absorbing the Greek

 

The final chapter of the Greek butterflying holiday, covering 23~25th June.

Reviewing all these photos makes me realise how hard Sotiris (and Greenwings) worked to put together an interesting and diverse set of daily trips. There were no days when things sagged, despite it being quite tiring out in the hot sun most of the day and on quite testing ground at times. The species were well spread out over the week and while I wasn't quite as fascinated by all the many species of Lycaenidae we searched for, they were what made the area unique. So it was quite fun being handed a specific task to find a specific species. Such as odd-spot blues. For once, a blue with an easy-to-recognise underside which defined it as odd-spot. Sotiris showed us the foodplant and area up a beautiful hill and we spread out in search. 

amazing scenery

Northern wheatear

They were tricky to spot but not the worst. There were a few other species that were quite similar until you got down and studied or photographed the underwing. I have to admit to being distracted by birds - wheatears and stonechats - and I was having more fun getting close to them than the odd-spots.

I think Paul was first to find one and I was surprised it was on the more windy side of the hill as they are not big or powerful fliers. I drifted off towards an area of flowers that was attracting a few larger looking fritillaries and painted ladies. We hadn't seen silver-washed fritillaries this trip yet and there were not many days left to see them. I suspected there might have been some just over there and so I  wandered away from the odd-spot blue area. 

linnet

N wheatear

small turtleshell 😆

very few seen this trip

stonechat

odd-spot blue

I finally found an Odd-spot blue. As you can see it gets its name from that one spot out of line with the rest on the forewing. I saw another suspected 2 but neither posed for a photo so I reverted to taking pics of whatever else was more obliging. 

wheatear

wall

Liz, Nick, Sotiris and Paul

Middle lace border - Scopula decorata

silver-studded blue

Sotiris, Nick, Liz and Mary

Sotiris picked up on the mood of the group and suggested those who wanted, might descend to a stream running below where the van was parked and wander around there. Paul and I went for a look while Nick, Liz and Mary remained in Odd-spot country up the hill. 

I saw quite a few silver-studded blues on the way down to the van and then around puddles in the car park area. I didn't hang about too much in the car park as there were blokes driving lorries of cattle up and dropping them off to graze the higher hills. They had a few large dogs with them and one of them was making unfriendly barking noises. So I went further down the hill to the stream. There was loads of butterfly action about, although one of the best things I saw was a very strange looking insect that had a kind of ghostly hovering flight before it landed on a grass stem nearby. It was medium-butterfly-sized but was not a butterfly.

milky owl fly - libelloides lacteus
wings closed

Sotiris later told me when I showed him the photos it was a milky owl fly. A first for me - I'd never even heard of them. It was the only one I saw all week and I was very pleased to have seen it.

wings open - fantastic alien creature

The stream was in the process of drying up. Sections contained water, other sections were entirely dry and some were just damp earth. There were several corners where loads of blues gathered to mud-puddle for minerals or drink water. There were flowers growing sporadically in the surrounding grassy fields and the place was hopping with insects and butterflies.

more silver studded blues

clouded yellow

Then Paul, wandering a little distance away shouted Camberwell beauty! I turned and saw the large dark butterfly flying upstream. It landed next to the water, out of sight from Paul and I was able to guide him to where it was. It flew off again but landed downstream and we both approached with great caution. It was sitting on a rock right beside the water and it soon became apparent it was too caught up licking the minerals or water to notice us moving in for photos. Most of the time it sat with dark wings closed. But opened them briefly with flashes of the deep red velvet interior, lined with saphire blue spots and yellow band. It was the first time I'd seen one up close and got a photo and we were both delighted.

wings closed

wings open

Paul on right, CB on left - the dark triangle near edge of pic
showing 1~1.5m proximity allowed by the butterfly

an almost mythical status creature
has a nice drink at the riverside

So first I took a hundred photos and video, real-time and slo-mo. Then I thought I should alert the team who were either still up the hill or making their way down, as it looked like the CB was going to stay in the same spot for a while. (Which was unusual but extremely welcome.) I got on my mobile and called Mary. However just then I saw Sotiris appear over the brow of the hill some distance away and assumed the other three were with him so hung up. Or thought I'd hung up.

In fact Mary picked up just as I was putting my phone away and heard my muffled shouts to Sotiris in high emotion and interpreted it as a possible disaster and imagined maybe Paul had fallen into the stream and was in trouble. Having not seen the stream she was unaware it averaged maybe an inch deep (at the deep bits). She phoned back a moment later and was almost annoyed that all the fuss was about a butterfly, not a disaster. I apologised and she said she was still up the hill.  

When Sotiris saw the situation he decided to return to the van (for his camera maybe?) and brought Mary down as well as the van (with our lunches) to near where the Camberwell beauty was, which was still sitting in much the same spot undaunted by the paparazzi, now gathered round the scene.

Everyone got photos and it was considered a huge success to have had such an audience with such an unpredictable species. While we were standing around another Camberwell Beauty flew by, but didn't land. 'Our' one flew downstream and Paul went to investigate while the rest of us climbed up the steep bank to where Sotiris had parked the van and we had our lunch. Paul subsequently became known as the Camberwell king after spotting another two on the following days. 

camberwell beauty
soundtrack: Postcards for the Backyard by Neighborhood Libraries

Carpocoris sp.

common blues

the paparazzi arrive in force

On the way up the slopes to the minibus I saw what I thought was a black-veined white and took photos. I wasn't that bothered about it as it looked a bit older compared to the pristine white versions we had seen earlier in the week. Much later when I was trawling through the pics on my iPad I wondered if there was another similar species to the black-veined white, because this one seemed to have markings the others did not.

When I ran this past Sotiris a day or two later he saw that it was a clouded apollo, a species not previously associated with this particular hill. It was another species, and a welcome one, to add to our growing tally.  Every evening back at the hotel we would meet and go through the species seen over the day and add them to the cumulative count. Towards the last day or 2 we were up to 78species and I think a couple of late additions will have taken the total seen over the week into the low eighties. I was proud to have seen the only clouded apollo of the week which I could easily have walked past.

Clouded apollo

clouded apollo

At lunch we were all feeling very upbeat having had such a great interview with a legendary species. The cows seemed to know it was time to come back up the hill and get back onto their lorry. Speaking to Richard about his Greenwings trip to Northern Italy, it would seem to be a fairly common practice of driving the cattle about in lorries to deposit them in high altitude meadows to mow the grass there before moving them on to the next destination. They certainly seemed quite happy with the arrangement and behaved well.

The large unkempt dogs attending the cattle noticed we were having lunch and decided to stay with us rather than accompany the cattle back to the trucks. No longer barky or agressive at all, they sat patiently with soppy looking faces hoping for handouts. I'm not sure if they were planning to hitchhike back to the cattle farm, or knew the lorries wouldn't leave without them, but they were very keen to panhandle some lunchtime bakery snacks and pretended to be really friendly. They looked a bit ramshackle and not particularly well looked after, like mongrel farm dogs a million miles away from pedigree breeds

We then got in the bus and headed to a monastery that looked like a Bond villain's lair. Nestled underneath a massive crag it was visually spectacular. I had to get out the DJI Pocket to photograph it, as it wasn't possible to stand far enough back with the zoom lens on my big camera. Paul, Nick and Sotiris went inside for a look while Rachael, Liz, Mary and myself chose to wander round the grounds. Liz found some interesting graylings and I thought I saw a silver-washed fritillary taking water from a puddle but it flew off before I could get photos. We also saw the second humming-bird hawk-moth of the holiday go to the same water spill and I got some unimpressive slo-mo. 

It was an amazing building in an amazing spot, although it had a troubled history with the Turks as well the WW2 Germans.

hornet

blue-spot hairstreak
There were quite a few hairstreaks about on the roses near a well.

lizard - either wall or keeled

Ilex hairstreak

blue-spot hairstreak

blue-spot hairstreak

We then drove to a riverside spot a little less glamorous than usual but heaving with butterflies. The river area was pretty but the paths nearby were a little bit grottier than than the beautiful places we were used to. That said the butterfly count was through the roof. Whatever plants these flowering jobs were, they were attracting hairstreaks and blues by the dozen and several species would crowd onto one stem together. 

white-letter hairstreak

Chapman's blue ?

painted lady

I realised I should be taking an occasional photo of a painted lady as years from now I might have forgotten that they were everywhere on this trip. 

Ilex hairstreak

large skipper (only one of the trip?) 

Ilex hairstreak

Holly blues

Lattice brown

S. white admiral

Nice to see another Southern white admiral, slumming it with the hairstreaks and uk-type species. There was quite a mix of species and I think the various different aspects of the landscape - a river nearby, trees for woodland species and flowers/brambles helped bring them all forth. Liz suggested (or had seen) there might be silver-washed fritillaries swooping about the river but I couldn't see any during a quick scout-about.

just as I was thinking Mary is leaning forward taking photos

and getting her neck back scorched, she thought the same and adjusted her hat!

holly blue

wall

Back into the van and onto a lovely walk up a trail on the outskirts of the outskirts of Kalavryta (Skepasto). Nice easy ground along a 4x4 dirt road with lots of shrubs either side and lots to see. First and only sighting of a Southern comma which although it sat still was not the most easily photographed and I struggled to represent it adequately. A potentially lovely butterfly, I didn't feel I caught it well. It wasn't that happy about company and sat quite high up. Saw it in both directons as we did an out-and-back.

Mustha spinosula again

Anomalous blue ?

some kind of shield bug
likely Graphosoma Semipunctatum

Southern comma

S comma - huffing in the shade

Trichodes apiarius?

Meadow brown

anomalous blue

clouded yellow

more of those favourite Grecian coppers
very similar to the Eurpoean scarce copper

Rachael heard a hoopoe calling but despite extensive listening we could not track it down. Eventually I thought I saw it descend to a perch but that turned out to be a jay, which I suprisingly managed to get a reasonable photo of as it then took off from the same tall perch. It was a really pleasant end-of-day stroll in delightful countryside and a short drive back to the hotel to shower and change into fresh clothes for another amazing meal.

jay

We endeavoured to try different restaurants in town but due to one being closed (or having weird hours) we kept returning to another which we'd already visited. This was no hardship as it was fantastic (one of the best all holiday) and one of the most authentic/traditional we visited. The woman in charge would bring us extra dishes we hadn't ordered just to let us try. I suspect we maybe ate earlier (7pm-ish) than many of the locals and also being a table of 7 brought good business to her place.

She was always smiling and happy to accommodate us. Mary kept saying we should order main meals without chips/potatoes because we'd try to eat everything and there was always an excess. (We never managed to order without chips (often sliced fried potatoes ie very filling) until the very last day on our own in Porto Rafti.) We are not used to big salad starters, delicious bread AND a large main course. But it was all so tasty it was hard to resist. 

During maybe our last meal there an American at another table brought over a carafe of white wine they had ordered inadvertently. They had already reached their limit but not wanting it to go to waste, gifted it to our table. I selflessly helped them out as much as possible which was quite a lot, as nobody else was that interested. This was as close as I got to mild inebriation all holiday (discounting the perhaps ill advised 8am airport beer leaving Edinburgh) and I know my younger self would have been using terms like lightweigh to describe the lack of pursuing excellent wines on holiday. I waved a giddy thanks to the Americans as we left.

the last day
nearly there - stick with it!

beautiful demoiselle (m)

Sotiris had planned a number of special things for the last day of the holiday. It had been such a successful week it was difficult to see how he could top it, but he had a plan. Unfortunately it didn't all go to plan, but it started really well with a trip to a lake North East of Kalavryta. We stopped off short of the lake at a riverside area of swampy ground with some butterflies and many dragonflies, mostly beautiful demoiselles but with an occasional large goldenring passing through. The demoiselles would perch under trees and the lack of light, as well as swampy ground underfoot made for challenging photographic conditions. Although great fun.

goldenring

beautiful demoiselle (f)

(m)

(f)

Then onto the lake - a really pretty turquoise stretch of water formed after a landslide dammed a river. It made so much noise that the locals were given warning and many escaped before the waters overwhelmed their houses (if I got that right.) It was very picturesque and I'm surprised I didn't get the DJI Pocket out and take more scenery photos. Probably because there was so much to shoot with the big camera, from the usual butterflies, to dragonflies, lizards and frogs. Just FAB!

Not sure if that frog is properly named. I think another app just said Marsh frog, but like most of the other name checks here it is very tricky to remember what was said a couple of weeks ago on day after day of lifetime first encounters of small butterflies that look very similar to yesterday's butterflies but with different names. Personally I blame all the mistakes on Obsidentify - as Paul pointed out they regularly have an overconfident percentage score on their IDs

another amazing Balkan marbled white

Peloponnese wall lizard

Perez's water frog ?
Google A.I. (well known for being obsequious) just agreed this was Perez water frog!

Violet dropwing (m)

Liz, a big dragonfly fan, knew these were likely to be here. They are the most vibrant dragonflies I've seen and it was thrilling to see such felt pen type colours on a living thing. There weren't many about and they almost entirely refused to perch anywhere photogenic, but what a colour!

Madeiran banded bee ?

Black-tailed skimmer

Violet dropwing (m)

Wall

Peloponnese wall lizard

Blue emperor

This was almost certainly an emperor dragonfly or as they call them outside the UK, a blue emperor. Nice to see but frustrating to try to capture, as they never stopped flying.

Black-tailed skimmer mating pair

Violet dropwing female
so not violet!

Blue featherleg damselfly
aka White-legged damselfly

I would have walked past this damselfly had Liz and Sotiris not drawn attention to those legs which give it both of its common names.

at last some secenery

Then things got complicated. Sotiris had planned our lunch would be near a small church a few miles North of the lake. As we got close to the place it became evident someone had had a similar plan and there was a party in full swing of senior church goers, tables spread with food and a PA system playing music! And loads of cars parked in our planned spot. Sotiris, being the son of a minister (have I got that right?) was known by some of the crowd and he only just managed to disentangled himself from their party to steer our party in a parallel direction.

We would explore locally and then join their party briefly for our lunch before then exploring more widely the adjoining area. Their party did seem exceptionally inviting, cheerful, warm and friendly and I could see the danger of us being embroiled with them almost against our will, being problematic for Sotiris. We managed to drag ourselves away to a neighbouring field where we found some graylings and hairstreaks and then behind the church where we found more stuff! Oh and possibly the best tasting cherries in the world, ever, directly off the tree!

Great banded grayling

mating Ilex hairstreak

We went round the other side of the church - there was a trail going along a river and a meadow full of butterfly potential - rambling brambles, trees, grasses and stuff. While wandering over the far side I noticed a steep climb up a short hill to a sort of plateau above. I couldn't see up there but it looked slightly offset from the field and like it might be a secret haven for butterflies. A large spikey arm of bramble blocked the way and as I lifted it carefully to one side I asked myself why I was going to such bother. From within, I clearly heard the answer - to see the silver-washed fritillary up there.

So it shouldn't have been too much of a surprise, and I suppose it wasn't, once I'd climbed up the steep slope, to see a couple of male silver-washed fritillary sitting atop the umbillifer type flowers there. They were fantastic. One had slightly crumpled wings. Not sure if they were finished inflating and permanently damaged or in the process of unfurling. Both were very newly emerged. I took a few photos. They weren't super-happy about me joining them in their 20m sq garden but when they flew off they circled and returned.

I was completely smitten but realised that there was limited time before we should be returning to eat lunch by the church. Paul came across to check if I had been consumed by triffids. I offered to show him the SWF garden but he declined - they are found in England, (but not Scotland,) therefore not as rare for him - so we returned to the church for lunch. The crowd there were exceptionally welcoming and I got into conversation with some chap who came over and started chatting as if we were old friends. Someone else offered Mary some small fish much to her delight and amusement.

The party seemed to be a celebration of John the Baptist though there was little of the solemnity I associate with the religiously inclined. The crowd were senior in years possibly because everyone younger in their community was out at work. There were a few children but not many and most of the adults were older than myself. (I'm 63.) I don't know if booze was being consumed, I don't think it was, but the church people were as good-naturedly cheerful as if it was. It was very uplifting. And combined with finally getting photos of S-W fritillary (and spanakopita for lunch) I could feel my cup runneth over!

silver-washed fritillary

swf (m)

you can see the male sex brands (androconia) on the long lines of the wing,
during courtship they will release pheromones to encourage females

interesting the spiders and SWFs just ignore each other

I ate lunch with gusto - possibly spanikopita that day; fantastic! And then caught Sotiris eye but he already knew what I was going to ask. Okay to take 5mins to check out those SWFs? He agreed and I said I'd be back shortly. I ran back to the garden plateau and one of the pair was still there. I did my utmost to ensure I didn't spook it, slowly moving to a point where I could get shots and video. It was superb - a perfect specimen, in the shade, but otherwise great. I knew I should not abuse my freedoms and so returned to the team before they had to send out a search party. I got plenty great material in the short time I was there, although it turned out to be a day when we saw loads more SWFs along the way.

bigger than any Scottish butterflies

Nick, Paul, Mary, Rachael, Liz and Sotiris

beautifully painted church

The church was amazing. Mary had noticed my growing interest in churches* and tolerance for the buildings from my normally hardline athiest approach and thought this might be the church to flip me over to enthusiastic born-again. While Greek Orthodox (if this is what that was) is one of the better varieties available, I held onto my own suspicions and narrowly avoided any kind of spiritual intoxication or a baptism in the local river. Although it was so warm it might have been fun.

*Twice or more we had found spectacular butterflies near to houses of religion. The first, the cardinal (named for its red patch, not because it chooses future Popes) at the tiny church at the far end of the high valley where we held a snake (aha!) And now here today; SWFs sent for me virtually in the grounds of a church, with a voice (surprisingly like my own subconscious one) luring me into a garden!
(I know: if you recognise your own subconscious voice then it's not that, is it?)

silver-washed fritillary video

wings like communion wafers!
soundtrack: oasis by Lara Somogyi, Jean-Michel Blais

Some fanciful cultures like to propose butterflies are the souls of departed ancestors. If you only saw one, once, for five minutes, in a graveyard, you might think that was feasible, but once you have looked a little closer it is hard to reconcile that superstition with (for instance) them living less than a year. How does that work? Is there a continual rotation of ancient relatives queuing to have a shot at being a butterfly for a few weeks? Like the queues to get on rides at Disneyworld?

(I have 3 weeks in a speckled wood in Putney if you'd like sir, or you could hold out for a Blue Morpho special but there's a very long waiting list.) 

 

SWF mating pair

speckled wood: another UK species we didn't see many of

In fact now I think about it there were several species I readily see at home that we saw here but only saw once, a solitary example of: red admiral, small tortoiseshell, speckled wood, peacock, large skipper, small heath and comma. Maybe small copper but I'll have to check. (Only seen on day 2 by the group so maybe just one again.) Looking at the group notes several of the above were recorded on several days so it might just have been me being a bit dozy and not seeing what was actually there, under my nose. Wouldn't be the first time. 

mystery crop - about the size of a medium-to-large brussel sprout

with an aroma nothing like that of the content

Okay starter for 10. Without using google lens, what is the fairly common edible crop pictured above. I found one on the ground and sniffed it for clues. It smelled intriguingly aromatic but not of the end product. What is it? Answer near the bottom of the page.

common blue

After lunch we headed down the road. For the first time this holiday, clouds began to obscure the sun and it became overcast. I felt sorry for Sotiris; he had brought us to a place special to his heart, and was anticipating a tremendous show of butterflies around the area, and the weather was going to let him down. We still saw lots of fabulous things and it was very pleasant walking, but it sounds like when the sun is shining the place is alive with butterflies.

We even got to see a plot of land belonging to Sotiris, with a few olives trees and a stream at the bottom. It was all exceptionally charming but I could tell he was a bit chagrinned that the weather gods were not playing ball.

more SWF

cherries

Morimus funereus

Balkan marbled white on a house wall

again, closer

beautiful demoiselle (f)

Red-rumped swallow just as the rain was starting
I wore my waterproof for about 20mins then it came off again

Mammoth wasp - Regiscolia maculata

the largest wasp in Europe

a parasitoid on scarab beetles

antlion

chasing an antlion which didn't want its picture taken

When we got to the top of the hill there was a church. It was very nicely sat there and contained by a neat wall. Surrounded by meadows with wildflowers and butterflies (even though it was still a bit dull and cloudy.) We saw our second large tortoiseshell of the holiday, another SWF and below that another spotted fritillary. It looked quite different from the first one, which Sotiris had thought was maybe a lesser spotted and subsequent analysis had proved inconclusive. This one looked similar but wasn't as fresh which made it look different!

It is definitely a tricky game, the business of identification, with so many species here, and many looking very similar. I optimistically downloaded the Butterflies of Greece app to my iPad and threw a few photos at it. It was not up to the task: coming out with different species for an upper and lower wing shot of the same butterfly. I reluctantly added it to the group of inconclusive methods on the road to knowledge, primarily Obsidentify, google lens, and the many sites describing the butterflies of Europe you find online. I should probably buy the Tari Haahtela book that Nick, Liz and Sotiris had. Update just bought it from NHBS for £17.04 including p&p. Covers 482 European species. How many do we have here in Scotland? About 35-ish. Interesting that Butterfly Conservation don't include Brimstone, Clouded yellow or Camberwell beauty, because although they've all been seen flying through Scoland, (though not by me), they are not known to breed here. Like Sean Connery or more recently, Nicola Sturgeon.

another male silver-washed fritillary up a tree

2nd large turtleshell of the holiday

Spotted fritillary

Spotted fritillary

Another real belter of a butterfly especially with its strong colours against the light coloured background plants. What you don't get from these photos is myself and Liz were perched on a really quite steep slope. There was no path. We are trying to find traction on a slope of sandy gravel and dust dry earth which threatens to send us on a thistly death slide to the bottom of the hill., Liz has already taken a slide on her bum when her feet slid away from under her. This explains the tentative wobble in the video I shot of this otherwise fairly obliging fritillary. It sat very nicely and looked spectacular.

spotted fritillary video
soundtrack: oasis by Lara Somogyi, Jean-Michel Blais

Eastern baton blue I think?
It's like trying to remember details from a dream you had last week!

Graphosoma Semipunctatum

Red-rumped swallows

These were tremendous little chaps sat up in a tree having a look around. They were not bothered by me any more than a two legged horse wandering over and pointing a hoof at them. They had complete mastery of the sky and knew I could not catch them if my life depended on it. I thanked them for posing nicely and looking so swish!

there weren't quite enough scattered houses to call this a village

another Morimus funereus (called Charlie)
Paul helped him off the "main" road in case a car came along

Tibicina haematodes?
(And I was about to type in cicadetta montana.)
The one we saw in Porto Rafti came up on Obsidentify as Cicada orni

Cicadas have a prime number survival strategy. They live underground as a nymph for 13 or 17 years before a sychronised emergence. This makes it nearly impossible for predators to sync their lifecycles to that of the cicadas. The males are the loudest insects on earth, vibrating their tymbals (drum like organs in their abdomens) and amplifying the sound in their hollow bodies.

sorry looking cat near hotel

And that was about that. We had done the grand finale and it was a little bit disappointing for Sotiris. But we all enjoyed it, not knowing what it was like when optimal. Can't complain about a cloud covered afternoon when we'd just had a long week of excellent weather and amazing wildlife, scenery and food. The holiday was exactly as advertised if not better, and Mary and I thought it was incredible. It makes you want to save up or rob a bank to do this sort of thing more often.

I'm not entirely sure what the long term damage of holding Scotland's meagre wildlife up to the inevitable comparison of Greek's, will be, but hey, short of emigrating and trying to learn a new language at my age, I don't think there's much I can do about it. Except curse every day I look out the window and see another unspectacular day here unfold. At least it has given me time to write up this report. If you read all the way to here, thanks. You should probably get outdoors more! 

Sotiris was a real gentleman. Instead of abandoning us at the airport with the others who were catching afternoon flights, (after we'd left our hold luggage in left luggage at the airport,) he took us and our carry-ons to Porto Rafti, a much better place to spend the 8hrs before our flight at 11.35pm. He then had to return to the airport to drop off the minibus, but he'd given us pointers to find butterflies along the coastal paths and reckoned we'd find somewhere nice to eat before catching an Uber back over to the Airport for 9pm-ish. It was a great way to avoid a long dull afternoon and evening in an airport and thanks Sotiris, we really appreciated it!

not an airport!

painted lady

scarce swallowtail

very charming sparrows helping clear the tables at the cafe

scarce swallowtail number 2

Eastern bath white

some kinda something

Mary posing with a beer could only open her eyes a tiny peep
because it was too bright

Now that beer was bought the day before from the shop near the hotel. Originally to help ease the post trip homework session when we gathered after the day's adventures to debrief and count the day's species. The hotel wasn't entirely reliable for supplying quality alcohol and the only ordinary wine I had of the holiday was a tiny bottle of cold red wine bought from the hotel for one of these sessions.

So I bought a couple of cold cans from the shop next door which they sold very cold. It looked the least serious of their beers because I wasn't looking to get intoxicated, I was looking for a light cold drink. Anyway I couldn't bear to abandon the last remaining can when we left the hotel so it was rattling around my back pack as we stood in a street hot enough to fry eggs. Rather than let it get any warmer I voted we dispose of it. And we took a photo because it has the same as Mary's sister Caroline despite the evidence to the contrary.

Cicada orni

We could hear this massive amount of cicada chirruping and I was keen to find one. But as ever, you hear the noise and as you approach they STFU. Except for this daft one we came across: it was on a telephone pole for starters. Surprised the birds or whatever predates cicadas hadn't eaten him/her yet. Anyway I thought I'd video it and maybe find out how they make that noise. I couldn't see any obviously moving parts while I filmed, but afterwards I thought I could see there is some movement maybe below the shoulders but above the ribs (entomological technical terms!) I am now annoyed that I didn't swap to the macro lens and do a better job of this. It was just too hot and my brain was being distracted by the thought of cold drinks.

cicada singing

Okay I'd mostly worked it out without having to make a 23minute youTube. If you want more details watch that here instead. We don't get cicadas here so I enjoyed seeing them in Greece. This one stopped chirruping for a short while if you tapped his telephone pole gently! It seemed really funny at the time but that may have been the heatstroke kicking in.

scarce swallowtail

When we got out the minibus it was reading 34 degrees. It felt really hot and only got worse. So hot that we only did a small amount of butterfly hunting then had to sit at a cafe under an umbrella as it was just unbearably hot for moving around. We did not find much in the way of butterflies although they might have been in hiding as well. We found a great place for food. It was young and casual and we really enjoyed the meal as well as remembering to not order chips or sliced potatoes, just having a couple of salads with some meat mains, and no chips.

we bagged the bread to have on the flight home later, when it was very welcome!

And so rather bizarrely we finished our Greek holiday drinking cold drinks next to a beach! What a holiday though! Many hours later we were driven through Edinburgh on a night bus just in time for that 3.30am lightning storm which was quite the welcome home. (Glad it hadn't kicked off before we touched down.) Making cups of tea by 4am or thereabouts; 6am Greek time!

mystery crop quiz answer: walnuts!

some paperwork - all greek to me

make sure in youtube settings (the wee cog) it is set to Full HD
(and probably turn off subtitles)

This video was something of a monster to make and edit. I chose about 240 of my favourite shots and mixed them up with video clips taken with the DJI Pocket. I didn't want them in chronological order but I did group some together. The only way to get so many photos into a reasonably short video was to flash them past at the sort of rate that you can only just follow. But you need to let your mind cool down and relax as well, so I interspersed the stills with video clips. Again not really in order. Trying to keep this all in rhythm with the beat of the soundtrack was challenging. My hard drive will sigh with relief now that I have finished this holiday blogging and video, and can clear off all the Greek gigabytes to the external hard drive. It was wonderful while it lasted, but I promise to stop going on about it. 😎