Just a few words and some photos from my recent trip to Turkey 1st week in June. I stayed near Fethiye and saw Common Swallowtails regularly in my parents' garden, which I always think is a real treat. It had been raining and cool up until the day before I got there so everywhere was green with plenty of wild flowers.
Please bear in mind i'm relatively new to butterflies (after years as a marine biologist) so may be wrong with my ID. The photos aren't great but I was travelling light and only had a point and shoot compact camera with me.
I spend quite a lot of time in Turkey but this was my first late spring trip and the difference in butterfly numbers compared to later in the summer was very noticeable, definitely the right time of year.
Fethiye
At home there were Large Whites, Common Swallowtails and a browny coloured Skipper that I haven't been able to ID.
In the town by the harbour we spotted a Scarce Swallowtail.
This was one of the skippers, exactly the same but photo taken last year
16.08.10 day 13 by legless2007, on Flickr
Kaya Koy
The 'ghost village' was absolutely covered in wild flowers. Species I know i definitely saw included
Powdered Brimstone (male and female - I was confused by the 'giant whites' (females) for a bit!)
Clouded Yellow
Speckled Wood
Large White
probably Levantine Skippers, I think.
and the following which I can't ID
1.
060611-12 by legless2007, on Flickr
2.
060611-19 by legless2007, on Flickr
3. small skipper?
060611-21 by legless2007, on Flickr
Butterfly Valley
Butterfly Valley is just East of Olu Deniz, reached by boat taxi. We stayed over in one of the wooden bungalows next to the beach (£20 pppn dinner, bed and breakfast) to give me maximum butterfly time. If you are there between 11 and 1 the valley is so busy with day boat tourists it isn't really worth trying to find butterflies. They have 20 minutes to get up the valley and back and invariably, due to route march pace, come back down huffing that there are no butterflies.
The beach leads to farmland run on biodynamic principles and then into a wooded valley, currently pink with oleander which you can walk up as far as steep waterfall.
Luckily I chose the night when a professor from Antalya university (waiting for confirmation of his name) was presenting his findings on the number of species in the valley. Wine, on a beach, with a man talking about butterflies, i was convinced I had died and gone to heaven. He has found 53 species of butterfly in the valley.
I saw
Common Swallowtail (nectaring on lantana and pelargoniums near the restaurant)
080611-42 by legless2007, on Flickr
Brown Argus
080611-17 by legless2007, on Flickr
Speckled Wood
080611-07 by legless2007, on Flickr
Large Wall Brown
080611-27 by legless2007, on Flickr
Possible Levantine Skipper?
080611-33 by legless2007, on Flickr
Loew's Blue
080611-55 by legless2007, on Flickr
Small Copper
090611-02 by legless2007, on Flickr
another skipper!
080611-58 by legless2007, on Flickr
Also Two-Tailed Pasha (woo hoo!)
Powdered Brimstone
Clouded Yellow
Black Veined White (so beautiful, appear transparent)
Jersey Tiger
080611-23 by legless2007, on Flickr
All in all a fantastic trip, with enough non butterfly stuff to keep my mate amused. Loads of other insects and crickets as well, I'm really pleased I went in June.
Looking at Rezamink's photos on Flickr, it seems I was in Tlos and Saklikent at exactly the same time, the only butterfly I managed to photograph was a speckled wood
040611-16 by legless2007, on Flickr
Jo
