Bulgaria: Kavarna to Sozopol, 30th April 2011

Essentially a travelling day, moving from Kavarna in the north to Sozopol in the south, but with plenty of stops along the way.

At our first stop, Mladen picked out an adult Eagle Owl roosting on the cliff, while a piece of roadside wood revealed a lovely Balkan Green Lizard.

Next up was an impromptu roadside stop for a wonderful display of Summer Snowflake Leucojum aestivum together with the tall buttercup Ranunculus velutinus in an area of wet woodland. The woods also turned out to be home to Semi-collared Flycatcher, with a couple of singing males showing very well. And finally, an adult Aesculapian Snake put on a good performance, being very confiding.

The day's herptile theme continued at our stop in the oak woods, where two Eastern Green Lizards and a very friendly Agile Frog posed for photos while yet more Semi-collared Flycatchers sang and checked out nest sites. The local woodpeckers were a little shyer, but we did hear four species (Green, Great Spotted, Middle Spotted and Grey-headed), although only the Green put in an appearance.

Our journey also coincided with brilliant migration conditions (winds coming from the south east, several periods of warm blue skies enabling the soaring things to get over the Balkan Range). Birds seemed to be on the move all day (the most impressive 'vis-mig' I've ever seen), with just some of the highlights: a flock of around 30 Squacco Herons dropped in on the bay below our hotel just after breakfast; a nice Lesser Spotted Eagle low over at our lunch stop, followed five minutes later by a Short-toed Eagle; Black Terns passing overhead quite regularly; a wonderful flock of 96 Red-footed Falcons low over roadside fields. Not bad for a travel day!

Aesculapian Snake, Baltata

Agile Frog, Goritsa

Eastern Green Lizard, Goritsa

Semi-collared Flycatcher. Alas, the 5+ singing males seen during the day were all too high and too active to get a photo, so you'll just have to make do with this little female, fresh from inspecting a nest box.

Bulgaria: Kaliakra, 29th April 2011

One of those days that start well and then get better and better...

Despite a very civilised start time, we still managed to arrive at Cape Kaliakra before the general tourist arrival and had the place pretty much to ourselves. Amongst the interesting Byzantine ruins we had good views of three species of wheatear (Pied, Isabelline and Northern), with low flying Alpine Swifts buzzing us.



Just offshore attention first went to the birds, with good numbers of Black-throated Diver gathering together, many in smart breeding plumage, and smaller numbers of Black-necked Grebe and fly-past Yelkouan Shearwaters. We were then distracted from the birds by a small group of Harbour Porpoise (the endangered Black Sea sub-species) feeding some way offshore... and then, further out still, a pod of Bottle-nosed Dolphins moved through, heading purposefully north.

Moving back inland a bit, we had a stop on some fantastic flower-rich steppe grassland, where we soaked up the spectacle of the amazing colours of the dwarf irises (two species grow alongside each other, the pale yellow and sweetly smelling Iris suaveolens and the incredibly variable and slightly less scented Iris pumila), the dazzling yellow Adonis vernalis (photo above), the crimson Adonis flammea and the deep red Paeonia tenuifolia, a very special plant of the Pontic steppe just bursting into flower. Calandra Larks sang overhead, one or two fresh Swallowtails sheltered amongst the vegetation and a Spur-thighed Tortoise hunkered down, but the plants won the most admiration.







From the steppe, we dropped down into a wonderful hidden valley. While examining some otter spraint on the bridge at the bottom, I looked up to see an animal striding across the path a little further on... an animal with tabby stripes and a long, bushy, dark-tipped tail... rather amazingly, on my second visit to the area, my second Wild Cat! Even more amazingly, this one actually hung around long enough for everyone to get a look at him, as he paced through the vegetation, turned to look over his shoulder from a small rise and then dropped down into the reeds behind. Wow...

(what's even more amazing, only 20 minutes and less than 1km earlier, our driver had watched not one but two Wild Cats (presumably a mother and well-grown kitten) walk across the road in front of him, while we were all scrabbling about on the steppe nearby photographing the flowers! If you want to see a Wild Cat, get yourself to Bulgaria...)

Bulgaria: Shabla and Rusalka, 28th April 2011

Another day of mixed weather but great wildlife.

A pre-breakfast wander down to the beach revealed some amazingly showy Nightingales on territory and a typically drab (but actually rather exciting!) female Common Rosefinch passing through.

We started, in the rain, at Shabla Lake, with plenty of ducks including good numbers of very smart Ferruginous Ducks, some nice waders and some wonderfully smart male Collared Flycatchers in the bushes.

After lunch, we moved on to the archaeological reserve at Yailata, where distractions from the archaeology came in the form of a male Pied Wheatear, plenty of singing Calandra Larks, some close-in Yelkouan Shearwaters off shore, a great display of the lovely dwarf irises Iris pumila and a good population of (as yet still in bud) Peonia peregrina.

We ended the day on an area of surviving 'virgin' steppe, land never cultivated and almost carpeted in the wonderful little irises. Short-toed Lark sang overhead, a pair of Stone Curlews stalked around and a superb male Rock Thrush gave a great display as he hopped about on the steppe, somewhat lost on his way north. But even he couldn't compete with the irises...

Pied Wheatear. A lovely male, and a long-awaited 'tick'

Green Toad. So much smarter (and friendlier!) than the toads in Cyprus

Just some of the many colour variations of the superb Iris pumila, a lovely dwarf iris of the surviving areas of coastal steppe. For some reason, I only took photos of the purple colour varieties, but there were just as many yellows, creams and whites... more tomorrow!

Bulgaria: Lake Durankulak, 27th April 2011

A great day around Lake Durankulak, in the north of Bulgaria, an area I was last in in February 2010. Not the most scenic part of the world, with a definite feel of the Fens about the Dobruja Plains at times. But the wildlife more than made up for it...

The real spectacle was the marsh terns, with hundreds of White-winged Black Terns, smaller numbers of Black Tern and Little Gull, a handful each of Whiskered Tern and Mediterranean Gulls and a lovely pink pair of Slender-billed Gulls, all hawking over the reeds and open water.

Herons put on a good show too. Purple Herons flew back and forth, at least three Bitterns were around, a couple of Squacco Herons, a flight of 8 Great White Egrets and a lovely male Little Bittern which flew across a pool and then sat out in the open for everyone to get a good view.

A wonderful party of Red-footed Falcons were feeding over a ploughed field, following the tractor together with a White Stork.

In the reeds, several loud, croaking Great Reed Warblers were heard and seen, a Savi's Warbler briefly popped up and then straight back down again, and a singing Paddyfield Warbler was determined not to be seen, and very nearly managed it!

Oh yes, and then there were the flowers... some interesting arable weeds growing in the fishponds area included Ground Pine and the lovely, bright red Adonis flammea (photo above).

Not bad for a first day...

Crete: 21st April 2011

A somewhat turbulent last few days in Crete, weather-wise, not helped any by the news filtering through from home of a spring heat wave... grr...

But a good few days, critter-wise!

Freshwater Crab, Potamion potamios kretaion. One of two found crossing the road and helped across to the other side. Not that either was particularly grateful...

A scorpion! The first time I've ever seen a scorpion in Europe... before this I had sort of assumed there were one, maybe two species. So I was quite surprised to find there are at least 27 European species of Scorpion, and they're pretty hard to identify!

Who's watching who? A female Cretan Wall Lizard, giving me the eye from within her hideaway...

Cretan Ebony, Ebonus cretica

Orchis papilionacea ssp alibertis

Orchis anatolica

Ophrys creberimma, an endemic fusca-type

More from Crete 2011:
April 18th: Kakomouri
Amazing Arums
April 17th: Preveli
April 16th: Spili Bumps and its orchids

Crete: 18th April 2011

Another ambling day, this time around the headland of Akrotiri Kakomouri. Another day of scattered sunshine, with a fairly chilly wind at times. Another day of confiding butterflies, new orchids and gruesome plant life!

A very friendly Cretan Festoon

and the Festoon's food plant, Aristolochia cretica. If there's one group of plants that could challenge the Araceae in the gruesome stakes, it's the Birthworts. Of course, Crete being Crete, it has to have its own endemic species. And as with elsewhere, the rule of 'follow the festoon and you'll find the birthwort' worked a treat!

The orchids today weren't present in such spectacular numbers as near Spili, but there was still a good variety to be found amongst the spiny phrygana vegetation, including a nice group of Ophrys herae, the very impressive O. grigoriana and a couple of spikes of O. candica (above).

Crete: Amazing Arums, April 2011

Am I the only person who thinks the Araceae are great?? There's something very impressive about these bizarre flowers, and any day with a new Arum is a good day. Over the last couple of days we've found three, as well as the leaves of Arisarum vulgare, and there are more out there... I wonder how long it would take to see all of Europe's Araceae? Now there's a challenge...

Arum concinnum, a common plant of the shadier places around here, especially in the old olive groves around the village.

Arum creticum, on a dry hillside near Kissos

The arum to beat all arums! oh, except it's not actually an Arum... the utterly superb Dragon Arum Dracunculus vulgaris, (or 'that horrid plant', according to my travelling companions!) in full flower in the olive groves around the village. Worth the price of the flight just to find this!

*edit. How could I have failed to mention the smell (some might say stench!) of this plant... purported to smell like rotting flesh, I'm not so sure... but it definitely smells of something pretty bad! But for me, it's not a patch on the small of that lovely little Bisarum from Andalucia...

Crete: 17th April 2011

The weather was a bit more unsettled today: a fair bit of cloud, one or two showers and a good deal of sun too. Rather than strike out further afield, we spent the day ambling about quite close to where we're staying, visiting the monastery at Preveli in the morning, and then wandering down the lanes to Plakias in the afternoon.

The atmospheric grove of Cretan Palm Phoenix theophrasti down on the beach at Preveli, at the mouth of the fantastically named Megalopotamos River. The surrounding hillsides and the grove itself seem to have been burned through in the last few years, but the palms at least have survived well.

The rather handsome (if you like that kinda thing) Cretan Water Frog. These two had managed to get themselves stuck in a water tank near the village and were making quite a racket.

Yet more orchids... this seems to be Ophrys herae, just a single spike growing on the burned hillside at Preveli. Similar to the cretensis we saw yesterday, but larger, with more obvious 'shoulders' on the lip and a rusty brown 'throat'.

Serapias bergonii (probably), the commonest orchid we've come across so far, growing just about everywhere...

Crete: 16th April 2011

For the orchid-addicted, there can be few better places to find yourself than western Crete in mid April... which is where Philip is on holiday for a week!

Ophrys cretica. The star of the show, so far...

Ophrys cretensis
one of the mammose-sphegodes group, a very delicate little plant, much smaller than the Cypriot mammosa/alasiatica/morio. Told from the similar O. herae by the dark, not gingery 'throat'.

Ophrys episcopalis

Ophrys heldreichii, a big, showy scolopax-type

Anacamptis boryi

Orchis pauciflora

Orchis quadripunctata, a much deeper pink colour here than in Cyprus, where the majority (at least around the Akamas) seem to be a delicate white

just to prove there is more to life than orchids... fields full of the stunning red Tulipa doerfleri

Cyclamen creticum, yet another endemic

and it's not just the plants! We've already caught up with all three of Crete's lizards. Indeed, this one piece of wood was sheltering two of them: a large Balkan Green Lizard and a wonderful pair of Ocellated Skinks (including this chap, above), who certainly aren't hanging around to have their photos taken!

The Dark Peak, Derbyshire: 9th April 2011

A sunny Saturday was spent exploring the cloughs and moors of the Dark Peak in Derbyshire, on a beetle hunt...

The main target of the day was to try and find Violet Oil Beetle Meloe violaceus, as part of Buglife's Oil Beetle Hunt. And very successful the hunt was too, with three males found during the day, all of them bumbling about in the sunshine, in areas of thin acid grassland on the south-facing slopes of the clough.

As well as being pretty striking looking creatures, oil beetles have a remarkable life cycle. After mating, the females dig a nest tunnel, in which they lay up to 1000 eggs. The larvae hatch and climb up amongst nectar-rich flowers where they wait... until a passing solitary bee stops for a top up of nectar, at which point the oil beetle larvae jump aboard and hitch a ride back to the bee's nest! Here they grow up, chomping away on the bee's stores of pollen and nectar, as well as bee eggs. They overwinter in the poor bee's nests, before emerging next spring as an adult oil beetle, ready to bumble about the grassland again! Pretty cool...

The three we found were all males, as shown by the odd kink in the antennae.



Less glamorous perhaps, but no less interesting, we found four species of carrion beetle hanging around the bodies of a Red Grouse and a Mountain Hare, including the wonderful Red-breasted Carrion Beetle Oeceoptoma thoracicum (below).


With singing Ring Ouzel, Curlew and Golden Plover, several handsome Mountain Hares still in very white pelage and an amazing flight of 100 or more male Emperor Moths over the moorland on the hunt for the hidden, recently-emerged females, all in all it was a wonderful day on the moors...