Jun 12 2020

Tripping to Trozena…

Cyprus, May 2020…how I felt on my first “BIG” nature day out and what I stumbled across…

Whilst we are encouraged to follow the new norm of social distancing, masks and regulations in all aspects of life where you mix with other people, now our quarantine is lifted, we can just go out now.

“Go Out”…after you haven’t been able to just go out without following a raft of procedures, it actually feels quite odd to get your freedom back.

Strangely I’ve had a reluctance to just go out over the last few days. Even more strange is the fact that my going out is to places where I am unlikely to meet anyone in a social context. I’m sure the reluctance will pass, we are just taking steps out into a world where there are new norms…

If you read my blog, you probably get that I like to just go out, not to party and have a wild time, but just to be outside amidst nature.

If I’m travelling in the Middle East and beyond, I’m usually walking miles down empty beaches searching for shells, but in Cyprus, I head to the hills and if there’s the chance to head off down a lonely track, I turn onto the track…

One of my favorite round trips that is a half-day trip, is to head up the Diarizos valley, visit the abandoned village of Trozena and head back to the coast via the village of Dora.

That’s the route I took today, but as the OH is here with me, trapped in Cyprus until UAE lifts restrictions for him to return, I decided to take an alternate route back. I hadn’t wanted to do it alone, as many years ago I got into trouble on the track and have always thought since that it wouldn’t be a wise drive on my own.

It was just a lovely day, the weather is glorious here at the moment and we ended up quite high in the hills, so some lovely views, but I’m very conscious that whilst we have been locked down, I missed the transition from spring to summer, the heat is starting to dry the vegetation out and soon the hills will be brown.

I hope you enjoy my nature diary for today…

At the first stop by the Diarizos river, butterfly heaven and a surprise sighting of a black snake on the lonely road…

Colias crocea, Clouded Yellow…

Large Whip snake

Thymelius action, Lulworth Skipper

Pieris rapper, Small White

Papilio machaon, Swallowtail.

Trozena is an old abandoned village in the foothills leading to the Troodos mountain range. There is a small river below the village that feeds the magnificent waterfall into the valley which contains a small pool in a shaded area which is a haven for dragonflies…

Epallage fatime, Odalisque

Calopteryx splendens

Orthetrum species

Pelophylas cypress, Cyprus Water Frog

Arbutus Andrachne, Greek Strawberry tree

Hipparchia cypriensis, Cyprus Grayling

Onychogomphus forcipatus, Small Pincertail

Ridolfia segetum with bugs

Ridolfia segetum with a massive Hornet

Possibly Pimpinella peregrine

Onychogomphus forcipatus, Small Pincertail

Thymelius action, Lulworth Skipper

Calopteryx splendens

Pieris rapae , small WhitePi

Orthetrum species

Papaver rhoeas

Ancient tree

Calopteryx splendens

Wild honeysuckle and views to the Troodos mountains, beautiful plant bugs, a huge lizard, and a random catch of one of the smallest butterflies in Cyprus…

Lonicera etrusca, Honeysuckle

View to Mount Olmpus, Troodos mountains

Laudakia stellia, Starred Agama

Views towards the coast

Dolycoris baccarum

Glaucopsyche Paphos, Paphos Blue

On the track to the abandoned village of Maronas, a special butterfly, wonderful old olive trees, landscape views up and down the valley and views of the abandoned village…

Olive trees parting the road…

A special butterfly, I’ve only seen this twice…Chazara briseis, The Hermit…

Ancient but elegant olive trees…

Check out this double Olive tree trunk…

Towards Troodos, spot the listening station atop…

View over Maronas…

The mosque at Maronas…

These abandoned villages are quite poignant…

Decayed…

but beautiful views…

Window view to the hills…

The Mosque door, open and welcoming, but its an empty building…

Ruins and the view beyond…

May 25 2020

May 2020: End of quarantine restrictions, heading back out to nature in Cyprus….

In Cyprus, some freedom now, after staying safe at home…

May 21st, 2020 was quite a landmark day in this strange and apocalyptic year.

In Cyprus, like many other countries, we have been quarantined in our homes under curfew and government restrictions that have only allowed one exit per day for one of 8 reasons.

It was managed by sending a text to obtain approval, the phone had to be carried plus any passport or registration documents. Police checks were everywhere and anyone found without permission or documents was fined from 300 euro up, depending on the severity of the offense.

On the 12th of May, Phase 1 of the lockdown lift was introduced. That was to allow the population to leave their homes three times a day for up to three hours at a time, as a gradual re-introduction of more population movement…a little test of the infectious waters, so to speak.

Then on 21st May our quarantine restrictions were lifted under Phase 2 of society re-entering the world, where the unseen threat of COVID-19 lurks in your consciousness and the population of the Republic of Cyprus were free to leave their homes.

The nightly curfew was lifted, and we no longer have to send a text to obtain approval to leave our homes for the 8 reasons initially allowed.

I have no criticism of the actions our government took to protect this small island.

New cases have been decreasing recently and today, 23rd May, was the first day we had no new cases, so, in my view, a successful operation and it’s up to us, as the population, to continue to follow the new norms that will dominate our lives for the foreseeable future.

Normally I am out in the hills with my camera a couple of times a week, especially March, April, and May when nature in Cyprus is at its glorious best.

The hills are green, wildflowers are rampantly growing, there is a constant buzz of bees, the dragonflies start to emerge, butterflies are taking wing and the whole island is awash with pollinators and vibrant color.

It’s the time to tramp the hills before the summer heat burns out the foliage, but, like everyone else, we missed it this year.

So when we got to the 12th, after 5 supermarket visits since March and no other exits from home, I had to escape.

The nearest get close-to-nature valley to my home, is the Esouza river valley, with its wealth of dragonflies, butterflies, and flora.

We headed to the water pools at Ayia Varvara, a small village along the Esouza river, which is also a magnet to our local bird watchers, but I missed out on the bird photos, sadly!

I wasn’t disappointed, having only spent time in my garden, to be walking in nature was utter bliss…

Some of the finds in the 3-hour escape…

Bugs and flowers…

Chafer beetle, possibly Oxythyrea noemi

Plant bug, Calocoris nemoralis (Fabricius, 1787)

Butterflies…

Lulworth Skipper ,Thymelicus action (Rottenburg, 1775)

Pygmy Skipper, Gegenes pumilio (Hoffmannsegg,1804)

Lulworth Skipper ,Thymelicus action (Rottenburg, 1775)

Common Blue, Polyommatus icarus (Rottenburg,1775)

Small White, Pieris rapper (Linnaeus ,1758)

Common Blue, Polyommatus icarus (Rottenburg,1775)

Damselflies…

Common Winter Damsel, Sympecma fascia (Vander Linden, 1820)

Common Bluetail, Ischnura elegant ssp.ebneri (Schmidt, 1938)

Common Winter Damsel, Sympecma fascia (Vander Linden, 1820)

Dragonflies…

Violet Dropwing, Trithemis annular (Pallsot de Beauvois, 1807)

Broad Scarlet, Crocothemis erythraea (Brullé, 1832)

Southern Skimmer, Ortheterum brunneum (Fonscolombe, 1837)

Violet Dropwing, Trithemis annular (Pallsot de Beauvois, 1807)

Common Darter, Sympetrum striatum ( Charpentier,1840)

Broad Scarlet, Crocothemis erythraea (Brullé, 1832)

A little disclaimer: Some of my identifications could be incorrect. Dragonflies are hard to identify, I’ve had a year of accompanying a dragonfly recorder and I’m still learning. If any mistakes are spotted, please correct me in the comments…Bug and Flower ID is ongoing, to be updated when I have a positive ID…

Apr 30 2020

January 2020: Dubai Butterfly Garden…

Given my interest in butterflies and photographing them, a visit to Dubai Butterfly garden was a must, when I was back in the Emirate in early 2020.

I have never been to a Butterfly garden before, so I didn’t quite know what to expect. The entrance shouted “Theme garden”, but it wasn’t going to deter me, having made the effort to get there..

Beautifully done, as always in Dubai, the building consisted of 4 large garden rooms, full of trees, flowers, sitting areas in small gazebos with different butterflies, organized by region.

So, alphabetically, the butterflies,

(My OH very kindly identified them for me as I didn’t take notes in situ, (slap self for that omission, too much fluttering, and camera action), but it gave him something to do during this morning’s lockdown and as it was an important task, he could avoid home cleaning duty! Grateful thanks to the OH, he did an excellent job, but it’s also a little disclaimer!) Please hover over the photo for the name…

Athyma perius( Linnaeus 1758)

Cethosia biblis ( Drury 1773)

Caligo uranus (Herrich-Schäffer 1850)

Caligo oileus ( C. & R. Felder 1861)

Danaus plexippus ( Linnaeus, 1758 and Eryphanis automedon Cramer)

Hamadryas feronia ( Linnaeus 1758)

Heliconius doris (Linnaeus 1771)

Heliconius doris viridis( Staudinger 1885)

Heliconius doris (Linnaeus 1771)

Hypolimnas bolina(Linnaeus 1758)

Idea leuconoe (Erichson 1834)

Junonia lemonias ( Linnaeus 1758)

Kallima inachus ( Doyère,1840)

Morpho achilles (Linnaeus 1758)

Morpho helenor (Cramer 1776)

Morpho peleides(Kollar 1850)

Morpho helenor (Cramer 1776)

Morpho peleides(Kollar 1850)

Papilio thoas (Linnaeus 1771)

Papilio demoleus ( Linnaeus 1758)

Papilio lowi (H. Druce 1873)

Papilio memnon (Linnaeus 1758)

Papilio polyxenes (Fabricius, 1775)

Papilio thoas( Linnaeus 1771)

Parthenos Sylvia ( Cramer 1776)

Siproeta epaphus (Latreille1813)

Siproeta stelenes( Linnaeus 1758)

If you have got to this stage of the post, my grateful thanks for looking at the butterflies… I know it’s butterfly exhaustion by this stage, but there are some unusual offerings of butterfly art in the next part of the post…

You exit through the inevitable shop which consists of butterfly souvenirs and pictures that are made by using butterflies….hmmm, you can see for yourself below, some lovely ideas but I wasn’t rushing to buy one, not to my taste, I prefer to see them alive and I decided after my visit I prefer to see them in the wild.

However, reflecting, I did have the opportunity to see some beautiful butterflies, which I would not have the opportunity see in the wild as I’m quite sure now my future travel is limited for a while…so, whilst I felt slightly uncomfortable about the concept during my visit, whilst I was editing the photos for this post, I did think that I was very lucky to have seen some extraordinarily beautiful butterflies.

Realistically, I have to conclude that given my age and our current world situation, I’m not going to be hacking through jungles any time in the near future, so, I’m actually quite glad I did visit and can look back the photos of these beautiful butterflies…

There are also butterfly pictures of members of the Ruling families of the Emirates, a typically local mark of the affection for the Rulers.

I find it quite hard to imagine, that in either the UK or the US, anyone would think of creating Boris or Donald in such an affectionate platform. It was all a little strange, but, it is a popular attraction and as I’m in lockdown away from the UAE, I’m very glad I did take the time to visit…

Apr 6 2020

It’s time for a splash of colour in these dark times…let’s go with red!

April is Poppy time in Cyprus.

This year, they will be growing gloriously undisturbed, outside our walls the flora and fauna are free to blossom and roam, but we humans are behind our doors, locked down….who would have thought this would have come to pass in our high tech world?

An unseen virus, devasting the world, movement restricted, leaving us in fear of our lives with no end in sight today… time to remember a carefree day last year when I stumbled into poppy heaven…

Last April, I had to take the OH back to Larnaca airport for an 8pm flight and we had fallen into a habit of taking a day trip to explore places at the other end of the island to make a day out, instead of an urgent 4-hour return journey for me.

This time we dropped down from Lefkara on a mountain road towards Nicosia, heading for the village of Agia Varvara, where I had seen, in other local photographer’s posts, that a poppy profusion would greet me.

I wasn’t disappointed, but sadly the weather wasn’t the best for photographs.

We had driven through a terrific hail storm, terrific to the extent of having to pull over and stop on the side of the road until the blinding hail passed over, so I did wonder whether there would be any petals left on the poppies…

I was lucky, the hail had missed Agia Varvara and the expectation I had of poppy profusion was fulfilled…

The Poppies in this area are mainly Papaver rhoeas, an annual, from 10-30cm high, flowering from March until June.

Mar 26 2020

Oman Butterfly Diary-1 Papilio demodocus, African Lime Butterfly.

In October 2019, we headed down to the Dhofar region of Oman primarily for our sea shell obsession…oops, hobby sounds better, less geeky really!

The first morning walk along the beach made me realise that it was far too hot to spend all day outside on the beaches and, as over the year, I had been become involved with a Dragonfly recording group in Cyprus and had also discovered the pleasure of photographing both dragonflies and butterflies, we decided to split each day into discovering which species of each we could find in the Ayn’s (valley), khors (inlet) and escarpments along the southern coastline of Oman.

Armed with “The Butterflies of Oman” we set off each day exploring the countryside.

I had occasionally seen a fairly large butterfly, mottled black and white with flashes of red and blue.

The book told me it was the African Lime Butterfly, Papilio demodocus, a member of the Papilonidae family.

Three members of this family are found in Oman, Papilio machaon-the Swallowtail, Papilio demoleus- the Lime Butterfly and Papilio demodocus-the African Lime butterfly.

They are amongst the largest and most beautiful butterflies in the country.

The Swallowtail and the Lime are known from the north of the country.

I have not been lucky enough to photograph the Lime butterfly in Oman. I have seen it, but, without my camera.

However, it is also found in the UAE and I was lucky enough to photograph a resting one on a beach in Fujaraih earlier this year, in this linked post.

In Oman, the African lime is only found in Dhofar. The African lime is common in most of tropical Africa and in Southwestern Arabia, as far north as Jeddah.

It is very similar to the Lime butterfly, but they may be told apart through the broader central band and the larger orange spot in the anal angle of the hindwings of demoleus.

After a few mornings of finding lowland butterflies, we headed up the towering escarpment that broods above the coastal plain.

Randomly heading down a small track high above the coast, we gave one local lady quite a shock as she was heading out.I don’t think many Europeans have headed down the little track to her house.

: The view down the escarpment to the sea…

Surprising a local lady…

Passing her, suddenly I saw my African Lime heading into nectar, in a little cranny of flowering plants amidst the rocky heights.

The African Lime spent awhile hovering and nectaring, so I could manage to chase after it with my camera..

A wonderful and lucky experience….

Mar 25 2020

The hills are alive…

In Cyprus, during mid-Februry, for around two weeks, the hills are alive with Almond blossom.

It was fairly wet and windy at that time, so I took the opportunity to head up the road to a local village, Episkopi, where the hills surrounding the village and river valley take on an ethereal beauty.

Swathes of Almond blossom cover the hillsides. It is a glorious time to walk amongst the groves, small spring flowers popping through the undergrowth.

As we are now under curfew on our small island, like many all over the world, it’s time to review my walks.

I hope you enjoy my Almond blossom photographs… stay safe, my friends…

Jan 23 2020

UAE Butterfly diary 1- Papilio demoleu

Papilio demoleus is a common and widespread swallowtail butterfly. It has common names of lime butterfly, lemon butterfly, lime swallowtail and chequered swallowtail. These names refer to the host plant which are usually citrus, mainly cultivated lime. Aside from it’s beauty, this butterfly is considered a pest and an invasive species found from Asia to Australia.

In Oman it is only found in the northern region and in the UAE. I’ve been hunting for this for a while and caught my first glimpse last November at a petrol station near the Rustaq oasis just north of Muscat. The butterfly fluttered over the car and off into the desert before I could turn my camera on.

I never saw another one in Oman, despite much looking.

Imagine my surprise this past weekend, when I was wandering along a beach on the East coast of the UAE, close to Dibba, at low tide looking for one my favourite shells that seems only to be found on the East coast at a couple of beaches, when I caught a flash of black, white and red and an exhausted Lime butterfly fluttered down onto the sand in front of me. I managed to creep up and get some close-up shots.

A delight to see…