This morning I am walking up into the mountains above Kassiopi on a hunt for Butterflies, the temperature is forecast to be just over 30 degrees so its going to be a hot day up high , at 8 o'clock as I leave the hotel it is very warm already. The rough road climbs steadily upwards going to quite a few houses and cottages.
A shaft of sunlight illuminates this spiders web in the shade of some olive trees along the road as I climb steadily upwards.
At a clearing I can shoot the mountains of Albania through the haze with Kassiopi harbour over to the left bottom in image.
Crickets are everywhere, so many different colourations , this one is sitting in a convolvulus flower. There is a particular track that I remember leading to a very good hotspot for Butterflies , but for some reason must have forgotten to mark it on Google maps at the time. All I can remember is that it took off from the road on the right hand side with a valley over to the right.
This track leads off to the right , but its not the one I am looking for . It is very overgrown but has got to be worth a look down to see if anything is flying.
Out of the deep shade and into the sun, there must be something here.
Right at the bottom of this wooded glade, in the sun there is a solitary Southern White Admiral , constantly circling and perching back on the same branch. with the 400mm lens on my Canon 5dsr this is the closest image I could get , with a large crop also.
Walking back down the track to the main road and I have found two of these flowers , it turns out they are Tongue Orchids of the Serapia family. (I think )
Now this is an area I vividly remember , a series of zig zags on a steep section of the road going through a very old Olive grove. Views across to Avlaki and Albania in the distance. There are a couple of Clouded Yellows feeding on the wild flowers just down from where I'm standing, but it is covered in Olive netting and too step to climb down closer.
These fabulous old Olive trees are amazing , the twisted trunks are very impressive. Old nets cover all the ground below these trees which must have been used to catch the falling Olives at the end of the season.
The road carries on to the right up through these olives to the right.
A few hundred meters past the Zig Zags the terrane levels out and there are large areas of grass interspaced with a few wildflowers near a small cottage. And almost immediately this Balkan Marbled White lands right in front of me . a phone shot first, then a couple of images taken with 5dsr and 100mm L macro lens.
A little search over to the left has found nothing that is close enough to photograph , just a couple more Clouded Yellows that are too far even for the 400mm lens. But the low cloud in the distance partly covering the Albanian mountains looks good.
Its getting very hot now , especially climbing up in height into full sun. Yet more Cricket images.
I have now reached a wide concrete road leading steeply upwards, I do remember this from my last visit and the track is off to the right almost at the top of this section, I think!
A Small Copper on the path .
Yet another Cricket hanging around .
Having found the track I have been looking for , about half way down a fresh Holly Blue
This one is either a Grizzled Skipper , or a Oberthurs Grizzled Skipper.
I am tempted to say Oberthurs as the white on trailing edge of rear wings appears quite white.
There are an enormous amount of butterfly's here , but as the Southern Swallowtail is on the wing I have decided to come back to this section on the way back and walk on much higher in the hope of finding one.
A nice Tiger Moth
There are a few Balkan Marbled Whites but very little else apart from a couple of Large Whites.
This is as high as I think its worth going , so turn around and head back to the good section of path now.
The sound of dozens of large black Carpenter Bees fills the air , all on the ground heads in the gravel.
Back down the track , this is the view towards to best area where there are plenty of flowers.
First up is a Delattins Grayling , I followed this one quite a distance before managing this image.
A Mazarine Blue
Oriental Marbled Skipper.
Right on the corner in a glade of larger trees a couple of Southern White Admirals have been repeatedly flying around and perching on the same branch. But it still took ages to manage a few half decent images.
The First Scarce Swallowtail of the day , such magnificent Butterfly's
A short phone video
A lovely backlit Clouded Yellow , they are so fast in the heat and it has been very difficult to get close enough to them before they flit off to the next flower.
It is so hot now and my water is getting low so really need to head back now.
Just at the bottom of this track where it meats the concrete road there are a couple of whites flying.
One is an Eastern Dappled White , I have seen quite a few of these but this is the first image managed.
Right at the top of the zigzag road where the first Balkan Marbled White I photographed , this small wildflower area which is active with Scarce Swallowtails, Clouded Yellows , Cleopatra's and Large Whites .
The strong sunlight is being shaded by the Olive trees all around this small area , so the light is fairly nice for shooting , Concentrating on the Scarce Swallowtails as there are quite a few and the backgrounds are quite nicely lit.
A backlit female Cleopatra , such beautifully shaped butterfly's
That's the last image of my five hour expedition.
A few images from a sunset walk around Kassiopi headland and harbour .
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