Butterflies of Corfu 1022 pt 3 May 24 th

This morning I have walked down to Avlaki beach to explore the area around the pond again, it's a beautiful warm early morning and there is very little wind. 

The yellow poppy's growing in the gravel along the beach are being visited by these huge carpenter bees, but they are very hard to photograph! 

                              The first Butterfly image of the day, a Clouded Yellow feeding.

This is the area I am exploring; the path goes around the edge of the pool and then opens out into scrub land with old Olive trees in the distance but is too overgrown to walk very far from the path.

These are one of my favorite Butterflies, and I always try to photograph them when spotted. Much nicer light for this one compared to the first one is shot.

                                                           A view across the pool to the sea.

There are quite a few of these Darter Dragonflies, presume they are Red Veined Darters. But there was one with a much wider abdomen but was too fast to get an image of it.

                                 A backlit Cleopatra clearly showing the orange inside the forewing.

                                 A small Miner Bee sitting just long enough for a phone pic 

                                      These Darters are glowing in the sun, Amazing colour!

This one looks like a male Blacktailed Skimmer, there are quite a few but no sign of any females so maybe it is a different species.

          This is the first Painted Lady I have seen this year, but not a good image unfortunately.

                                                  Another of the huge Carpenter Bees

Looking out from the poolside path into the scrub, there are very few flowers and grasses have taken over.   I am really struggling to find many Butterflies that are close enough to shoot.   Either side of the path there are a few fresh Spotted Fritillaries, but they only settle for seconds before flitting off1 

The Glanville Fritillaries on the other hand settle for much longe , this one is fairly dark in colouration.

                A Spotted Fritillary showing how bright they are compared to the Glanville above.

             Underside of a Spotted Fritillary, it has been extremely hard to get a shot of the underwing.

                               Backlit Clouded Yellow feeding on Scabious flower (I think)

This is a Mallow Skipper, distinguished from an Oriental Marbled Skipper by the hooked antenna tips.

I have decided to walk back to the hotel now, one last Cleopatra sitting on a sedge leaf by the pond.  It's been extremely difficult here; the mountains seem to have more to photograph so I will go back up there tomorrow hopefully to find a Southern Swallowtail which are now being seen on high ground.

                             Beautiful flowers along the road going back towards Kassiopi.

Butterflys of Corfu 2022 pt 1 May 21st

 It is May 2022 , and finally I have managed to get back to Corfu to see the huge variety of butterfly's after a few years of Covid preventing travel.   Staying in Kassiopi again in the North East corner of the island so I can revisit the areas found on the last visit. It is a couple weeks later in the year,  but appears it has been a cold slow start to the year on the island and everything is a bit later than normal.

Early on Saturday morning I have walked down to Avlaki beach to have a good look around the pond and surrounding scrub land which should be full of Butterflies and Dragonfly's.

First impression is that its extremely overgrown compared to last time here , the grass has grown up around the wildflowers that the butterfly's are feeding on making it very difficult to photograph them.

It is about 27 degrees with a fairly strong breeze coming of the sea which is going to cause some problems but the main track around the pond is fairly sheltered.   First image is a teneral Dragonfly, not sure which species.   There are some vibrant Red Darters but are very skittish !

So far I have not seen a single Clouded Yellow!  which is extremely surprising as they are one of the most common species here.  Meadow Browns are everywhere in good numbers along with large whites and a few species of Skippers.

                                                                      Large Skipper. 

      There are Crickets everywhere , almost every plant has a few hanging around on the stems. There does not look like as many flowering plants as I remember , and only a few Common blue and Brown Argus flying in small areas.  

                    This one looks like a Lulworth Skipper , long way from Dorset   lol

I am really struggling to find any Butterfly's worth photographing, still not seen a Clouded Yellow in two walks around the lake. Off the path is too overgrown to go chasing any of the Spotted Fritillaries I have seen.   It looks so calm in this image , but the strong breeze comes and goes making it very difficult to get sharp in focus images of butterfly's perching on moving plant stems!

                               One of many Chafer Beetles that are feeding on the flowers.

                At last, one of numerous Glanville Fritillaries that are just not landing for long.

Underwing view of what appears to be another Glanville , initially thought this was a Spotted Fritillary.

Black Horsefly

                                                     Another Cricket hanging around!   

It is just too hot now , I have given up.  Hopefully with less breeze there will be more flying tomorrow.

And just when I get almost back to the beach , in the shelter of some large trees there is the first Clouded Yellow!  yay  

My next trip will be a long hike up into the mountains to find a specific location that was by far the best on my last visit.   and its going to be quite a bit warmer and crucially without this breeze.

Corfu pt 6 Kassiopi Harbour and Butterflies

An early start to walk down to Kassiopi harbour and go up to the castle to fly over the harbour.
the sun is facing me so there is too much glare on the water for what i want to shoot,  so only a few images taken.


                    The peninsula in the distance is where we have been the last couple of days.

                   Looking out on the small peninsula which will be good spot for sunset i think .

                                                                       Kassiopi harbour.

                            Time to head back now , Jan wants to go swimming back at Avlaki .

      A couple images to start then i will shoot some video of Jan swimming before i go bug hunting .

                                                                         Great place to swim

There are a few large Carpenter Bees feding on the yellow flowers , i have struggled to get an image of one so far as they are very fast!

Best i have managed , so tricky shooting a dark subject against a bright flowerand keeping detail in the Bee.

I have walked around to the usuall location neer the pool , managed just one shot of this pair of what i think are Wood Whites.

  Eastern Bath White  , similar to the Eastern Dappled white  i photographed earlier this week which  had yellow markings on the underside of forewings.

One of numerous Clouded Yellows flying around , want to get a blue background but this is the best i have managed!

                                                                     Habitat shot .

                                                                          A Brimstone.

                                                                    Cleopatra Brimstone.

                                           I have got beautiful backlight for this Cleopatra :)

                                    One of hundreds of Crickets/Kaytids that are everywhere .

                                                                     A tiny Miner Bee

                                                  a small chafer beetle buried in a flower  lol

Time to head back to the beach and off to dinner.