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Souvardo Meadow Stop, 1240m
Sadly I didn’t stop too long here since my head needed a little first aid after a bee sting on the forehead(!), but I did see BMW, Escher’s Blue, and a female Chelmos Zephyr Blue here.

After this, I headed back up Chelmos proper, first stopping at the 1446m stop where I saw the Pontic Blue on day 2.

Mt. Chelmos 1446m
On this first visit I saw the following:
Chapman’s Blue •, Brown Argus, Clouded Yellow, Brimstone, Large White, Common Blue, BMW, Meleager’s Blue, Small Skipper, Powdered Brimstone

I then headed up to the Ski Centre for a quick walk on the lower slopes of the mountain itself at the far end of the carpark.

Chelmos Ski Centre Walk

By now (early-mid afternoon), the wind had got up, so rather few butterflies were seen, though I did see the following:
Silver-studded Blue, Clouded Yellow, Chelmos Zephyr Blue ...

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Mt. Chelmos 1446m

After this, I headed back to the 1446m stop for a further explore, and came up with more species in the shelter of the trees:
Brimstone, Large White, Grecian Anomalous Blue •, Comma, Brown Argus, Silver-studded Blue, Small Skipper, Common Blue, Meadow Brown.
Great to see the GAB, which is a wonderful subtly beautiful species.

That was it for day 3: not as good as day 2, which I put down to the wind.

Day-list total: 22 species (6 lifers), highlights definitely Meleager’s and Grecian Anomalous Blues, stunning species!

Trip-list additions:

30. LATTICE BROWN
31. WOOD WHITE
32. Eastern Bath White
33. Holly Blue (the only one of the trip)
34. MELEAGER’S BLUE
35. Comma
36. ESCHER’S BLUE
37. POWDERED BRIMSTONE
38. GRECIAN ANOMALOUS BLUE

Day 3 New Notable Birds:

Peregrine (heard calling above Chelmos 1446m site), Scops Owl (heard calling in the night in Kalavryta), Red-backed Shrike (a frequent sighting on the Chelmos Xerokambos)

Today was my first of three excursions away from the Chelmos area. On this occasion I was to head into Mt. Erimanthos. Whereas the originally wild and alpine Mt. Chelmos (summit at 2339m) has been very much tamed in recent years by road-building and the ski resort – you can basically drive (if you have the nerves for it) to 2000m, Erimanthos remains much more wild.

Erimanthos is an awe-inspiring roughly 10-mile-long slab of limestone that separates Kalavryta in the west from the east coast of the Peloponnese. It has major peaks at 1894m, 1892m, 2125m, and 2223m (the latter sometimes separately named Olonos), and because there is no high-altitude plateau as with Chelmos, there is no Ski resort, and very few roads into the mountain.

Essentially therefore you have two choices: either you approach from the North-Eastern end, with a track in via villages off the main Kalavryta-Patras road, or you approach from the South-West, from the village of Kalendzi. Although the latter had an appeal (the road from there rapidly increasing in altitude, getting up to 1500m quite quickly), I chose the latter option: much quicker to get to from Kalavryta (40mins on good roads to Michas, the mountain village from where you take the dirt road in).

One of the main attractions / challenges for Erimanthos was to find Apollo butterflies in their most southerly Greek locality, though Pamperis notes that the population here is weak and probably not below c. 1600m altitude. Because I had chosen the North-Eastern approach, I knew my chances of finding any were rather slim, because reaching sufficient altitude from here required trekking straight up hill from about 1300m. I managed to reach 1400m before exhaustion began to set in (but it was a great walk!). So no Apollos sadly.

However, there were some great new species on offer. The track I had chosen from the village of Michas took me through fir forest towards the Gremistos Waterfall on the north face of the mountain. I stopped overlooking the falls at just over 1300m, in a pre-researched spot with good meadows potential, at the base of one of the paths up to the summit ridge of the mountain.

Now that it was day 4, I was wondering why I hadn’t seen any Coppers yet. I soon discovered why – I hadn’t seen any Thyme in flower. But once I found the Thyme, I found my Coppers…

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I set out for Erimanthos after breakfast and arrived mid-morning at my parking spot at 1311m: photo below with view of the Gremistos falls part of the mountain (the peak here is at about 1900m; Olonos at 2223m is just out of shot to the right)...

A marvellous read Dave !! Can't wait for the next episode

Thavmasia

Charles

Many thanks, very kind.

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Erimanthos Stop 1311m

In the small patch of bare ground by the car and around the track here I saw the following:
Queen of Spain Fritillary, Mountain Argus, Dusky Meadow Brown, BMW, Large White, Brimstone, Small Copper •, Purple-shot Copper •, Ilex Hairstreak •, Great Banded Grayling, Clouded Yellow, Silver-washed Fritillary, and Escher’s Blue.

The Coppers and Hairstreaks couldn’t get enough of the Thyme, though its humble habit meant photos were rather tricky.

At midday I set off up through the trees and meadows on the hour-long trek up the mountain to find a picnic spot at a higher altitude...

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Erimanthos Trek up to 1410m

On the way up, and at my meadowy picnic spot at 1410m, I saw the following:

Large White, Small Skipper, Meadow Brown, Large Wall Brown (2) •, Mountain Argus, Greek Clouded Yellow, BMW, a couple more Purple-shot Coppers •, Spotted Fritillary •, Queen of Spain Fritillary, Silver-washed Fritillary, Eastern Bath White, Escher’s Blue, Great Sooty Satyr, and last but not least, back down at the bottom of the path in a meadow area full of flowering herbs (and one or two beehives), a pair of Grecian Coppers • – which I found far more handsome than I imagined from the field-guides. Interestingly, I saw my only Orchids of the trip here, a small clump of Anacamptis pyramidalis…

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After this it was hot and I was pretty knackered, so after another little wander around the area, it now being mid-afternoon, I got back in the car and headed back down the track towards Michas and back to Kalavryta.


I decided that before the end of the day I’d make a quick visit to Agia Lavra for another shot at some Hairstreaks.

Agia Lavra 950m

En route I saw a Swallowtail; at the monastery itself I saw the following:

Ilex Hairstreak, Purple Hairstreak, Brown Argus, Mountain Argus, Scarce Swallowtail, Silver-washed Fritillary, BMW.

Finally, back at the hotel late afternoon, a Cleopatra flitted past as I parked up.

Day-list total: 27 species (7 lifers), highlights definitely the Coppers. Wonderful to see more species than just our Small Copper, and even these look different in their dark southern form.

Trip-list additions:

39. MOUNTAIN ARGUS
40. DUSKY MEADOW BROWN
41. Small Copper
42. PURPLE-SHOT COPPER
43. LARGE WALL BROWN
44. GREEK CLOUDED YELLOW
45. GREAT SOOTY SATYR
46. GRECIAN COPPER
47. Swallowtail
48. Scarce Swallowtail


Day 4 New Notable Birds:
Common Kestrel, Jackdaws (heard calling from the crags at Erimanthos: otherwise not seen or heard on this trip), 1 Ortolan Bunting seen at the roadside en route to Michas.

After my successful – albeit rather tiring – trip to Erimanthos, today I decided upon another whizz around the Chelmos area. Today was again a little windy on the mountain, but I still found some good species.

I started off with another quick visit down to the riverside track at the Kerpini junction; since this was a rather different type of habitat from anything else I saw, the potential for different species was worth another look.

Vouraikos Track, Kerpini Junction 695m, 07:45–08:05

Here I saw the following:
Speckled Wood (hiding in the leaf litter), Meadow Brown, BMW, Great Banded Grayling.

After breakfast, I headed back up the mountain, first calling in at my increasingly favoured stop at 1446m.

Mt. Chelmos 1446m, 09:40–10:30

This time I ventured further into this area up the little track. I discovered two further little meadow areas full of Vicia dalmatica, with more still in flower than lower down, and some patches of thyme and sage species along with good numbers of wild gooseberry bushes. The topmost patch of Vicia seemed rather trampled – hopefully more by goats than butterfly collectors – but the range of species here was increasingly impressive throughout the week.

On this visit, I saw the following:
BMW, Mountain Argus, Red Admiral, Pontic Blue • (one heavily worn male, though still a handsome little devil quite unlike any other Blue I’ve seen before), a female Meleager’s Blue, Brown Argus, and Large White.

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I then headed up the mountain to some shepherds' huts on along the dirt track on the Xerokambos, where I hoped have a chance of finding some more interesting blues by a water trough. Sadly there were large numbers of goats in evidence! The only butterfly I saw here was a single Queen of Spain Fritillary. So I retraced my steps and headed up to the Ski-Centre, and the gully area at 1700m+, where I stayed until lunchtime.

Chelmos Ski-Centre Side-road Gully 1700m+

Here I saw the following:
Common Blue, Brown Argus, Silver-studded Blue, Chelmos Zephyr Blue, Large White, Clouded Yellow, Queen of Spain Fritillary, Spotted Fritillary, Dark Green Fritillary, Aegean Fritillary • (a split from Knapweed seen in Southern Greece: according to Pamperis, in M. telona the marginal markings are distinct and triangular, separated by veins, whereas in Greek M. phoebe the marginal chevrons are joined up), Dingy Skipper, Small Heath, Eastern Bath White…

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After this, I headed back down to 1446m for my picnic lunch (an excellent spot!). Pondering this in retrospect, it is a little frightening that there is no real protection whatsoever for this habitat, given that in this one small area (the size of a small local wildlife trust reserve back home) I found 35 species during the trip.

Mt. Chelmos 1446m, early afternoon

On this visit I saw the following:
BMW, Large White, Brown Argus, Mountain Small White, Red Admiral, Chapman’s Blue, Escher’s Blue, Brimstone, Queen of Spain Fritillary, Black-veined White •, Small Copper, Ilex Hairstreak, Niobe Fritillary • (increasing in numbers), Comma, Meleager’s Blue, Orbed Red Underwing Skipper

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I called it a day after this; however, I did take a quick walk around the outskirts of Kalavryta in the evening, discovering a new species in the form of Sooty Copper (one species I didn’t see the day before on Erimanthos) resting on a large thistle in some rough ground, along with (the inevitable!) BMW, and an Ilex Hairstreak flitting about the road.


Day-list total: 32 species (3 lifers), not a bad list but a little windy. More to come tomorrow with the first of two visits to Mainalo!

Highlights of today definitely the Aegean Frit and the evening’s Sooty Copper: thought I might find these difficult to differentiate from the dark local Small Coppers, but the pale undersides make them quite distinctive.


Trip-list additions:

49. Speckled Wood
50. Red Admiral
51. AEGEAN FRITILLARY
52. Small Heath
53. MOUNTAIN SMALL WHITE
54. SOOTY COPPER

Day 5 New Notable Birds:

A sound like a robotic Kestrel call alerted me to the presence of a Wryneck calling from the pines near the Ski Centre Gully; Woodlarks were seen on this visit to the Xerokambos, along with a Black Redstart. A Sparrowhawk was seen worrying Feral Pigeons on the outskirts of Kalavryta in the evening.

So day 6 took me on a second excursion away from Chelmos, this time to Mt. Mainalo. By contrast with the previous day, the weather today was warm and still.

Mainalo is a mountainous area to the south in central Arcadia in the heart of the Peloponnese. Access to the turn-off for the Ski Centre from the western side is from the outskirts of the town of Vytina 1hr 15mins drive south from Kalavryta.

It has a different character again from the other two mountains I visited. Though the summit is at 1981m above the tree-line, the majority of the mountain is clad in fir forest, with the occasional open meadow area – and as such had more of a northern European, even Scandinavian, feel to it than the other mountains. This region had suffered devastating forest fires in recent years, but thankfully I saw no signs of this on my access to the Western side of the mountain.

It has a small ski-centre at the summit area, but it seems more sensitively implemented than the scars on Chelmos reveal. A bonus is that the road all the way to the top is smooth tarmac (better in fact than the road up Chelmos, though the latter is probably more heavily damaged every winter by the effects of snow and ice).

This was a truly magical place which I wish I’d had time to explore even more extensively than my two day-trips allowed. Bee-keeping was again in evidence, but less extensively so than on Chelmos. The road through the trees opened up meadows full of flowering herbs and bushes full of Lycaenid and Nymphalid butterflies: butterfly numbers here seemed generally rather higher than on Chelmos, though the vegetation in some of the open meadows seemed maybe a little more lush.

I had one pre-researched area to visit, a large open meadow area at a site called Lakkes Rouchi, but other than that, the plan was to drive up to the Ski Centre and back, stopping when I saw anything interesting. Which I did!

Before breakfast I again made a very quick visit to Agia Lavra in search of more Hairstreaks. Sadly I only saw one Silver-washed Frit, so back in the car.

En route to Vytina, I saw BMW, Ilex Hairstreak, and Great Banded Grayling, then I started my slow and watchful drive through the pines...

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My first stop was when I saw a couple of butterflies nectaring on a thistle. Initially I passed them off as standard female BMWs, but they turned out to be much too grey-brown for that. They turned out to be a pair of Great Sooty Satyrs •

Mainalo 1332m
Large White, Great Sooty Satyr

I continued up towards my Lakkes Rouchi site, but before reaching it, I arrived at a more open meadow area, which was filled with tall grasses, flowers, and clumps of thyme and sage: definitely worth a stop...