Croatia 2018 27 May - 2 June The annual walking holiday without the children proved to be very successful on the wildlife front if rather hot for the walking bit. Definitely recommend as a laid-back spot to take a non-birding partner. We stayed at Cavtat and apart from the day trip to Dubrovnik (easily reached by regular, reasonably-priced ferries) we were almost never out of sight from the airport. Cavtat Dubrovnick Sniježnica area Although these trips are not dedicated wildlife trips, I did have a good reason for ‘guiding’ Michelle towards this area for our holiday and that was it was home to a new bird for me: rock partridge. It took me several attempts but I did eventually see one calling, somewhat distantly. Other birds included blue rock thrush, black-eared wheatear, black-headed bunting eastern orphean warbler, sombre tit Golden orioles, lots of subalpine warblers, alpine choughs and short-toed eagle. Reptile watching was good. Unfortunately the superb glass worms proved too quick for me to get a photo, which was very frustrating. Balkan green lizard Dalmatian green lizard Italian wall lizard (Dubrovnik) Balkan terrapin The butterfly watching was good. southern comma two-tailed pasha ilex hairstreak Idas blue marbled skipper great sooty satyr southern white admiral Balkan marbled white large tortoiseshell swallowtail scarce swallowtail Dragonfly watching was particularly good along the river near Gruda and in the hills below Sniježnica and near the river close to Gruda The highlight was Balkan goldenring. I think this may be Balkan emerald but I’m not sure. small pincertail white-legged damselfly green-eyed hawker blue-eyed hawker Croatia turned out to be good for Orthoptera but, as is usually the case, identifying them wasn’t easy due to the lack of reference materials. These should all be considered tentative identifications Schmidt’s marbled bush-cricket Eupholidoptera schmidti Pholidoptera dalmatica Dalmatian Saddle Bush-cricket Ephippiger discoidalis Chabrier’s bush-cricket, Eupholidoptera chabrieri Great green bush cricket Tettigonia viridissima A few other attractive invertebrates were seen. Hopefully the identifications are correct. narrow rose-banded wave Rynocoris iracundus Calosoma sycophanta Graphosoma semipunctatum Philaeus chrysops Chafer sp. |
