Greek Delights - Spring 2024
Greek Delights - Spring 2024
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 back into full-time employment for a while. Although I had a series of European trips planned for the summer, the first wasn’t scheduled until the end of May, and by the middle of March the ongoing gloom combined with the fatigue of working 40-hour weeks in a busy agricultural laboratory was playing havoc with my psyche! I needed some butterfly action to look forward to, and I needed it sooner rather than later. I had asked Vicki my wife to keep the week commencing 29th April free from commitments in the hope that we might be able to slip away for a last-minute break and get some much-needed sun and winged action. I was just thinking a cheap and cheerful week in the Canaries or something similar.
Then one evening after a particularly gruelling day’s work, I happened to pick up my copy of the most excellent tome “The Butterflies of Greece”, and the work of Lazaros Pamperis set me dreaming of an alternative reality where we could perhaps travel to a “new for us” part of the Balkans and aim to pick up a handful of rather niche lifers. Once the idea had formed, it was hard not to follow through with it, and soon I had booked flights out to Thessaloniki for Saturday 27th April, along with a hire car and a hotel in the small town of Siatista, not far from Kozani in Western Macedonia.
I had five target species for this trip, four of which would be life-ticks, and one of which would be a half-lifer. They were, in order of desirability, the Inky Skipper, Gruner’s Orange-tip, Dalmatian Ringlet, Bavius Blue, and the spring brood of the Eastern Wood White. I had been given no “known site” information for any of these species prior to our trip but of course I had done my research, sifting through a few iNaturalist records, examining the distribution maps in Pamperis, and spending a good few evenings cruising the virtual reality of Google Earth. Our destination was Mount Askio, and I had mapped out half a dozen areas that I hoped would give us a chance to see this rather special array of butterflies. My remaining weeks at work soon flashed past, and we arrived at our Greek hotel at teatime on the Saturday, home base for the next week. The owner was very friendly, but spoke hardly any English, and we were soon settled into our room admiring the view from the balcony across to the sun-lit hills opposite. We appeared to be the only guests staying in the hotel; peace and tranquillity reigned. After a good night’s sleep, the action commenced on Sunday morning…
After a good breakfast of eggs, ham, cheese, bread, tomatoes and olives we set off in the car for the ten minute drive to our first destination, a steep-sided ravine just outside Siatista. We parked the car and walked up a slowly rising gulley with sparsely vegetated limestone sides and lusher vegetation at the bottom.
Local habitat
The very first butterfly to appear on the wing was quite large and dark, flying casually a foot or two above the grass, and as it landed Vicki asked, “Is that one already?” – I got my binoculars onto it and amazingly yes, there was a Dalmatian Ringlet sat just a few feet away from me – a lifer within less than two minutes of searching! It was a little worn, but no less exciting for that. I took a couple of record shots before it flew off. As we climbed further up into the valley, it became apparent that there was a huge concentration of butterflies. In particular, numerous blues of many different species were flying here, along with fritillaries, skippers and others. It felt magical to be walking once again among clouds of butterflies in the warm sunshine, especially after months of cold, wet weather at home. There was so much action that I didn’t know where to aim my eyes or my camera! But ten minutes after my first Dalmatian Ringlet sighting, I found myself looking at an unfamiliar blue which proved to be a second newbie. This was the Bavius Blue, a cracking butterfly with a lovely orange underside hindwing edging and a rather nice upper side hindwing also. Another five minutes further along and a small, slightly yellowish “Orange-tip” appeared on the wing – Gruner’s Orange-tip – a third lifer! Shortly after this I spent a few minutes following a “Wood White” which eventually landed and proved to be a spring brood Eastern Wood White. At this point I had to pinch myself just to check that I wasn’t dreaming – four out of five of my targets hit within half an hour on the first morning of the holiday? Unbelievable!
The Dalmatian Ringlet has a very restricted European distribution, being found only in parts of Croatia and locally in a small area of Greece, (and recently discovered in Albania) but here in the Askio mountain range it occurs in good numbers. We found it at almost every site we visited over the course of our week here, often flying by the dozens. It is a large, dark butterfly, very visible when on the wing just above the vegetation, and it settles frequently to nectar or to bask on stones. It is also a strikingly handsome insect when fresh, with its contrasting hindwing and forewing ocelli colour, the irregular arrangement of the spots, and that unusual attractive faded edge on the forewing giving it a rather unique appearance among the Erebia/Proterebia butterflies. The underside venation is also prominent and distinctive. Who couldn’t fall in love with it?
Dalmatian Ringlet - Proterebia afra (=phegea)
The Bavius Blue was one of our targets that I wasn’t sure we would find easily. It is very localised in Eastern Europe and usually flies through May and early June – would we be too early for it? And how easy would it be to locate one given the sheer number of other blues on the wing? As it turned out, Bavius was quite clearly different in appearance and not hard to ID in flight. It appears as a darker, richer blue on the wing and once settled is unmistakable. It is somewhat larger than the Eastern Baton Blues with which it flies and subtly different from the Chequered Blues which were also present on this site. The hindwing underside is highly characteristic and makes for an easy diagnosis once you see that infilled contiguous orange marginal band. It is a delightful butterfly, and like the Dalmatian Ringlet, it turned up almost everywhere we went during our stay out here, albeit in ones and twos rather than by the dozens.
Bavius Blue - Pseudophilotes bavius
Seeing Gruner’s Orange-tip was a great thrill. It is widespread but localised across much of Greece and again was on the wing in many places. Getting photographs wasn’t that easy as the males are rather relentless in flight, but perseverance eventually paid off and I managed a few shots, usually when the sun disappeared behind the clouds.
Gruner's Orange-tip - Anthocharis gruneri
And getting to see the spring brood of the Eastern Wood White was a pleasure that was long overdue. I have seen occasional examples of the summer brood over the years, but getting a convincing identification photograph of them is not easy, and I was desperate to finally see and capture some images of the spring brood, whose underside markings are so distinctive. I had a good few opportunities; they were widespread out here in the Askio mountains, turning up in small numbers practically anywhere. They are gorgeously coloured, and the males in particular are very delicate and small.
Eastern Wood White - Leptidea duponcheli
I mentioned the range of Blues at this first site. The numbers were staggering, reminiscent of some of the best days spent at sites in the French Alps some years ago. Mud-puddling was commonplace, and the species list included Small Blue, Osiris Blue, Green-underside Blue, Chequered Blue, Bavius Blue, Eastern Baton Blue, Silver-studded Blue, Geranium Argus, Brown Argus, Blue Argus, Mazarine Blue, Escher’s Blue, Chapman’s Blue, Adonis Blue, and Common Blue.
Small Blue - Cupido minimus
Mazarine Blue - Cyaniris semiargus
Adonis Blue - Lysandra bellargus
Eastern Baton Blue - Pseudophilotes vicrama
Chequered Blue - Scolitantides orion
Chapman's Blue - Polyommatus thersites
Blue Argus - Aricia anteros
And so, at the end of the first full day out in Greece we had succeeded in hitting four of our five targets, with just the Inky Skipper left to find. What an amazing day! Celebrations were of course in order, so we walked into town, found a tiny bar, ordered souvlaki and some local wine, then retired happily back to the hotel, where events were about to take a turn towards the bizarre…more to follow in part 2.
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 back into full-time employment for a while. Although I had a series of European trips planned for the summer, the first wasn’t scheduled until the end of May, and by the middle of March the ongoing gloom combined with the fatigue of working 40-hour weeks in a busy agricultural laboratory was playing havoc with my psyche! I needed some butterfly action to look forward to, and I needed it sooner rather than later. I had asked Vicki my wife to keep the week commencing 29th April free from commitments in the hope that we might be able to slip away for a last-minute break and get some much-needed sun and winged action. I was just thinking a cheap and cheerful week in the Canaries or something similar.
Then one evening after a particularly gruelling day’s work, I happened to pick up my copy of the most excellent tome “The Butterflies of Greece”, and the work of Lazaros Pamperis set me dreaming of an alternative reality where we could perhaps travel to a “new for us” part of the Balkans and aim to pick up a handful of rather niche lifers. Once the idea had formed, it was hard not to follow through with it, and soon I had booked flights out to Thessaloniki for Saturday 27th April, along with a hire car and a hotel in the small town of Siatista, not far from Kozani in Western Macedonia.
I had five target species for this trip, four of which would be life-ticks, and one of which would be a half-lifer. They were, in order of desirability, the Inky Skipper, Gruner’s Orange-tip, Dalmatian Ringlet, Bavius Blue, and the spring brood of the Eastern Wood White. I had been given no “known site” information for any of these species prior to our trip but of course I had done my research, sifting through a few iNaturalist records, examining the distribution maps in Pamperis, and spending a good few evenings cruising the virtual reality of Google Earth. Our destination was Mount Askio, and I had mapped out half a dozen areas that I hoped would give us a chance to see this rather special array of butterflies. My remaining weeks at work soon flashed past, and we arrived at our Greek hotel at teatime on the Saturday, home base for the next week. The owner was very friendly, but spoke hardly any English, and we were soon settled into our room admiring the view from the balcony across to the sun-lit hills opposite. We appeared to be the only guests staying in the hotel; peace and tranquillity reigned. After a good night’s sleep, the action commenced on Sunday morning…
After a good breakfast of eggs, ham, cheese, bread, tomatoes and olives we set off in the car for the ten minute drive to our first destination, a steep-sided ravine just outside Siatista. We parked the car and walked up a slowly rising gulley with sparsely vegetated limestone sides and lusher vegetation at the bottom.
Local habitat
The very first butterfly to appear on the wing was quite large and dark, flying casually a foot or two above the grass, and as it landed Vicki asked, “Is that one already?” – I got my binoculars onto it and amazingly yes, there was a Dalmatian Ringlet sat just a few feet away from me – a lifer within less than two minutes of searching! It was a little worn, but no less exciting for that. I took a couple of record shots before it flew off. As we climbed further up into the valley, it became apparent that there was a huge concentration of butterflies. In particular, numerous blues of many different species were flying here, along with fritillaries, skippers and others. It felt magical to be walking once again among clouds of butterflies in the warm sunshine, especially after months of cold, wet weather at home. There was so much action that I didn’t know where to aim my eyes or my camera! But ten minutes after my first Dalmatian Ringlet sighting, I found myself looking at an unfamiliar blue which proved to be a second newbie. This was the Bavius Blue, a cracking butterfly with a lovely orange underside hindwing edging and a rather nice upper side hindwing also. Another five minutes further along and a small, slightly yellowish “Orange-tip” appeared on the wing – Gruner’s Orange-tip – a third lifer! Shortly after this I spent a few minutes following a “Wood White” which eventually landed and proved to be a spring brood Eastern Wood White. At this point I had to pinch myself just to check that I wasn’t dreaming – four out of five of my targets hit within half an hour on the first morning of the holiday? Unbelievable!
The Dalmatian Ringlet has a very restricted European distribution, being found only in parts of Croatia and locally in a small area of Greece, (and recently discovered in Albania) but here in the Askio mountain range it occurs in good numbers. We found it at almost every site we visited over the course of our week here, often flying by the dozens. It is a large, dark butterfly, very visible when on the wing just above the vegetation, and it settles frequently to nectar or to bask on stones. It is also a strikingly handsome insect when fresh, with its contrasting hindwing and forewing ocelli colour, the irregular arrangement of the spots, and that unusual attractive faded edge on the forewing giving it a rather unique appearance among the Erebia/Proterebia butterflies. The underside venation is also prominent and distinctive. Who couldn’t fall in love with it?
Dalmatian Ringlet - Proterebia afra (=phegea)
The Bavius Blue was one of our targets that I wasn’t sure we would find easily. It is very localised in Eastern Europe and usually flies through May and early June – would we be too early for it? And how easy would it be to locate one given the sheer number of other blues on the wing? As it turned out, Bavius was quite clearly different in appearance and not hard to ID in flight. It appears as a darker, richer blue on the wing and once settled is unmistakable. It is somewhat larger than the Eastern Baton Blues with which it flies and subtly different from the Chequered Blues which were also present on this site. The hindwing underside is highly characteristic and makes for an easy diagnosis once you see that infilled contiguous orange marginal band. It is a delightful butterfly, and like the Dalmatian Ringlet, it turned up almost everywhere we went during our stay out here, albeit in ones and twos rather than by the dozens.
Bavius Blue - Pseudophilotes bavius
Seeing Gruner’s Orange-tip was a great thrill. It is widespread but localised across much of Greece and again was on the wing in many places. Getting photographs wasn’t that easy as the males are rather relentless in flight, but perseverance eventually paid off and I managed a few shots, usually when the sun disappeared behind the clouds.
Gruner's Orange-tip - Anthocharis gruneri
And getting to see the spring brood of the Eastern Wood White was a pleasure that was long overdue. I have seen occasional examples of the summer brood over the years, but getting a convincing identification photograph of them is not easy, and I was desperate to finally see and capture some images of the spring brood, whose underside markings are so distinctive. I had a good few opportunities; they were widespread out here in the Askio mountains, turning up in small numbers practically anywhere. They are gorgeously coloured, and the males in particular are very delicate and small.
Eastern Wood White - Leptidea duponcheli
I mentioned the range of Blues at this first site. The numbers were staggering, reminiscent of some of the best days spent at sites in the French Alps some years ago. Mud-puddling was commonplace, and the species list included Small Blue, Osiris Blue, Green-underside Blue, Chequered Blue, Bavius Blue, Eastern Baton Blue, Silver-studded Blue, Geranium Argus, Brown Argus, Blue Argus, Mazarine Blue, Escher’s Blue, Chapman’s Blue, Adonis Blue, and Common Blue.
Small Blue - Cupido minimus
Mazarine Blue - Cyaniris semiargus
Adonis Blue - Lysandra bellargus
Eastern Baton Blue - Pseudophilotes vicrama
Chequered Blue - Scolitantides orion
Chapman's Blue - Polyommatus thersites
Blue Argus - Aricia anteros
And so, at the end of the first full day out in Greece we had succeeded in hitting four of our five targets, with just the Inky Skipper left to find. What an amazing day! Celebrations were of course in order, so we walked into town, found a tiny bar, ordered souvlaki and some local wine, then retired happily back to the hotel, where events were about to take a turn towards the bizarre…more to follow in part 2.
Re: Greek Delights - Spring 2024
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 enough as we settled down on our balcony and opened a second bottle of wine to continue celebrating our butterflying successes, a coach pulled up into the car park and disgorged its contents. The contents appeared to be a group of around 35 young adults, late teens/early twenties age group, who proceeded to slowly filter through reception and up into their rooms. They were a diverse bunch ethnically speaking, some French, some Spaniards, Germans, Japanese, and it soon became clear that despite arriving together on the same coach they didn’t actually know each other. As they were allocated their various rooms they spilled out onto their own balconies and began introducing themselves to one another, using English as a common language. This was a little strange, and after a bit of passive eavesdropping, we learned that they were all here to play “The Game”, and they were very excited and animated about it! It wasn’t clear just what The Game was, but they settled into their rooms and then all went quiet. We thought no more of this, finished our wine, wrote up the day’s butterfly records and headed for an early night, in bed by 9:30pm and quickly asleep. Until 11:30pm, when we were rudely awoken by someone hammering on our bedroom door. There was much laughter and noise, shouting, people running up and down the corridors, furniture being scraped across the floors of adjacent hotel rooms. All hell was breaking loose! It sounded like there was a riot going on. Suddenly one of them said something along the lines of “Oh no. This is the English couple’s room.” And our door was allowed to remain on its hinges as they moved away laughing hysterically. More noise, music, crashing banging and raucous laughter continued well into the early hours. We got hardly any sleep.
The following morning, we breakfasted, bleary eyed, at half past eight. The hotel staff had now multiplied again, and the breakfast room was set for many places. The hotelier’s wife was lovely and informed us that we had the place to ourselves for breakfast until 9:00am, at which point “The Group” would be arriving. Several members of said Group did try and arrive early and begin to help themselves to the buffet breakfast but were rapidly and ferociously chased off and told in no uncertain tone that their breakfast time was not until nine. I threw a few Paddington Bear stares in the general direction of a couple of these miscreants who had kept us awake half of the night, we finished our breakfast, then it was time to set out on the next part of our mission.
Today was all about the Inky Skipper, our only remaining target. I had three sites mapped out where the species had been recorded on iNaturalist recently, so we headed up to the first of these areas. We were at higher altitude today, and the Dalmatian Ringlets were notably fresher in appearance than those that we had seen yesterday. They were also even more numerous, but despite searching for several hours we had no success finding Inky Skippers so moved on to the second site, where we also drew a blank. There was plenty of interest to occupy us though, including more Gruner’s Orange-tips, a Southern Festoon, Clouded Yellows and a variety of Blues and other Skippers. The day passed quickly and we once again ate out at in Siatista that evening, this time at a different taverna but again enjoying souvlaki (menu choices were limited), this time with tzatziki and mushrooms, before heading back to the hotel with a mild degree of trepidation. But all was quiet, and we once again retired early hoping to catch up on the sleep we had missed the previous night. Would you believe it, but around 11 pm pandemonium broke loose again! A repeat performance of last night but this time with added drama of people calling for doctors, ambulance sirens going off, more hammering on doors, more crashing around and even more loud music. What was this? Was it real life drama? Was it all part of The Game? Had we inadvertently booked into a hotel that was hosting some sort of international murder mystery event? Was this some torturous form of Greek reality TV show? We were suffering from sense of humour failure by now, and another night of poor sleep followed.
The next morning, we were informed that “The Group” were leaving today – the relief was immense. We never did find out what it was all about, but as of Tuesday our hotel returned to a place of quietness and comfort, and we continued our search for the Inky Skipper. This time we searched further east towards Kozani at what turned out to be an excellent Skipper site in general. We found plenty of them – Hungarian Skippers, Dingy Skippers, Marbled Skippers, Oriental Marbled Skippers, Mallow Skippers, Yellow-banded Skippers, Grizzled Skippers and Oberthur’s Grizzled Skippers, but still no sign of the Inky beast itself.
Dingy Skipper - Erynnis tages
Grizzled Skipper - Pyrgus malvae
Oberthur's Grizzled Skipper - Pyrgus armoricanus
Yellow-banded Skipper - Pyrgus sidae
Oriental Marbled Skipper - Carcharodus orientalis
Hungarian Skipper - Spialia orbifer
I should probably point out here that I have been searching for Inky Skippers on and off for more than 12 years now without success. It had become a massive bogey butterfly for me. I have sought it out on Corfu, where it used to occur but has not apparently been recorded for some years. I have looked for it in the Pelopponese and on Lesvos, both places where it still flies, I have tried for it on Thasos where there is a doubtful record, and I have trawled through other parts of Epirus and Western Macedonia where it is known to occur, all to no avail.
By break of day on Wednesday 1st May I was becoming convinced we were not going to find this elusive creature at all. I had exhausted my options. It was time to take matters in hand and make one last-ditch effort. I recalled reading somewhere of how the Inky Skipper will often hill-top. Many of the hills in this area are relatively inaccessible by car, but the placement of wind turbines on top of some of them has resulted in access tracks that are navigable without a 4x4 vehicle, so I chose a random one of these, we drove up a way, and I parked and headed up to the nearest ridge that I could find that had a bit of scrub cover. It looked OK to me, and within five minutes that renowned hill-topping species, the Eastern Greenish Black-tip, turned up, which was a great moment of joy in itself, but also indicated that I might just have chosen a good spot – after all, if it was good enough for the EGBT, surely it was also good enough for the Inky Skipper.
Eastern Greenish Black-tip - Euchloe penia
The weather was cooler today, with a lot of cloud and just occasional sunny spells, and the breeze at 1100m above sea level was cool. Things were flying, but reluctantly. I had seen one or two rather dark, fast-flying skippers - too quick for me to follow – but possible candidates. Suddenly a courting pair of darkish skippers appeared right in front of us, bouncing up and down, perfectly synchronised, for about thirty seconds. Could this be the holy grail at last? One of them suddenly decided they were leaving the dance, the other landed on a rock about 4 metres away. Binoculars up, focus; “Oh My God!” It’s an INKY!!!” I couldn’t believe it. My heart was going like the clappers. I have read numerous times about how flighty this species is, at how the slightest vibration or sound from a shutter release will spook them, and I fully expected that as soon as I pointed my camera at this beauty and pressed the trigger it would vanish, never to be seen again. But it didn’t. It just sat there and let me get closer, and closer, and closer. Was it the weather conditions? Were the butterfly Gods finally giving me a break after 12 years of fruitless labour? I didn’t care! I had an Inky Skipper right in front of me and it was behaving immaculately! It doesn’t get any better than this in my world. Unforgettable!
Inky Skipper - Erynnis marloyi
Habitat of Inky Skipper
Part three to follow
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 enough as we settled down on our balcony and opened a second bottle of wine to continue celebrating our butterflying successes, a coach pulled up into the car park and disgorged its contents. The contents appeared to be a group of around 35 young adults, late teens/early twenties age group, who proceeded to slowly filter through reception and up into their rooms. They were a diverse bunch ethnically speaking, some French, some Spaniards, Germans, Japanese, and it soon became clear that despite arriving together on the same coach they didn’t actually know each other. As they were allocated their various rooms they spilled out onto their own balconies and began introducing themselves to one another, using English as a common language. This was a little strange, and after a bit of passive eavesdropping, we learned that they were all here to play “The Game”, and they were very excited and animated about it! It wasn’t clear just what The Game was, but they settled into their rooms and then all went quiet. We thought no more of this, finished our wine, wrote up the day’s butterfly records and headed for an early night, in bed by 9:30pm and quickly asleep. Until 11:30pm, when we were rudely awoken by someone hammering on our bedroom door. There was much laughter and noise, shouting, people running up and down the corridors, furniture being scraped across the floors of adjacent hotel rooms. All hell was breaking loose! It sounded like there was a riot going on. Suddenly one of them said something along the lines of “Oh no. This is the English couple’s room.” And our door was allowed to remain on its hinges as they moved away laughing hysterically. More noise, music, crashing banging and raucous laughter continued well into the early hours. We got hardly any sleep.
The following morning, we breakfasted, bleary eyed, at half past eight. The hotel staff had now multiplied again, and the breakfast room was set for many places. The hotelier’s wife was lovely and informed us that we had the place to ourselves for breakfast until 9:00am, at which point “The Group” would be arriving. Several members of said Group did try and arrive early and begin to help themselves to the buffet breakfast but were rapidly and ferociously chased off and told in no uncertain tone that their breakfast time was not until nine. I threw a few Paddington Bear stares in the general direction of a couple of these miscreants who had kept us awake half of the night, we finished our breakfast, then it was time to set out on the next part of our mission.
Today was all about the Inky Skipper, our only remaining target. I had three sites mapped out where the species had been recorded on iNaturalist recently, so we headed up to the first of these areas. We were at higher altitude today, and the Dalmatian Ringlets were notably fresher in appearance than those that we had seen yesterday. They were also even more numerous, but despite searching for several hours we had no success finding Inky Skippers so moved on to the second site, where we also drew a blank. There was plenty of interest to occupy us though, including more Gruner’s Orange-tips, a Southern Festoon, Clouded Yellows and a variety of Blues and other Skippers. The day passed quickly and we once again ate out at in Siatista that evening, this time at a different taverna but again enjoying souvlaki (menu choices were limited), this time with tzatziki and mushrooms, before heading back to the hotel with a mild degree of trepidation. But all was quiet, and we once again retired early hoping to catch up on the sleep we had missed the previous night. Would you believe it, but around 11 pm pandemonium broke loose again! A repeat performance of last night but this time with added drama of people calling for doctors, ambulance sirens going off, more hammering on doors, more crashing around and even more loud music. What was this? Was it real life drama? Was it all part of The Game? Had we inadvertently booked into a hotel that was hosting some sort of international murder mystery event? Was this some torturous form of Greek reality TV show? We were suffering from sense of humour failure by now, and another night of poor sleep followed.
The next morning, we were informed that “The Group” were leaving today – the relief was immense. We never did find out what it was all about, but as of Tuesday our hotel returned to a place of quietness and comfort, and we continued our search for the Inky Skipper. This time we searched further east towards Kozani at what turned out to be an excellent Skipper site in general. We found plenty of them – Hungarian Skippers, Dingy Skippers, Marbled Skippers, Oriental Marbled Skippers, Mallow Skippers, Yellow-banded Skippers, Grizzled Skippers and Oberthur’s Grizzled Skippers, but still no sign of the Inky beast itself.
Dingy Skipper - Erynnis tages
Grizzled Skipper - Pyrgus malvae
Oberthur's Grizzled Skipper - Pyrgus armoricanus
Yellow-banded Skipper - Pyrgus sidae
Oriental Marbled Skipper - Carcharodus orientalis
Hungarian Skipper - Spialia orbifer
I should probably point out here that I have been searching for Inky Skippers on and off for more than 12 years now without success. It had become a massive bogey butterfly for me. I have sought it out on Corfu, where it used to occur but has not apparently been recorded for some years. I have looked for it in the Pelopponese and on Lesvos, both places where it still flies, I have tried for it on Thasos where there is a doubtful record, and I have trawled through other parts of Epirus and Western Macedonia where it is known to occur, all to no avail.
By break of day on Wednesday 1st May I was becoming convinced we were not going to find this elusive creature at all. I had exhausted my options. It was time to take matters in hand and make one last-ditch effort. I recalled reading somewhere of how the Inky Skipper will often hill-top. Many of the hills in this area are relatively inaccessible by car, but the placement of wind turbines on top of some of them has resulted in access tracks that are navigable without a 4x4 vehicle, so I chose a random one of these, we drove up a way, and I parked and headed up to the nearest ridge that I could find that had a bit of scrub cover. It looked OK to me, and within five minutes that renowned hill-topping species, the Eastern Greenish Black-tip, turned up, which was a great moment of joy in itself, but also indicated that I might just have chosen a good spot – after all, if it was good enough for the EGBT, surely it was also good enough for the Inky Skipper.
Eastern Greenish Black-tip - Euchloe penia
The weather was cooler today, with a lot of cloud and just occasional sunny spells, and the breeze at 1100m above sea level was cool. Things were flying, but reluctantly. I had seen one or two rather dark, fast-flying skippers - too quick for me to follow – but possible candidates. Suddenly a courting pair of darkish skippers appeared right in front of us, bouncing up and down, perfectly synchronised, for about thirty seconds. Could this be the holy grail at last? One of them suddenly decided they were leaving the dance, the other landed on a rock about 4 metres away. Binoculars up, focus; “Oh My God!” It’s an INKY!!!” I couldn’t believe it. My heart was going like the clappers. I have read numerous times about how flighty this species is, at how the slightest vibration or sound from a shutter release will spook them, and I fully expected that as soon as I pointed my camera at this beauty and pressed the trigger it would vanish, never to be seen again. But it didn’t. It just sat there and let me get closer, and closer, and closer. Was it the weather conditions? Were the butterfly Gods finally giving me a break after 12 years of fruitless labour? I didn’t care! I had an Inky Skipper right in front of me and it was behaving immaculately! It doesn’t get any better than this in my world. Unforgettable!
Inky Skipper - Erynnis marloyi
Habitat of Inky Skipper
Part three to follow
- Padfield
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Re: Greek Delights - Spring 2024
Wonderful stuff, Pete, and congratulations on the inky! We all know that surreal feeling when a mythical butterfly materialises nonchalantly in front of you and for a moment you don't know if you're waking or dreaming. If you close your eyes or look away, you think, you'll wake up - then you look away and look back and it's still there!
I'm intrigued by 'The Game'. Did you learn the rules?
Guy
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
I'm intrigued by 'The Game'. Did you learn the rules?
Guy
Guy's Butterflies: https://www.guypadfield.com
The Butterflies of Villars-Gryon : https://www.guypadfield.com/villarsgryonbook.html
The Butterflies of Villars-Gryon : https://www.guypadfield.com/villarsgryonbook.html
Re: Greek Delights - Spring 2024
Brilliant read Pete. Coincidentally, I am off to the Pelopponese on Sunday and the elusive Inky Skipper will be one I hope to see. Not sure how early or late this season is in Greece so your report helps greatly
- Charles Nicol
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Re: Greek Delights - Spring 2024
a thrilling read Pete ! well done on tracking down all five of your targets. the bizarre hotel incident is most peculiar ![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
Re: Greek Delights - Spring 2024
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 actually detract from the memory - sometimes it is more fun to keep open the option to continue hypothesising and theorising as to just what madness was going on
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
Thanks Andy - and best of luck in the Pelopponese - I shall look forward to hearing how you get on! My impression was that the season is running fairly early this year, certainly compared to 2023.
Thanks Charles - it was a great butterflying trip and a most strange hotel experience - all part of life's rich tapestry!Charles Nicol wrote: ↑Tue May 07, 2024 9:59 pm a thrilling read Pete ! well done on tracking down all five of your targets. the bizarre hotel incident is most peculiar![]()
Re: Greek Delights - Spring 2024
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 Skipper shall remain the absolute pinnacle of the trip, followed by the other lifers, but it was also lovely to see several species that I have only ever seen previously in ones and twos, particularly Yellow-banded Skippers and Chequered Blues, both of which were common out here. The only group of butterflies that were a little under-represented were the Nymphalidae. Fritillaries were around, but only three species made themselves known to us, namely Glanville, Queen of Spain, and Knapweed, although of course the “Knapweeds” might well have been Eastern Knapweeds – we shall never know. We saw just one Red Admiral and two Painted Ladies all week, and a very tatty Large Tortoiseshell on our last full day was being incessantly hounded by a “Knapweed” Fritillary. However, we did find a nice emergence of Southern White Admirals along a more wooded track late one morning.
Glanville Fritillary - Melitaea cinxia
Queen of Spain Fritillary - Issoria lathonia
Knapweed Fritillary - Melitaea phoebe
Southern White Admiral - Limenitis reducta
Siatista itself was authentically Greek and well off the beaten track for most UK tourists – we didn’t bump into a single English person all week. It is one of the main centres of the Greek fur trade, and the local economy has been badly hit by the embargo on exports of furs to Russia in the wake of the Ukraine situation, thereby removing the main export market for this product to the detriment of the local community who are very dependent on this trade. Although bad news for the locals, one side effect was that it was extremely cheap for us to eat out of an evening. Starters and main course for two, plus half a litre of wine came in at less than 20 Euros.
The springtime smells of the Greek countryside were as evocative as ever, particularly the aroma of fresh thyme crushed underfoot as we walked across limestone grasslands, and the distinctive smell of dead goat that is an inevitable part of butterflying in Greece. This was especially strong at several dumps where carcasses and individual body parts had been offloaded. I am used to seeing butterflies on various types of faeces but seeing them on a discarded pair of ears was a novelty!
We did a couple of day trips, visited the busy but attractively sited city of Kastoria, enjoyed the history of one of the local Siatista mansion houses with its impressively ornate and decorative Ottoman-influenced interior, and enjoyed some fine local food including wild boar sausages and way too much rich Greek yoghurt. Our drives took us through bear country once again, as indicated by the road signs along the toll routes; we would have loved to get a glimpse of a wild bear or two from a distance, but our only sighting was of an inanimate piece of wayside roadkill…
Bears - Ursus species
What a holiday! Mission accomplished, and the new lifers finally pushed my European life-list over the 300 mark. The Inky was my 302nd European tick. I hope this augurs well for the rest of the European butterfly forays that I have lined up over the coming months. Further reports to follow in due course. Enjoy the summer folks!
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 Skipper shall remain the absolute pinnacle of the trip, followed by the other lifers, but it was also lovely to see several species that I have only ever seen previously in ones and twos, particularly Yellow-banded Skippers and Chequered Blues, both of which were common out here. The only group of butterflies that were a little under-represented were the Nymphalidae. Fritillaries were around, but only three species made themselves known to us, namely Glanville, Queen of Spain, and Knapweed, although of course the “Knapweeds” might well have been Eastern Knapweeds – we shall never know. We saw just one Red Admiral and two Painted Ladies all week, and a very tatty Large Tortoiseshell on our last full day was being incessantly hounded by a “Knapweed” Fritillary. However, we did find a nice emergence of Southern White Admirals along a more wooded track late one morning.
Glanville Fritillary - Melitaea cinxia
Queen of Spain Fritillary - Issoria lathonia
Knapweed Fritillary - Melitaea phoebe
Southern White Admiral - Limenitis reducta
Siatista itself was authentically Greek and well off the beaten track for most UK tourists – we didn’t bump into a single English person all week. It is one of the main centres of the Greek fur trade, and the local economy has been badly hit by the embargo on exports of furs to Russia in the wake of the Ukraine situation, thereby removing the main export market for this product to the detriment of the local community who are very dependent on this trade. Although bad news for the locals, one side effect was that it was extremely cheap for us to eat out of an evening. Starters and main course for two, plus half a litre of wine came in at less than 20 Euros.
The springtime smells of the Greek countryside were as evocative as ever, particularly the aroma of fresh thyme crushed underfoot as we walked across limestone grasslands, and the distinctive smell of dead goat that is an inevitable part of butterflying in Greece. This was especially strong at several dumps where carcasses and individual body parts had been offloaded. I am used to seeing butterflies on various types of faeces but seeing them on a discarded pair of ears was a novelty!
We did a couple of day trips, visited the busy but attractively sited city of Kastoria, enjoyed the history of one of the local Siatista mansion houses with its impressively ornate and decorative Ottoman-influenced interior, and enjoyed some fine local food including wild boar sausages and way too much rich Greek yoghurt. Our drives took us through bear country once again, as indicated by the road signs along the toll routes; we would have loved to get a glimpse of a wild bear or two from a distance, but our only sighting was of an inanimate piece of wayside roadkill…
Bears - Ursus species
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
What a holiday! Mission accomplished, and the new lifers finally pushed my European life-list over the 300 mark. The Inky was my 302nd European tick. I hope this augurs well for the rest of the European butterfly forays that I have lined up over the coming months. Further reports to follow in due course. Enjoy the summer folks!
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Re: Greek Delights - Spring 2024
Brilliant read Pete, always a pleasure to read your tour descriptions
and congrats with the inky
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
Re: Greek Delights - Spring 2024
What a bizarre incident in the hotel! A fascinating read as always Pete, thanks so much for sharing.
Looks like you had a wonderful trip otherwise. I know what you mean with Inky Skipper. I suspect I saw one in the Peloponnese last year. But it was just a flash of a glimpse in perfect habitat, never to be seen again, despite a couple of hours scouring the rest of the site. One day!
Looks like you had a wonderful trip otherwise. I know what you mean with Inky Skipper. I suspect I saw one in the Peloponnese last year. But it was just a flash of a glimpse in perfect habitat, never to be seen again, despite a couple of hours scouring the rest of the site. One day!
- Roger Gibbons
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Re: Greek Delights - Spring 2024
Yes, a great read, Pete, thanks for sharing.
It seems like you could have got the first four lifers in a day trip.
I had a similar but more explicable experience in a hotel in the Champsaur a few years back. It was a huge hotel and I was the only person staying there. That was, until midnight when the hotel filled up with a noisy wedding party.
Roger
It seems like you could have got the first four lifers in a day trip.
I had a similar but more explicable experience in a hotel in the Champsaur a few years back. It was a huge hotel and I was the only person staying there. That was, until midnight when the hotel filled up with a noisy wedding party.
Roger
Re: Greek Delights - Spring 2024
Thanks John - that magical Inky Skipper moment is going to be hard to beat!!John Vergo wrote: ↑Wed May 08, 2024 8:47 pm Brilliant read Pete, always a pleasure to read your tour descriptionsand congrats with the inky
It has been a long timer coming Paul! The Inky and Krueper's Small White had both been on my hit list for years. Reading the books you wouldn't think they would be too difficult to find. Keep searching - if it was easy it wouldn't mean anywhere near as much when sweet success eventually arrives!selbypaul wrote: ↑Wed May 08, 2024 9:00 pm Looks like you had a wonderful trip otherwise. I know what you mean with Inky Skipper. I suspect I saw one in the Peloponnese last year. But it was just a flash of a glimpse in perfect habitat, never to be seen again, despite a couple of hours scouring the rest of the site. One day!
Thanks Roger, European lifers don't come thick and fast like that very often for me these days!Roger Gibbons wrote: ↑Wed May 08, 2024 10:27 pm Yes, a great read, Pete, thanks for sharing.
It seems like you could have got the first four lifers in a day trip.
Roger
Re: Greek Delights - Spring 2024
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!
Or if I managed to convince myself it wasn’t a dream then I’m sure my mind would have continued to wander…..what game?! And why am i the only one that doesn’t know about it…….
Anyway - it appears to have all worked out - so congrats on a fabulous start to the year!
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!
Or if I managed to convince myself it wasn’t a dream then I’m sure my mind would have continued to wander…..what game?! And why am i the only one that doesn’t know about it…….
Anyway - it appears to have all worked out - so congrats on a fabulous start to the year!
Re: Greek Delights - Spring 2024
Sorry I'm late to the party, Pete - just arrived back from Spain.
Have thoroughly enjoyed reading your report, with a few familiar butterflies contained within.
I've only ever seen one Dalmatian Ringlet, but it is indeed a very striking species.
Inky Skipper I have not seen, and I fully understand your unbridled joy at finally finding it!
Well done, sir.
Have thoroughly enjoyed reading your report, with a few familiar butterflies contained within.
I've only ever seen one Dalmatian Ringlet, but it is indeed a very striking species.
Inky Skipper I have not seen, and I fully understand your unbridled joy at finally finding it!
Well done, sir.
Re: Greek Delights - Spring 2024
Thanks Benjamin - when I awoke on the second night to all hell breaking loose again, I did begin to wonder just exactly what type of mushrooms the local taverna had served us earlier
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
Thanks David - I cannot recall the last time I got such a great buzz from finding a new and long-sought-after species!
Re: Greek Delights - Spring 2024
Excellent as usual Pete. Thanks for another great report.
Re: Greek Delights - Spring 2024
Thanks Steve - my pleasure as always.
Re: Greek Delights - Spring 2024
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. Not sure if we'll make it there now.
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. Not sure if we'll make it there now.
Re: Greek Delights - Spring 2024
Thanks Barrie,BarrieS wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2024 5:51 pm 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. Not sure if we'll make it there now.
It is indeed a remarkably special area for butterflies, rather a unique local Lepidopterous fauna. We were very fortunate to see as much as we did!
Glad you enjoyed the report!
All the best.
Pete
Re: Greek Delights - Spring 2024
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.
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.
Re: Greek Delights - Spring 2024
Thanks Jim - those wild boar certainly do metamorphose into fantastic sausages! There were plenty of road signs for boar along the toll routes in Greece, although the image used on the Greek road signs always looks more like a warthog to me! I am sure that my wife grew weary of me repeatedly saying "look out for warthogs" every time we passed one...Medard wrote: ↑Wed May 15, 2024 9:29 am 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.
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)