essex buzzard

[David M]

Mouth-watering stuff, Mark. That Knapweed Fritillary looks SO different to the ones nearer home that it's hard to believe it's the same species.

How many different species did you see approximately?

[essexbuzzard]

I wondered if anyone would pick up on that- they look so different from the ones I see in Europe that it took a while to get my head round it! But the size, shape and basic pattern is the same.

How many species? Around 125 for the group, the same as we saw in France. My personal figure was slightly lower- I missed the only Peacock, for example...

[kevling]

Enjoying your recent posts Essex. Those mud puddling Black Veined Whites are splendid. Of all the exotic species up for grabs in Europe, I never tire of this simple but elegant species.

You might be interested in this;

http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/f ... oes-east/​

Kind Regards
Kev

[essexbuzzard]

Thanks Kev for this link. What extraordinary pictures! Puts my images in the shade! I agree, when I went butterflying in Europe for the first time (in the French Pyrenenees) it was the Black-veined Whites that were the most spectacular.

[essexbuzzard]

Then, mid afternoon, we went even further up the mountain, for here, an alpine specialist lives- the Bowden White. In reality, this is really a mountain species of Green-veined white,but still great to see.

Griffon vultures, long-legged buzzards and a bearded vulture were here, as well as a short-toed lark.

[Padfield]

Hi Buzzard. Knapweed fritillary is incredibly variable - I have in fact seen individuals similar to yours in Switzerland, as well as ones so completely different you would think they were a different genus. I photographed this one in May 2011:



I don't think anyone has named your unidentified fritillary - it is twin-spot, Brenthis hecate.

Guy

[David M]

I don't think anyone has named your unidentified fritillary - it is twin-spot, Brenthis hecate.

Thanks for that, Guy. I think I was probably almost as eager as Mark to know what that one was. I didn't have a clue (probably because I have never seen this species).

[essexbuzzard]

Thanks from me too, Guy. I did look at Twin-spot but, in my inexperience, it looked a bit paler than the one in the book.

[essexbuzzard]

Yes, your Knapweed it very pale too, I wondered if it might be a response to heat but, as you saw it in spring in CH, presumably not.

[essexbuzzard]

In contrast the next day found us in a semi-desert habitat. This is the domain of hoopoe, bee-eater and roller, while Egyptian vulture circled overhead. Grayling were here, many seeking shade, including False Grayling

Not sure about this one:

A few meadow browns were seen,including Oriental, Dusky and Gross's Meadow Brown, though not sur what this is, suggestions welcome:

Here is a Mallow Skipper, and a habitat shot:

[essexbuzzard]

Before lunch, we managed to find my first ever Saadi's Heaths:

[essexbuzzard]

After lunch, we visited another mud-puddling area. Here, many anomalous blues had assembled. These blue ones are probably Firdussii!s Anomalous Blue, A. furdussii pseudactis, but could be A. Surakovi:

Likewise, these brown ones could be Fosters Anomalous Blue, A. eriwanensis, or A. demavendi:

The surrounding vegetation also had many butterflies, here a Niobe Fritillary:

Osiris Blues were here, too:

[essexbuzzard]

This Meadow Brown is clearly unusual,but I can't remember what we agreed it was, not the best picture in the deep shade:

[essexbuzzard]

So, we come to Friday, our last day in Armenia. It started with a pre-breakfast bird walk, seeing, amongst others, rock sparrow, hooded crow, black-eared wheatear and hoopoe. Here is a hoopoe:

An eastern rock nuthatch was new to me:

Here is a bee-eater:

Here, Syrian woodpecker is the most common of the woodpeckers:

[David M]

I'm blown away at some of the stuff you've seen, Mark. To be honest, I'd never even heard of Saadi's Heath, let alone seen one!

[Padfield]

Hi Buzzard. Your graylings are certainly not false graylings (Arethusana arethusa), but I'm not 100% sure what they are. Logically, they would be Hipparchia pellucida and I suspect this is what they are. The general appearance and markings are right. But those white veins are striking. I have occasionally seen ordinary graylings, semele, with white veins, and pellucida is very close to semele, so I stay with that. However, there is another related species, autonoe, that flies in Georgia (not that far away) which is characterised by strong white veins. The rest of the markings are not so good for this species, though. I go for pellucida.

I think your Hyponephele is naricoides (or naricina naricoides, depending on whether you treat this as a subspecies of naricina or not). It would be easier to tell if the fringes were not worn - naricina/naricoides has conspicuous white fringes.

Finally, I suspect your last mystery 'meadow brown' is a chestnut heath, Coenonympha glycerion.

Guy

[Wurzel]

Woah the photos are very envy inducing and the bird list is mighty impressive as well and the Saddi's what a stunner

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[essexbuzzard]

Neither had I until I saw it on the pre-trip list!

Today, up into the lower mountain meadows at Gnishik.

I took a lot of pictures on this day! For sure, we saw some great stuff but also, even early on, storms were brewing over the mountains, and the resulting cumulonimbus cirrus plume weakened the sun, slowing things down. But I will try to keep to the most interesting species! We soon found Pearly Heath, but Russian Heath was new to me and the only ones of the week:

The pointed wings suggest Bergers, rather than helice Clouded Yellow:

This is a Lesser Firey Copper, also seen earlier in the week:

Lots of Lesser Lattice Browns were here,again new to me:

We saw here, our only Esper's Marble Whites of the holiday:

To be continued...

[Padfield]

Ah!! I retract my chestnut heath ID and replace it with lesser lattice brown!! Total size confusion in my head - and you were right with the meadow brown size. Bizarre - could never happen in the field!

The lack of any pale spots in the dark band of the clouded yellow suggests it is not helice (and it is certainly not Berger's). There is a species called Colias chlorocoma that flies in the Armenian highlands. The male is pale and has no white in these marginal bands. It could be this.

Guy

[essexbuzzard]

Several Mountain Small Whites were found here:

Along with Esper's, Balkan Marbled Whites were common, testing our identification skills:

I was especially pleased to find this Meleager's Blue:

And with a bit of friendly persuasion he opened up, revealing his glorious, Chalkhill Blue-like uppersides:

Thanks yet again, Guy- I owe you another drink! I must confess, I do find the graylings a very confusing group. Hopefully, when I have had a bit more experience, I won't make quite as many mistakes!

Yes, I've managed to work out the Lesser Lattice Browm, it was bigger than a Heath, but you're not to know that!