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Butterflies (pAGE 3)
10th
April 2004
Very windy
conditions prevailed but it was generally warm. First
stop was the “Grand Canyon” near Vatoussa. In
sheltered clearing by the river we found Orange Tip,
Brown Argus, Small Heath, Eastern Festoon, Small Copper,
Dappled White, Painted Lady and Red Admiral.
The main
purpose of the day was the visit to the Petrified
Forest to see the bird specialities but proved
interesting for insects despite the exposed nature of the
site. Butterflies seen were Small Heath, Small Copper,
Brown Argus, Painted Lady. At the same location as
the Large Wall Brown we found the only Green Bush
Cricket of the holiday.
At Ipsilou
Monastery afterwards False Apollo put in a
surprise appearance in a much different environment from
the terraces at Agiasos, here the butterfly was beating up
against the wind on a very exposed rocky slope.
11th
April 2004
This day was
spent following the Valley of the Vourkos River, east
of Vatera. The valley floor is largely a mixture of
old olive groves with clearings. This was another fine day
and saw numerous butterflies on the wing. We saw both
Swallowtail and Scarce Swallowtail, Small Heaths, Painted
Lady, Orange Tip Dappled White, Mallow Skipper, Large
White, Eastern Festoon, Common Blue, Green
Underside Blue, Small Copper, Wall Brown, a blue
Pseudophilotes Vicrara and a small colony of
Fritilleries, which after much discussion were agreed
to be Knapweed Fritillary. A female Eastern
Festoon was seen laying on Birthwort (Aristolochia
Herta). A number of Green Hairstreaks were
seen feeding on Lavender, shortly before rejoining the
beach on the way back.
Painted Lady
12th
April 2004
The day was
spent around Kalloni looking at the rich bird life
that the area is known for. At Kalloni II we watched
Hummingbird Hawkmoths visiting flowers around the edge
of the pools. Whilst not the best area for butterflies
we did see Dappled White, Swallowtail and Large White.
The evening
saw us buzzed by a large moth at the “Taverna
Kalamakia” in Vatera, which turned out to be a
Striped Hawk Moth when it eventually landed on a
light.
13th
April 2004
The group
split in two sub groups on the final day of the holiday. I
went with the party that decided to visit Melinda at the
Plomari area to look for Orchids. However this was the
worse day of the holiday for weather and was too overcast
and cool for anything to be flying. We did find a pair of
Eastern Festoon sharing a flower head in the in the
Stream Valley above Melinda but we discovered lots of
Orchids (11 different species I believe) in a
comparatively small area.
Ron Walters,
UK
pAGe 1
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2 -
3
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