Planet Earith: Great White Egret, Ardea alba

Another heron at RSPB Ouse Fen (Earith). There were 4 or 5 flying around. This is the Great White Egret, Ardea alba. It’s about the size of a Grey Heron, but white.

Great White Egret in flight against a leafy fenland backdrop
Great White Egret in flight against a leafy fenland backdrop

Quite a rarity in the UK, until maybe about 10 years ago, but like Little Egret, Cattle Egret, Glossy Ibis, and various other herons, it’s becoming an almost everyday sight in these here parts. I’ve seen perhaps 6 or 7 on the same patch at a different reserve, where there were also dozens of Little Egret and numerous Grey Heron. The GWE is not quite as common as the Little Egret now, but was removed from the “mega” list quite some time ago. It is far more common than the Purple Heron I mentioned recently.

Great White Egret is ostensibly an African/Mediterranean bird like those others. However, the species has been extending its range into Europe and the UK in recent years. Nudged by climate change, perhaps the main driving force is the presence of lots of crayfish in lakes in northern France that have given it a food source and the potential to hop across the channel. Once here, they find the old East Anglian gravel pits that are now full of water and marked as nature reserves a perfect home from home, it seems. Fairly common on the Somerset Levels these days too.

Local Purple Heron, Ardea purpurea

Back in June, we enjoyed seeing a lot of birds, butterflies, and moths in Greece. Many, if not most, of those were species rarely, if ever, seen in the UK. One bird we had a shout out from our skipper on Lake Kerkini was the Purple Heron, Ardea purpurea. I must confess I wasn’t quick enough to get a photo on the boat trip and not entirely sure I actually saw it among the Squacco and Night Herons that were in the reed as we rippled past.

Purple Heron in flight
Juvenile Purple Heron in flight, wings down

Anyway, I was out looking for Bearded Reedlings at RSPB Ouse Fen (Earith), there were lots. A Bittern came up from the reeds briefly and ducked back down, as they do. There were also four Great White Egrets flying about. But, it was the odd-looking heron in the distance that was the most intriguing…it definitely wasn’t another Bittern, but didn’t look quite right for a Grey Heron.

When I got back to base camp, I checked the photos. It was obvious on zooming in on the photo Purple Heron, Ardea purpurea. Juvenile. The species is smaller and more slender than the Grey Heron, markings are different, and overall it has darker plumage. The species is more commonly found in Africa, central and southern Europe. However, juveniles do occasionally spread their wings from the near Continent between August and October and end up in East Anglia and beyond. Sighting now with the County Bird Recorder, Jon Heath.

Purple Heron in flight
Purple Heron in flight, wings up

Mrs Sciencebase remembered there had been reports of that species earlier in the year locally. I checked on Birdguides and she was right, there had been one here back in the summer of 2023 and a scattering of others over the last few years. Indeed, earliest Birdguides record I can see on the app is summer 2003 at Needingworth (which is now part of RSPB Ouse Fen).

Looking at the national sightings on the app, I can see sightings of Purple Heron in Somerset, Shropshire, Norfolk, Devon, Suffolk, Jersey during September and October.

This is one of my natural highlights of 2024. I will give you a full update of those on New Year’s Eve!

Of parakeets and parks

There are several species of parakeet present in European cities alongside the Rose-ringed, or Ring-necked, Parakeet, Psittacula krameri, also known as the Kramer Parrot. The others are Blue-crowned Parakeet, Thectocercus acuticaudatus, the Alexandrine Parakeet, P. eupatria, and the Monk Parakeet, Myiopsitta monachus. If we’re talking parrots in general, there’s also the Common Parakeet, perhaps better known as the Budgerigar, Melopsittacus undulatus.

Rose-ringed Parakeet
Rose-ringed Parakeet

The Rose-ringed Parakeet is well known in city parks and green spaces with trees across Europe from Athens to Amsterdam, Barcelona to Bonn, and Lisbon to London, and even as far north as Newcastle. The common sub-species in those cities is native to Africa but has adapted successfully to living in disturbed and urban habitats having escaped deforestation. Their presence in London has nothing to do with an imagined publicity stunt by Jimi Hendrix.

Rose-ringed Parakeets were and presumably still are a popular pet bird species and so escapees have fed into the feral populations. It is naturalised in many places now, breeding as if native. But, it is considered a pest in places where the sub-species in India has bred into massive colonies, but in Europe there does not seem to be a need to cull them. Peregrines, Hobbies, and Tawny Owls will all predate Rose-ringed.

Blue-crowned Conures, or Parakeets
Blue-crowned Parakeets, Lisbon Botanical Gardens

Meanwhile, the Blue-crowned Parakeet is a native of South America. It is generally found from eastern Colombia to Curaçao in the southern Caribbean to the northern parts of Argentina. It prefers savanna-like habitats, woodland, and forest margins and so is generally not present in dense, humid forest like the Amazon. Introduced, as one might expect, to the USA, specifically south Florida, California, and Hawaii. It is now present in several cities across Europe too, Barcelona, Lisbon, Milan, Paris, Zürich, and on the Canary Islands.

Blue-crowned Parakeet
Blue-crowned Parakeet

A Blue-crowned Parakeet nest with eggs, subsequently predated, was observed in 2001 in Lewisham, southeast London.

Incidental birding in Lisbon

We spent a few days in Lisbon in early October, our first time in the beautiful and cosmopolitan capital of Portugal. Man, it was nominally a city break to celebrate our 32nd wedding anniversary, which was earlier in the year. There had been the notion of perhaps heading up to the Tagus Estuary Nature Reserve to see the flamingos, but we didn’t get there in the end. We kept our eyes peeled for birds in between more conventional city sightseeing in the city, as well as Belém (west along the river) and Oriente (to the east, as the name would suggest).

Rose-ringed Parakeet, one of many at the Portuguese Naval Museum in Belém
Rose-ringed Parakeet, one of many around the Portuguese Naval Museum in Belém
Black Redstart outside the Portuguese Naval Museum, Belém
Black Redstart outside the Portuguese Naval Museum, Belém

We didn’t spot any Black Kites, Azure-winged Magpies, nor Hoopoe, which I’d hoped for, but there were lots of Crested Myna, Black Redstart, and Rose-ringed Parakeets at the Mosteiro de Jeronimos in Belém. A couple of hours at the Parque Eduardo VII added Sardinian Warbler, Short-toed Treecreeper, and Serin to the list. Then another couple of hours in the Botanic Gardens added two species of parakeet Blue-crowned and Rose-ringed.

Three Blue-crowned Parakeets
These three Blue-crowned Parakeets seem to be sharing a joke…probably at the photographer’s expense

It was wonderful to spend some time in the peace of the Lisbon Botanical Gardens away from the bustle of the streets and the trams. It was also warm and sunny while we were there and with the sight and sound of Willow Warbler and Blackcap around it was almost like a summer rewind. The deciduous trees were starting to show signs of the autumn, of course, but it was still 25 Celsius and very humid, twice the temperature it had been at home when we left Old Blighty.

Willow Warbler in the Botanical Gardens
Willow Warbler in the Lisbon Botanical Gardens
Perched, it looks like a shabby Blackbird with a white bill, but this is actually a Crested Myna, an introduced Asian species now present in Lisbon and environs
Perched, it looks like a shabby Blackbird with a white bill, but this is actually a Crested Myna, also known as the Chinese Starling, Acridotheres cristatellus, an introduced Asian species now present in Lisbon and environs. Obvious white patches on the wings in flight are a giveaway.
Chinese Starling or Crested Myna
Slightly more obvious in this photo: Crested Myna
A couple more of the Rose-ringed Parakeet
A couple more of the Rose-ringed Parakeet
Blue-crowned Parakeet in flight, Lisbon Botanical Gardens
Blue-crowned Parakeet in flight, Lisbon Botanical Gardens
Male Rose-ringed Parakeet
Male Rose-ringed Parakeet
Eurasian Jay
Eurasian Jay

We finally caught up with a load of European Serin, Serinus serinus, in the Edward VII park in Lisbon. Not seen this bird species before, it’s related to the Ethiopian Siskin and the Black-headed Canary, but you could also say it’s a distant cousin of the European Goldfinch and the European Siskin, to which is bears more than a passing resemblance. They’re all finches, basically.

European Serin
European Serin
Yellow-legged Gulls, quayside, Lisbon
Yellow-legged Gulls, Larus michahellis, quayside, Lisbon

The hopefully complete bird list for our four-day ostensibly non-birding trip. Birds without a place were seen in various places or just around Lisbon/riverside in general. Birds marked * are lifers for us.

  1. Black-Headed Gull
  2. Black-tailed Godwit – Oriente
  3. Blue-Crowned Parakeet* – Botanic Gardens
  4. Common Black Redstart – Parque Edward VII
  5. Common Blackbird
  6. Common Buzzard
  7. Common Chaffinch
  8. Common Chiffchaff – Parque Edward VII
  9. Common Sandpiper – Oriente
  10. Crested Myna* – Naval Museum, Belém
  11. Eurasian Crag Martin* – Miradouro de Santa Catarina
  12. European Herring Gull
  13. European Pied Flycatcher – Heard only, Botanic
  14. European Robin
  15. European Serin* – Parque Edward VII
  16. European Starling
  17. Eurasian Blackcap – Parque Edward VII, Botanic
  18. Eurasian Blue Tit
  19. Eurasian Jay – Parque Edward VII
  20. Eurasian Oystercatcher – River
  21. Eurasian Wren
  22. Feral Pigeon
  23. Great Black-backed Gull
  24. Great Cormorant – River
  25. Great Tit
  26. Grey Heron – Naval Museum, Belém
  27. House Sparrow
  28. Lesser Black-backed Gull
  29. Long-Tailed Tit
  30. Rose-Ringed Parakeet – Naval Museum, Botanic etc
  31. Ruddy Turnstone – Riverside to Belém
  32. Sardinian Warbler – Parque Edward VII
  33. Short-Toed Treecreeper* – Parque Edward VII, Botanic
  34. Spotted Flycatcher – Parque Edward VII
  35. Spotless Starling* – Parque Edward VII
  36. Western Jackdaw
  37. White Wagtail – Belém
  38. Willow Warbler – Parque Edward VII
  39. Yellow-Legged Gull

Just to add, we saw a few Large White butterflies, presumed Speckled Wood, and a few Lang’s Short-tailed Blue, and also Velvet Carpenter Bee, and some fish in the river, but, that was pretty much it on other wildlife, as you’d expect from a city break.

Birds photographed with a Canon R7 mirrorless digital camera fitted with an appropriate adapter and an ancient Canon EF L 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS lens.

Osprey with prey

Another view of the juvenile Osprey that has been feeding and resting at Milton Country Park since 5th September 2024. It is an unringed bird, so not a fledgling from the breeders at Rutland Water. It is, rather, most likely to have flown in from Scotland or Cumbria, a wild fledgling, heading to Gambia or a neighbouring country for the winter.

Juvenile Osprey with piscine prey
Juvenile Osprey with piscine prey (large bream, Abramis brama)

Usually, the adult birds tend to fly from their nesting sites right through to Africa without needing to stop over at country parks and the like. But, inexperienced juveniles, like all children, get hungry on a long journey and so this juvenile has stopped off to refuel. One person in the park reported that the juvenile had settled on their garden fence in the village briefly.

Having said that about the adults flying through, I also saw an adult at the park on the day I first saw the juvenile. More to the point, there had been reports of an adult on the Cam and possibly the same, or different bird, in nearby Chesterton and at Dernford Reservoir.

Juvenile Osprey, I suspect female as it did a lot of mock mating bows when I saw it on Sunday
Juvenile Osprey, I suspect female as it did a lot of mock mating bows

I think I missed seeing the juvenile catch a fish by minutes. When I caught up with it having hung around watching and waiting for an hour, it was eating a roach or a perch while being mobbed by corvids (magpies and jackdaws) on its usual oak perch in the park.

Pandion haliaetus – Sometimes known as the Sea Hawk, Rive Hawk, Fish Hawk. Only extant member of the genus Pandion. Molecular phylogenetic analysis shows that the Pandionidae is a sibling family to the Accipitridae and suggests that the two families diverged more than 50 million years ago. The Accipitridae includes the hawks, eagles, kites, harriers and Old World vultures.

Eurasian Ospreys appear locally

UPDATE – 23 October 2024: The juvenile Osprey that appeared in Milton Country Park on the 5th September was last reported on its feeding perch on 21st October. It seems that it had finally headed south for the winter.

Juvenile Osprey having a fish supper at Milton Country Park, Cambs
Juvenile Osprey having a fish supper on its favourite feeding perch at Milton Country Park

I asked expert Tim Mackrill, an ornithologist at the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation about the bird. “It is fairly common for juveniles to stop-over in this way during September and October, and some birds even stay into November, particularly on the South Coast [of England],” he told me. “Most juveniles depart their nest site before they have caught a fish for themselves, so if they encounter a location where they are catching fish relatively easily, they can often linger for a number of days or even weeks, as your bird did.” He adds that most Ospreys in England and Wales are ringed, but there are many Scottish sites where chicks are not ringed. “It is most likely that this was a Scottish youngster” he told me. “That said, some Scandinavian birds also pass through England on autumn migration, so that can’t be discounted either.”

If it reaches Africa, it will stay there for several seasons before flying back to somewhere near the place it hatched earlier in 2024 to seek a mate. Meanwhile, another migrating Osprey was seen at RSPB Fen Drayton on 22nd October.


Famously, there are nesting Ospreys at Rutland Water, which is probably the nearest spot we’d expect to see these breeding summer visitors. However, migrating birds on passage can turn up anywhere there’s water and fish if they sense a safe place to refuel on their journey to or from sub-Saharan Africa. I suspect the passage migrants mentioned in this post have flown in from much further north, Cumbria or Scotland, perhaps. No signs of leg rings and the Rutland birds are all ringed.

Eurasian Osprey in flight, Pandion haliaetus haliaetus
Eurasian Osprey in flight, Pandion haliaetus haliaetus

We have lots of gravel pits in this part of Cambridgeshire that have been repurposed as nature reserves and parks. One of them, Milton Country Park has seen lots of interesting birdlife over the last few years. You’re almost always going to see Kingfisher, Cormorants and various ducks and waders there as well as woodland birds and even occasionally exotic warblers. Geese numbers seem to be way down recently.

Back in late April 2014, a Eurasian Osprey turned up and hung around for a while. This was presumably a migrant heading north. The previous year one was present in September, presumably heading south. Prior to that 2008.

Eurasian Osprey, Pandion haliaetus haliaetus
Eurasian Osprey, Pandion haliaetus haliaetus
Eurasian Osprey in flight, Pandion haliaetus haliaetus
Eurasian Osprey in flight, Pandion haliaetus haliaetus

There’s an Osprey at Milton CP right now, first appearance, 5th September 2024 or thereabouts. It’s a juvenile. Not long after, an adult was seen on the nearby stretch of the River Cam at Bait’s Bite Lock. There have been some other local sightings in Chesterton and at Dernford Reservoir.

Mrs Sciencebase and I took a stroll around the Milton CP site on the morning of 14th September, and while we saw Kingfisher, there was no sign of any Ospreys. We had another try on the afternoon of the 15th and spotted one flying over one of the lakes. It was airborne for a few minutes before heading to a roosting point high in an oak tree, a spot others had seen it several times in previous days. We had great views of it in the air and then at its roost. It would occasionally bow, perhaps a precocious mating bow, so I suspect it’s a female. I saw no sign of it on the morning of the 16th September.

Male Kingfisher, Alcedo atthis
Male Kingfisher, Alcedo atthis

As we were leaving the park, we took one more look from a viewing jetty and saw another (adult) Osprey that had flown in from the direction of the River Cam. It had apparently fished briefly just before we saw it in the air and then it quickly disappeared back towards the river. This was definitely a second bird, as the roosting juvenile has a nick from one of its wings whereas this apparent adult did not.

Eurasian Osprey in flight, Pandion haliaetus haliaetus
Eurasian Osprey in flight, Pandion haliaetus haliaetus

County Bird Recorder, Jon Heath, interviewed in Cambridge Independent.

Birds of Lake Kerkini and surroundings

Lake Kerkini is an astonishing place in northern Greece. Mrs Sciencebase and I visited in June 2024. I’ve put together galleries of the butterflies and moths we saw on our trip, trekking and boating in the area.

Lake Kerkini fishermen
Lake Kerkini fishermen

I took rather a lot of photos and have only now got around to processing the birds. We saw a lot of birds, tens of thousands of them were Common Cormorant, hundreds were Great White Pelican and Dalmation Pelican, lots were herons and egrets of various species, Spoonbills, a handful of Nightingales, fleeting glimpses of Hoopoe (sadly), a solitary Glossy Ibis, and just the vocalisations of Sardinian Warbler, Cirl Bunting, and a few others no solid sightings. Merlin app also picked up a few that we didn’t see nor hear, and are possibles but questions that will never be answered, such as Wryneck, Thrush Nightingale, Hawfinch, Red Crossbill.

Grey Heron and chicks
Grey Heron and chicks

Here’s a list of the 90+ bird species we saw and heard. I suspect we also saw Lesser Kestrel and Eleanora’s Falcon at some point without getting positive IDs on those two:

  1. Bee-eater, European (Merops apiaster)
  2. Blackbird, Common (Turdus merula)
  3. Blackcap, Eurasian (Sylvia atricapilla)
  4. Bunting, Cirl (Emberiza cirlus) (heard only or Merlin)
  5. Buzzard, Common (Buteo buteo)
  6. Buzzard, Honey (Pernis apivorus)
  7. Chaffinch, Eurasian (Fringilla coelebs)
  8. Chiffchaff, Common (Phylloscopus collybita)
  9. Coot, Eurasian (Fulica atra)
  10. Cormorant, Great (Phalacrocorax carbo)
  11. Cormorant, Pygmy (Microcarbo pygmaeus)
  12. Crossbill, Red (Loxia curvirostra) (heard only or Merlin)
  13. Crow, Carrion (Corvus corone)
  14. Crow, Hooded (Corvus cornix)
  15. Cuckoo, Common (Cuculus canorus)
  16. Dove, Collared (Streptopelia decaocto)
  17. Dove, Turtle (Streptopelia turtur)
  18. Eagle, Booted (Hieraaetus pennatus) Michael d only
  19. Egret, Little (Egretta garzetta)
  20. Firecrest, Common (Regulus ignicapillus)
  21. Flamingo, Greater (Phoenicopterus roseus)
  22. Flycatcher, Spotted (Muscicapa striata)
  23. Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)
  24. Goldfinch, European (Carduelis carduelis)
  25. Grebe, Great Crested (Podiceps cristatus)
  26. Greenfinch, European (Chloris chloris) (heard only or Merlin)
  27. Gull, Black-headed (Chroicocephalus ridibundus)
  28. Gull, Caspian (Larus cachinnans)
  29. Gull, Yellow-legged (Larus michahellis)
  30. Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) (heard only or Merlin)
  31. Heron, Grey (Ardea cinerea)
  32. Heron, Night (Nycticorax nycticorax)
  33. Heron, Purple (Ardea purpurea) Niko the skipper only
  34. Heron, Squacco (Ardeola ralloides)
  35. Hobby, Eurasian (Falco subbuteo)
  36. Hoopoe, Eurasian (Upupa epops)
  37. Ibis, Glossy (Plegadis falcinellus)
  38. Jackdaw, Eurasian (Corvus monedula)
  39. Jay, Eurasian (Garrulus glandarius)
  40. Kestrel, Common (Falco tinnunculus)
  41. Kingfisher, Common (Alcedo atthis) (heard only or Merlin)
  42. Lark, Crested (Galerida cristata)
  43. Linnet, Common (Linaria cannabina)
  44. Martin, House (Delichon urbicum)
  45. Moorhen, Common (Gallinula chloropus)
  46. NightingaleLuscinia megarhynchos(Luscinia megarhynchos)
  47. Nightingale, Thrush (Luscinia luscinia) (heard only or Merlin)
  48. Oriole, Golden (Oriolus oriolus)
  49. Owl, Little (Athene noctua)
  50. Pelican, Dalmatian (Pelecanus crispus)
  51. Pelican, Great White (Pelecanus onocrotalus)
  52. Pigeon, Common Wood (Columba palumbus)
  53. Pigeon, Stock (Columba oenas)
  54. Raven, Common (Corvus corax)
  55. Redstart, Black (Phoenicurus ochruros) (heard only or Merlin)
  56. Robin, European (Erithacus rubecula)
  57. Shrike, Masked (Lanius nubicus)
  58. Shrike, Red-backed (Lanius collurio)
  59. Skylark, Eurasian (Alauda arvensis)
  60. Sparrow, House (Passer domesticus)
  61. Sparrow, Spanish (Passer hispaniolensis)
  62. Sparrow, Eurasian Tree (Passer montanus)
  63. Sparrowhawk, Eurasian (Accipiter nisus)
  64. Sparrowhawk, Levant (Accipiter brevipes)
  65. Spoonbill, Eurasian (Platalea leucorodia)
  66. Starling, Common (Sturnus vulgaris)
  67. Stork, Black (Ciconia nigra)
  68. Stork, White (Ciconia ciconia)
  69. Swallow, Barn (Hirundo rustica)
  70. Swallow, Red-rumped (Cecropis daurica)
  71. Swan, Mute (Cygnus olor)
  72. Swift, Pallid (Apus pallidus)
  73. Tern, Common (Sterna hirundo)
  74. Tit, Blue (Cyanistes caeruleus)
  75. Tit, Coal (Periparus ater)
  76. Tit, Great (Parus major)
  77. Tit, Long-tailed (Aegithalos caudatus)
  78. Treecreeper, Eurasian (Certhia familiaris)
  79. Wagtail, Grey (Motacilla cinerea)
  80. Wagtail, White (Motacilla alba) (heard only or Merlin)
  81. Warbler, Cetti’s (Cettia cetti)
  82. Warbler, Eastern Olivaceous (Iduna pallida) (heard only or Merlin)
  83. Warbler, Great Reed (Acrocephalus arundinaceus)
  84. Warbler, Moustached (Acrocephalus melanopogon) (heard only or Merlin)
  85. Warbler, Sardinian (Sylvia melanocephala) (heard only or Merlin)
  86. Wheatear, Northern (Oenanthe oenanthe)
  87. Woodpecker, Great Spotted (Dendrocopos major)
  88. Woodpecker, Green (Picus viridis)
  89. Woodpecker, Middle Spotted (Dendrocopos medius)
  90. Wren, Eurasian (Troglodytes troglodytes)
  91. Wryneck, Eurasian (Jynx torquilla) (heard only or Merlin)

All my blog posts about our Greece24 trip can be found here. The bird gallery is over on my Imaging Storm site.

With thanks to Tricia, Michael “d”, Martine, and Niko for many of the first sightings and IDs of birds, butterflies, moths, and other creatures. I have added photos of several of the various invertebrates we encountered to the introductory blog posts on our 2024 trip to Greece.

The Petaloúda Paparazzi

Mrs Sciencebase and I spent a week in the beautiful wilds of northern Greece not far from the Bulgarian and North Macedonian borders in early June. At first glance, it was a holiday, but it was more realistically a fascinating international biology field trip with lots of butterflies, moths, birds, and plants to photograph and record. The list of butterflies we saw and recorded can be found below.

Nemoptera sinuata, one of the spoonwinged lacewings
Nemoptera sinuata, not a butterfly, not a moth, not a bird, a spoonwinged lacewing

We had 6:30am starts most days except the 5am on Lake Kerkini boat-trip day, expertly piloted by Niko. It was certainly not the usual lounging-by-the-pool-all-day type holiday with lingering lie-ins et cetera. There was, however, all those butterflies and birds. Delicious Greek food and quaffable Greek beer every evening certainly felt holiday-like!

Mrs Sciencebase in Dora the Explorer mode, photographing a chicory plant
Mrs Sciencebase in Dora the Explorer mode, photographing a chicory plant

We were staying in a small town called Chrisochorafa, which isn’t far from the beautiful Lake Kerkini with its hundreds of pelicans (Dalmation and Great White), tens of thousands of Great Cormorant, numerous Spoonbill, various heron and egret species, and on and on!

Our balcony view of the "twin towers" in Chrysochorafa - church and water
Our balcony view of the “twin towers” in Chrysochorafa – church and water. Chrysochorafa, meaning “golden fields”.

Our expert eco-guide, Michael, kindly drove us all over the region. We swung way west to the border with North Macedonia, but also east and north almost to Bulgaria too. Michael, is a diptera and lepidoptera expert and did a bit of independent flycatching in between identifying butterflies and birds for his research. He hopes to identify the groups that may well have been lost to regions ravaged by forest fires in northeastern Greece in recent years.

Our expert guide, driver, and now good friend, Michael
Our expert guide, driver, and now good friend, Michael “D”

We also had one other travelling companion, Martine – a modestly expert amateur lepidopterist who was a great help to us in spotting and identifying the novel species of Lepidoptera. We hiked several km most days even when it was sometimes 38 degrees Celsius in the shade.

Martine, butterflying, coffee in hand
Martine, butterflying, coffee in hand

Somehow, I managed to take more than 11000 photos. Too much of the time I had my camera in rapid-burst mode. I’ve plucked more than 500 from the SD cards. I will pull out and process what I think are the best to share here on the Sciencebase blog and on my social media. I may be some time. You Have Been Warned.

European Green Lizard
European Green Lizard

I now have photographs of dozens of species of butterfly that I’d not seen before, and we saw well over 73 species in total. Lots of birds and more than 40 moth species, more than a couple of dozen of which aren’t present in the UK and I’d not seen before. 90+ birds seen and/or heard.

Balkan Copper butterfly, Lycaena candens, photographed on the ski slope at Lailias near Serres in Northern Greece
Balkan Copper butterfly, Lycaena candens

I didn’t do a lot of handheld focus stacking, but I did try with the above Balkan Copper photo. It was on the ski slope at Lailias, no snow, obviously. There were quite a few other butterflies and day-flying moths here.

Wild Strawberry
Wild Strawberry

It’s worth noting that contractors were strimming the lovely meadow at the foot of the ski slope for some unknown reason. This will inevitably have destroyed thousands of blooms, sending the invertebrates that were thriving there into oblivion. There was presumably a good reason for the strimming, but it put paid to our butterflying on that patch.

Bladetail dragonfly, Lindenia tetraphylla with prey
Bladetail dragonfly, Lindenia tetraphylla with prey

Overall, we had a fabulous trip although some of our target species were entirely absent from even the most likely sites. Tessellated Skipper, for instance. Indeed, its larval food plant was absent from the site too. Temperatures were too high for June in this region for the whole week. This may well have contributed to the much lower than anticipated numbers and diversity of Lepidoptera, although we still saw plenty.

Common Awl Robber Fly, Neoitamus cyanurus
A bristly fly of dry, grassland, ID to be confirmed
Lion detail from The Doiran Memorial, a Commonwealth War Graves Commission war memorial near Doirani in northern Greece not far from the present North Macodian border
Lion detail from The Doiran Memorial

Praying mantis, Empusa fasciataTwo Praying Mantis, Empusa fasciata

Small Pincertail, Onychogomphus forcipatus, Green-eyed Hooktail, Green-eyed Hook-tailed Dragonfly
Small Pincertail, Onychogomphus forcipatus

Butterflies of Greece Batch 123456789


Beautiful Demoiselle, Calopteryx virgo, presumably the Balkan "festiva" sub-species
Beautiful Demoiselle, Calopteryx virgo

Great Green Bush Cricket, Tettigonia viridissimaGreat Green Bush Cricket, Tettigonia viridissima

Schmidt's Marbled Bush Cricket, Eupholidoptera schmidti
Schmidt’s Marbled Bush Cricket, Eupholidoptera schmidti
Balkan Pond Turtle, Balkan Terrapin or Western Caspian Terrapin, Mauremys rivulata
Balkan Pond Turtle, Balkan Terrapin or Western Caspian Terrapin – Mauremys rivulata
Balkan Frog, Pelophylax kurtmuelleri
Balkan Frog, Pelophylax kurtmuelleri
There were unseeing eyes watching the couple in their hammock
There were unseeing eyes watching the couple in their low-slung hammock
Eastern Green Lizard
Why isn’t the Eastern Green Lizard called the Balkan Blue-throated Lizard?
White-faced Bush-Cricket, Decticus albifrons
White-faced Bush-Cricket, Decticus albifrons
Speckled Bush-cricket, Leptophyes punctatissima
Speckled Bush-cricket, Leptophyes punctatissima
Golden-bloomed Longhorn Beetle, Agapanthia villosoviridescens, in cop
Golden-bloomed Longhorn Beetle, Agapanthia villosoviridescens, in cop
Robber Fly, Neoitamus cyanurus
Robber Fly, Neoitamus cyanurus or a close relative
Black-striped Longhorn Beetle, Stenurella melanura, in cop
Black-striped Longhorn Beetle, Stenurella melanura, in cop
Hotel Limnaio, Chrysochórafa, northern Greece (Central Macedonia)
Hotel Limnaio, Chrysochórafa, northern Greece (Central Macedonia)
Hermann's Tortoise, Testudo hermanni
Hermann’s Tortoise, Testudo hermanni
Spotted Orbweaver sp
Spotted Orbweaver sp
Red Shield-bug, Carpocoris mediterraneus, in cop
Red Shield-bug, Carpocoris mediterraneus, in cop
Mediterranean house gecko, Hemidactylus turcicus
Mediterranean house gecko, Hemidactylus turcicus
Grape Wood Borer, Chlorophorus varius
Grape Wood Borer, Chlorophorus varius
The Minibus
The Minibus
Bridge under which I think I saw a Camberwell Beauty
Bridge under which I think I saw a Camberwell Beauty
The Azure and White
The Azure and White – national flag of Greece against the dusk

June 2024 Greek butterfly tick-list

Here is the complete list of butterfly species of which I have now published photographs on Sciencebase. There were several others that we saw that I didn’t get photos of or that didn’t warrant sharing – Essex Skipper, Small Skipper, Dark Green Fritillary etc. I think the total count for the trip for me and Mrs Sciencebase was 73+ butterfly species.

  1. Blue, Amanda’s (Polyommatus amandus)
  2. Blue, Eastern Baton (Pseudophilotes vicrama)
  3. Blue, European Common (Polyommatus icarus)
  4. Blue, Green-underside (Glaucopsyche alexis)
  5. Blue, Iolas (Iolana iolas)
  6. Blue, Lang’s Short-tailed (Leptotes pirithous)
  7. Blue, Large (Phengaris arion)
  8. Blue, Little Tiger (Tarucus balkanicus)
  9. Blue, Mazarine (Cyaniris semiargus,)
  10. Blue, Small (Cupido minimus)
  11. Brown Argus (Aricia agestis)
  12. Brown, Large Wall (Lasiommata maera)
  13. Brown, Lattice (Kirinia roxelana)
  14. Brown, Meadow (Maniola jurtina)
  15. Brown, Northern Wall (Lasiommata petropolitana)
  16. Brown, Wall (Lasiommata megera)
  17. Cardinal (Argynnis Pandora)
  18. Clouded Apollo (Parnassius mnemosyne)
  19. Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus)
  20. Common Yellow Swallowtail (Papilio machaon)
  21. Copper, Balkan (Lycaena candens)
  22. Copper, Lesser Fiery (Lycaena thersamon)
  23. Copper, Purple-shot (Lycaena alciphron)
  24. Copper, Sooty (Lycaena tityrus)
  25. Eastern Festoon (Allancastria cerisyi)
  26. Fritillary, Heath (Melitaea athalia)
  27. Fritillary, Knapweed (Melitaea phoebe)
  28. Fritillary, Lesser Marbled (Brenthis ino)
  29. Fritillary, Lesser Spotted (Melitaea trivia)
  30. Fritillary, Marbled (Brenthis daphne)
  31. Fritillary, Niobe (Fabriciana niobe)
  32. Fritillary, Pearl-bordered (Boloria euphrosyne)
  33. Fritillary, Queen of Spain (Issoria lathonia)
  34. Fritillary, Silver-washed (Argynnis paphia)
  35. Fritillary, Spotted (Melitaea didyma)
  36. Grayling, Eastern Rock (Hipparchia syriaca)
  37. Grayling, Great Banded (Brintesia circe)
  38. Hairstreak, Blue-spot (Satyrium spini)
  39. Hairstreak, Green (Callophrys rubi)
  40. Hairstreak, Ilex (Satyrium ilicis)
  41. Hairstreak, Sloe (Satyrium acacia)
  42. Hairstreak, White-letter (Satyrium w-album)
  43. Heath, Pearly (Coenonympha arcania)
  44. Heath, Small (Coenonympha pamphilus)
  45. Hermit (Chazara briseis)
  46. Nettle-tree Butterfly (Libythea celtis)
  47. Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)
  48. Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius)
  49. Skipper, Dingy (Erynnis tages)
  50. Skipper, Grizzled (Pyrgus malvae)
  51. Skipper, Large (Ochlodes sylvanus)
  52. Skipper, Mallow (Carcharodus alceae)
  53. Skipper, Yellow-banded (Pyrgus sidae)
  54. Southern White Admiral (Limenitis reducta)
  55. Tortoiseshell, Large (Nymphalis polychloros)
  56. Tortoiseshell, Small (Aglais urticae)
  57. White, Balkan Marbled (Melanargia larissa)
  58. White, Black-veined (Aporia crataegi)
  59. White, Eastern Bath (Pontia edusa)
  60. White, Marbled (Melanargia galathea)
  61. White, Small (Pieris rapae)
  62. White, Wood (Leptidea sinapis)
  63. Woodland Ringlet (Erebia medusa)

Technical footnotes

I took rather a lot of photos on this week-long trip (well over 10,000) and then spent the weekend pulling out what I think are the best. I’ve got about 500 that I need to work through and do a second-line purge.

I will process the select few from the camera RAW files using DxO PureRaw4, which I’ve mentioned previously. This software carries out corrections to the photos you take based on the known distortions associated with your camera and lens combination. Its main purpose however is to remove noise from an image without removing detail. It does this very well, improving any photo you feed it to the tune of 3 or so full stops of ISO. This can make all the difference with photos shot in the limited light of a woodland or at twilight.

Some of the photos need a different kind of processing and I’ll use Topaz Sharpen for the ones that could do with a bit more tightening up to remove motion blur, for instance.

Warbler Central – Garden Warblers at RSPB Fen Drayton

I’ve talked about warblers before. Basically, the warblers are a non-scientific grouping of similar birds. In the UK, we often see and hear  a variety of warblers, mostly summer visitors, among them Blackcap, Cetti’s Warbler, Chiffchaff, Garden Warbler (Sylvia borin), Grasshopper Warbler, Great Reed Warbler (occasionally), Lesser Whitethroat, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Whitethroat, and Willow Warbler.

Garden Warbler, Sylvia borin, singing in a tree at RSPB Fen Drayton close to Ferry Lagoon
Garden Warbler, Sylvia borin

I headed to RSPB Fen Drayton Lakes nature reserve on a promise of Arctic Terns as a big influx had been reported on Tuesday, some 36, arriving in two waves, 29 and then 7, from Grafham Water. This is a huge number for one inland patch, especially in East Anglia.

Arctic Tern in flight RSPB Fen Drayton, Drayton Lake
One of several dozen Arctic Tern at RSPB Fen Drayton in late April 2024

More often, we’d have Common Terns and only a sporadic appearance of single figures Arctic. I had alerted the local birding community to a Sandwich Tern on 17th April 2024. A relative rarity that unusually stuck around for several days at the reserve. We also get Black Tern on these lakes.

Anyway, I saw just a few of the Arctic Terns on the water. However, a nice patch facing out over Ferry Lagoon fringed with some very noisy trees and bushes had Garden Warbler and Sedge Warbler calling noisily alongside Chiffchaff, Lesser Whitethroat, and Willow Warbler. There were several of each species. There were also two or three Cuckoo calling from far off trees. That aside, I got a shot of one of the Garden Warblers. I thought it was my first attempt at photographing this bird, but I discovered that I had photos of it in the warbler post from 2022.

At least 43 birds on sight or sound this morning:

  1. Arctic Tern
  2. Blackbird
  3. Black-headed Gull
  4. Blue Tit
  5. Bittern
  6. Carrion Crow
  7. Chaffinch
  8. Chiffchaff
  9. Common Tern
  10. Coot
  11. Cormorant
  12. Cuckoo
  13. Dunnock
  14. Garden Warbler
  15. Goldcrest
  16. Goldfinch
  17. Great Crested Grebe
  18. Great Tit
  19. Greenfinch
  20. Green Woodpecker
  21. Greylag Goose
  22. House Martin
  23. Kestrel
  24. Lesser Whitethroat
  25. Long-tailed Tit
  26. Magpie
  27. Mallard
  28. Marsh Harrier
  29. Moorhen
  30. Mute Swan
  31. Pheasant
  32. Robin
  33. Rook
  34. Sand Martin
  35. Sedge Warbler
  36. Song Thrush
  37. Starling
  38. Swallow
  39. Swift
  40. Whitethroat
  41. Willow Warbler
  42. Wood Pigeon
  43. Wren

Footnote: We do see Grasshopper Warblers (Groppers) locally, but I didn’t today. Dartford Warbler was seen a couple of summers ago, but a fairly rare sight. I’ve seen the rather rare Wood Warbler, but not in the UK, it was up the hill in Split, Croatia, back in 2017 before we drank all that dark ale on the way down and had catfish and chips for tea.

More about the British warblers on the BBC Countryfile site here.

Reed Bunting, Emberiza Schoeniclus

Mrs Sciencebase and I opted to follow the footpath from the RSPB Ouse Fen (Earith) car park to what we refer to as the “Clouded Yellow Field”, which is the patch where we saw that butterfly in numbers in 2022 and that leads on to Brownshill Staunch where I spotted the previously mentioned Sandwich Tern.

Male Reed Bunting, Emberiza schoeniclus, RSPB Ouse Fen, perched on Rape, Brassica napus (AKA "canola" in the US).
Male Reed Bunting at RSPB Ouse Fen, perched on Rape plant

It’s a nice stretch to stretch one’s legs. Lots of Marsh Harrier activity over the reed beds, Chinese Water Deer and Roe Deer to see. Calls from Sedge Warbler, White Throat, Chiff Chaff (all warblers). We could hear some Bearded Reedling calling and Bittern booming and saw two different pairs of that latter species flying over the reedbeds. Also plenty of Reed Bunting around resplendant in their breeding plumage.

If this bird were named in the same way as one of its close relatives, Emberiza citrinella, it would be called a Reedhammer (as in Yellowhammer, where “hammer/ammer” is old German for “bunting”. Of course, in  modern German the Yellowhammer is the “Goldammer”, while the Reed Bunt is “Rohrammer”, Rohr meaning pipe and presumably alluding to the pipe-like reeds.

In my photo you can see an example of why it’s important to get a catchlight in the eye of a bird or other animal. Without that tiny glint of reflected light, the eye would have little character and with a bird like this would be lost against the black of its facial plumage.

I used DxO PureRaw4 to do automatic lens and camera corrections and to denoise the RAW file from the Canon R7 (lens was Sigma 150-600mm at full extent). I then ran the DNG output from PureRaw4 through Topaz Sharpen AI v 4.1.0 to tighten up those feathers a little and then PaintShopPro Ultimate 2022 to tweak levels ever so slightly and to crop and add my logo. Camera settings: f/6.3, t 1/4000s, ISO 800.

The image below is an unedited JPG grab from the original camera RAW file