled skipper, to test the identification skills;

[David M]

Another wonderful, mouth watering selection there, Mark. Your pyrgus doesn't look like any I've ever seen. Those forewings are especially strongly marked.

[essexbuzzard]

Yes, I can't find anything similar in any of my books, though they are all European based. Don't think it's an ab. either, as there were several similar ones.

Today, we had a late-morning flight, so we got an early start, and made it in good time to the airport. However, , when we checked the departure board, our flight out had been cancelled due to big storm in Moscow! Eventually we managed to get booked on a 2am flight.

But every cloud, and all that. We now had a bonus day in Yerevan, so we decided to visit the city botanical gardens, and look for birds and butterflies there.

Even here, in the middle of the city, the Cardinal Fritillary was here, on the ornamental flowers. All week I had been photographing Brimstones,hoping to claim a Powdered Brimstone. But it wasn't to be. Common Blues were, indeed, common, and male Queen of Spain Fritillaries were on and near the paths. Meadow and Dusky Meadow Browns were found, as were Brown Argus, Holly Blue, Small Copper, Eastern Bath, Large and Small Whites, Scarce Swallowtail and Essex, Large and Small Skippers.

But the highlight of the day were the Blue-spot Hairstreaks. They were everywhere! I counted a hundred and then stoped, and I gave up photographing single adults. We saw some cow parsley family flowers, and seemingly every head had one, two or three on it. They were also fond of yarrow blooms. Birds were a little quiet, but included laughing dove and hoopoe.

[Wurzel]

Those Hairstreaks are great, and to see so many just milling about

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Those are serious numbers of Blue Spot Hairstreaks, Mark. I wonder whether that is usual or whether they were just having an exceptionally good year, like Scarce Coppers in the Alps last month?

[essexbuzzard]

So that was Armenia. We left Yerevan overnight for our flight to Moscow (Moskva) and transferred without incident to Heathrow, arriving around 9.30 AM.

So, as David asked, here is my list- just the species I saw myself, as I missed a few, the only Peacock for example! Still have one or two species to confirm,too.

Essex Skipper
Southern Small Skipper
Large Skipper
Dingy Skipper
Mallow Skipper
Marbled Skipper
Tufted Skipper
Oriental Skipper
Orb Red-underwing Skipper
Tessellated Skipper
Yellow-banded Skipper
Sandy Grizzled Skipper
Olive Skipper

Clouded Apollo
Scarce Swallowtail
Southern Swallowtail
Swallowtail

Wood White
Real' s Wood White
Orange Tip
Black-veined White
Eastern Bath White
False Small White
Dark-veined White
Bowdens White
Mountain Small White
Large white
Small White
Clouded Yellow
Berger's Clouded Yellow
Brimstone

Small Copper
Purple-shot Copper
Lesser Firey Copper
Turkish Firey Copper
Sooty Copper


Blue-spot Hairstreak
White-letter Hairstreak
Hairstreak Satyrium abdominalis

[essexbuzzard]

BLUES

Small Blue
Osiris Blue
Eastern Short-tailed Blue
Holly Blue
Alcon Blue
Odd-spot Blue
Zephyr Blue
Idas Blue
Silver- studded Blue
Loew's Blue
Eastern Brown Argus
Brown Argus
Blue Argus
Geranium Argus
Eastern Mazarine Blue
Gavarnie Balkan Blue
Pontic Blue
Adonis Blue
Meleager's Blue
Common Blue
Chapmans Blue
Amanda's Blue
Anomalous Blues A. delmavendi
A. eriwanensis
A. belovi
A. furdussii pseudactis
A. surakovi

Nettle-tree Butterfly
Lesser Lattice Browm
Wall
Small Heath
Caucasian Heath
Chestnut Heath
Pearly Heath
Russian Heath
Saadi's Heath
Meadow Brown
Oriental Meadow Brown
Dusky Meadow Brown
Gross' Meadow Brown
Woodland Ringlet
Scotch Argus

Marbled White
Balkan Marbled White
Esper's Marbled White
Amasian Satyr
Dryrad
Cyprus (Eastern) Grayling
Syrian Rock Grayling
False Grayling?
Great-banded Grayling
Hermit
Steppe Grayling?
Klug's Tawny Rockbrown


Southern White Admiral
White Admiral
Hungarian Glider
Painted Lady
Small Tortoiseshell
Southern Comma
Comma
Large Tortoiseshell


Spotted Fritillary
Glanville Fritillary
Knapweed Fritillary
Freyer's Fritillary
Caucasian Fritillary
Nickerl's Fritillary
Silver-washed Fritillary
Cardinals
Dark Green Fritillary
Niobe Fritillary
Queen of Spain Fritillary
Twin-spot Fritillary
Weaver'a Fritillary
Marsh Fritillary

Probably a few more for the group, this will appear on the official report.

[kevling]

Wow, that is some list. I had no idea that Armenia was such a great place for Butterflies. Been enjoying your report and photos. You've made a grown man cry

Regards Kev

[David M]

Thanks for that, Mark. Lots of lifers for me on that impressive list. How would you rate Armenia for other things, e.g. infrastructure, quality of food/accommodation/transport, welcome from locals, provision of services, etc? I know so little about this country, but it has been on my radar for a while now.

[essexbuzzard]

Oh, and Colias chlorocoma, the white clouded yellow, kindly pointed out by Guy.

David, some good questions there, and I will come back to them.

I didn't lug loads of bird photography equipment around Armenia, however I did see some good stuff, and I did take some record shots with the lumix, besides those posted already. Other members of the group with bigger cameras will have managed better shots, these are Armenia gulls;

Poor picture,but a record none the less,of my first ever long-legged buzzard ;

A very ragged, moulting lesser spotted eagle;

Red-backed shrikes were everywhere, throughout the trip;

This ring ouzel was nice to see, over looking a valley with mud-puddling Black-veined Whites;

Distant, but easily recognisable, a bearded vulture;

Above our heads, at a picnic lunch, was this lesser grey shrike;

[essexbuzzard]

This holiday was very well organised by Naturetrek- somebody must have done a considerable amount of work finding the sites in this relatively little-known country.

Thanks to our local driver for the week, and to our lovely local guide, Hasmik, with her impressive bird knowledge. And a big thank-you to Tom Brereton, of Butterfly Conservation and Tour Leader, it was a great pleasure to meet up with you in Dorset a couple of weeks later as well!

When we got back from Armenia,one of the first places we visited was Lullingstone Country Park, Kent, where Dark Green Fritillaries were showing well, and the nearby lavender fields were splendid.

[David M]

What a beautiful, dark individual she is, Mark. Almost a Mountain Frit-like sheen to her!

[Wurzel]

Cracking DARK green Frit Essex, almost smoky Very envious of the Lammy Looking forward to the Dorset photos

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[essexbuzzard]

Thanks David, yes she does remind one of those mountain Fritillaries, it's true. She was a lovely fresh specimen.

Coming very soon Wurzel!

[essexbuzzard]

GREETINGS from the Isle of Purbeck!

Next up for us, it was a trip to Dorset. We normally visit in late August, but circumstances conspired against that, so we went mid July. The butterflies now would clearly be different to late August, so it would be interesting to see what we would find.

First it was off to Swanage on the excellent Swanage Steam Railway, then an early lunch, then walked to Durlston CP. Near the car park, a nice male Wall was to quick for me, so I had to make do with this Gatekeeper;

The prime target here is the Lulworth Skipper, and walking down the slope, we soon started to see them. Here is my best picture...

[essexbuzzard]

Only joking! Anyone who knows Durlston will recognise this habit shot;

Male Lulworths were the first to be seen, on this warm but initially cloudy day;

Females were keeping a lower profile, but we found a few in the sheltered dips;

This male was trying it on, but the female was taking no notice and had probably already mated;

Other butterflies here included Small Skipper, Brown Argus, Common Blue, Dark Green Fritillary, Grayling , Marbled White and Meadow Brown. Here is a Small Blue ;

And a Grayling;