Chelmos, Erimanthos, Mainalo: A Greek Butterflies Trip

[DaveF]

...

Chelmos Ski-Centre Side-road Gully 1700m+, 13:00–14.45
On this final visit, I explored the scrub below the track as well as the gully above, and saw:
Orbed Red Underwing Skipper, Glanville Fritillary •, Silver-studded Blue, Clouded Yellow, Small Skipper, Brimstone, Niobe Fritillary, Chelmos Zephyr Blue, Spotted Fritillary, Common Blue, Camberwell Beauty – another one that got away, zooming past and away as soon as I’d spotted it –, Cardinal, Large White, Dusky Meadow Brown, and one Amanda’s Blue • (heavily worn so tricky to ID, and initially I thought Pontic for this, but ID now confirmed |=)|).

Also heard Tawny Pipit and Woodlark calling. 3 Hooded Crows were flying overhead, when one was swooped upon and attacked by a Peregrine, which was then chased off by the Crows!

Then back down for a final visit to the Pontic Blue spot…

[DaveF]

...

Mt. Chelmos 1446m, 15:00-15:45
Here there were:
Clouded Yellow, BMW, Dusky Meadow Brown •, Brown Argus, Large White, Brimstone, Cleopatra, Large Tortoiseshell (maybe even the same individual I saw on a previous day’s visit?), Small Skipper, Zephyr Blue, Chapman’s Blue, Small Copper, Comma, Grecian Anomalous Blue

And then, finally, a last visit to Taverna Kastro

Taverna Kastro 1021m, 16:20–16.35
The final few:
Meadow Brown, Silver-washed Fritillary, Ilex Hairstreak, BMW, Escher’s Blue

Plus a couple of Red-backed Shrikes and a Cirl Bunting heard calling.

[DaveF]

Day-list total: 35

Trip-list additions:
74. AMANDA’S BLUE

Then back to Kalavryta for my final evening, before departing after breakfast for the drive back down the mountain to the coast, the motorway, and Athens for an afternoon flight back home. The only butterflies seen today were the generally ubiquitous Great Banded Graylings; I also heard my only Turtle Dove of the trip at a brief stop-off down towards the coast.

[DaveF]

Final Butterfly total: 74 species (or 75 if you split the Chelmos-endemic Zephyr Blue as Plebeius brethertoni from the Zephyr Blue I saw at Mainalo). Of these, about 44 cannot be regularly seen in the UK.

Butterflies by Mountain:
Chelmos (including Kalavryta and the surrounding area): 63 species
Erimanthos: 22 species (one visit)
Mainalo: 49 species (two visits)

[DaveF]

Birds: a small but select list (40+9 heard)

Sparrowhawk (1), Common Buzzard (4), Peregrine Falcon (1), Lesser Kestrel (3), Common Kestrel (1), Short-toed Eagle (1), Yellow-legged Gull (1 seen along the coast from the motorway), Feral Pigeon, Collared Dove, Turtle Dove (1 heard), Scops Owl (2 heard), Common Swift, Hoopoe (1), Middle Spotted Woodpecker (2), Wryneck (heard), Red backed Shrike (7 or more), Jay, Magpie, Jackdaw (heard), Hooded Crow, Raven (8), Great Tit, Blue Tit, Crested Lark (1), Woodlark, Swallow, House Martin, Crag Martin, Red-rumped Swallow, Cetti’s Warbler (heard), Long-tailed Tit, Firecrest (heard), Eurasian Nuthatch, Blackbird, Northern Wheatear, Black Redstart, House Sparrow, Spanish Sparrow, Grey Wagtail, Tawny Pipit (heard), Chaffinch, Serin, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Linnet, Corn Bunting (heard), Ortolan Bunting (1), Rock Bunting (1), Cirl Bunting (heard)

[DaveF]

Reptiles:

1 Tortoise species seen lumbering across a road; a number of deceased snakes on the roads – only one live snake seen, winding its way across the road (glistening brown, about 2-3 feet long, but not identified); lizards: a few Peloponnese Wall Lizards; one Balkan Green Lizard

[DaveF]

Dips, highlights, and comments on the season

There were a number of species I hoped to see but didn’t: I was slightly too late, slightly too early, or didn’t have specific enough info to find the few threatened/endangered species of the region, these being Fiery Copper, Bavius Blue, Odd-Spot Blue, and Chelmos Blue. If it had been possible, I would probably have gone a week to two weeks earlier, but then it may be that I would have had more Blues in better condition but a reduced variety of Coppers and Fritillaries. If Naturetrek visited the Chelmos area this year it will be interesting to compare notes with their report for late June.

I struggled to find Hairstreaks other than the very numerous Ilex; no Cupido Blues, and no Green-underside Blues, which I put down to being a little late for these; no Blue Argus; no Iolas Blues - although I did see a small number of Bladder Senna bushes at the Kerpini junction site, these had finished flowering some time before. It was a shame not to have seen any Greek Mazarine Blues (the beautiful Peloponnesian version of Mazarine Blue with the distinctive orange unh patches), but again I must have been a little late for these. Quite often the Blues and Skippers I encountered were worn (with one or two clear exceptions), which tends to back up this supposition.

[DaveF]

Having said this, I was highly delighted at the varied range of species I did encounter. Personal highlights would have to be the Coppers, the variety of Blues, particularly including Pontic, Meleager’s, the Anomalous species, and the Polyommatus species, esp. Turquoise. The range of Nymphalidae was very nice, and the range of Skippers was interesting (and challenging!). The Pontic Blue spot I discovered is relatively well shaded by the surrounding trees, perhaps allowing for a later emergence of a variety of species than out in the open on the mountainside; this spot was the only place where I found any Vicia dalmatica, although it is said to occur commonly across the mountainside.

The abundance of individual species for the trip as a whole was mixed. Quite a number of the Blues and Skippers were seen in single figures, while other things – notably the Fritillaries on the final visit to Mainalo were truly impressive in their numbers. And other species were seemingly ever-present: Great Banded Graylings, Balkan Marbled Whites (on nearly every roadside thistle), and, latterly, Silver-washed Fritillaries and Scarce Swallowtails.

[DaveF]

A quite superb trip with excellent weather, great scenery, and some excellent sightings! An absolutely massive 51 lifers for me.

Definitely worth looking into if you’re interested in something a little bit different.

Even if you haven’t visited Greece before, if you have some experience of driving on European roads and have the decent maps and a solid guidebook like the Rough Guide it shouldn’t be too difficult; as already mentioned, Greek hospitality is generally brilliant (verging on over-attentive at times!), and you don’t need to be able to speak Greek (I don’t, though I’m working on it…); road-signs are generally bilingual, or accompanied by visual icons.

[DaveF]

Moreover, my successes based only really on guesswork, the internet, and some maps, suggest that trips to other mountainous areas, at similar or other times of the year, could be great. I imagine that, depending on the weather, any time between April and July might be brilliant; moreover, in the spring the mountain wildflowers can be an awe-inspiring sight.

Other mountains for me to explore in future include Taygetos in the south, and Parnassos and Oite in southern central Greece (sadly not enough time to visit these on this trip); and then of course there are the northern mountains up towards Albania and Bulgaria which are accessible from Ioannina and Thessaloniki. Crete also looks very promising. There are a massive 235 Greek species to go looking for, so plenty of opportunities!

If you’re into your birds too, then a spring visit to Lesvos could be good for butterflies as well as stunning for spring migration (I did this last year and came home with a bird-list of 160, though the relatively poor weather meant that butterflies were much harder to come by).

If it’s still available (though it is expensive), I’d recommend a copy of Pamperis’ Butterflies of Greece because of its useful info, excellent range of photos of local forms (all with altitude and date), and interesting altitude and latitude diagrams. An interesting book to have anyway!

[DaveF]

I’ll finish off with a round-up of photos and an overview Google Earth screengrab. If anyone is interested in further details please feel free to get in touch and I’ll see what I can do to help.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this: hopefully you enjoyed it and found it informative and interesting. With any luck I’ll be back with more trip reports from Greece in the future… And, last but by no means least, a big big thankyou to my wife and parents-in-law for their kindness, childcare, and help to make this trip possible.

Cheers,
Dave

[DaveF]

On a final final note(!), here is the complete butterfly checklist for the trip in Excel spreadsheet format:

[Pete Eeles]

Great report Dave. And mentioned with others on the homepage

Cheers,

- Pete

[DaveF]

Many thanks!
Just glad to be able to be useful and share the great experiences.