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…

Jun 12 2020

Oman butterfly diary 6- Myrina silensus, Fig Blue…

The butterfly, Myrina silenus, (Fig Blue) is utterly striking once you catch a glimpse of it’s open wings.

My first and actually, only sighting of it was in late October 2019 when we were in butterfly heaven at Wadi Darbat, Dhofar, Southern Oman.

If you have read any of my preceding Oman butterfly diaries, you may have seen the beautiful waterfalls and scenery at Wadi Darbat, if not it’s worth a look at this post to see the landscape.

This small, vivid beauty was found in the lower level of Wadi Darbat on a single bush, which was full of these butterflies on that particular day, only. I returned several times during the week, but never saw them again. In retrospect, it was my lucky day!

Looking down from upper Wadi Darbat to the lower reaches. Note that the landscape looks quite burnt out, but once in the lower Wadi, it’s quite green.

From the heights above upper Wadi Darbat, the vegetation is burning out in the heat…

But focusing on the water, you can see the vivid blue and greenery around the edge of the wadi…

Down by the lower reaches of the Wadi, its a vibrant green and blue environment…

I just had to include the biggest spider I have ever seen.

As I took the photo from the heights, my other half advised me to back off slowly and get my camera set up for a shot, without explaining what was hanging above my head… After a few seconds of a faster heart rate when I saw it, I calmed down to try to get the perfect shot!

Red-legged Golden Orb-web Spider, Nephila sumptuosa…

After that “Oh my (insert expletive)” moment, we drove down to the lower reaches of the wadi and searched around, actually for dragonflies, but the bushes were full of butterflies and on one bush, right next to the water, I spotted a brown butterfly with an unusual shape…

I felt it was worth waiting for it to open its wings… I’m glad I waited, it was one of those “Ohhh, wow” moments…

Information on this butterfly is taken verbatim from the book “Butterflies of Oman” by Torben and Kiki Larsen.

This is a striking and absolutely unmistakable member of the Lycaenidae, which is found throughout Africa and Southern Arabia. Together with Coeliades anchises it is one of the most characteristic of the true African species which have managed to penetrate beyond Dhofar to Northern Oman. It has not been found in the Musandam peninsula, but may well occur since its food plants are plentiful there. Generally it is quite common except during the coldest part of the year in Northern Oman. As indicated by its vernacular name, the food plants are species of fig; experience in Africa shows that almost any species will do.

At least three species of Ficus are used in Dhofar. Adult butterflies are fond of sunning themselves on the leaves of the tree of their birth from where they fly off on brief sorties at great speed, often returning to the same perch. Flowers hold no strong attraction for silenus, but occasionally they will settle on ripe figs broken open by birds.

During my many Oman travels, I have only found this butterfly once in Wadi Darbat on a single bush, which doesn’t appear to be the case when the Larsens wrote their book in the 1980s. Maybe our world climate changes are affecting this species…

Jun 1 2020

Oman butterfly diary 4- Precis hierta, The Yellow Pansy…

My butterfly bible for Oman is “Butterflies of Oman” by Torben and Kiki Larsen, produced in 1980 in the Uk for the Office of the Adviser for Conservation of the Environment to the Government of Oman.

I haven’t found any recent updates, so possibly names have changed, there was a reprint in 1984, but I don’t have that version.

The binominal name is Junonia hierta, but Larsen uses the synonym Precis Hierta, and as I’m not up to the right level in the world of scientific classification, I’m following the Larsen’s identification!

This beautiful butterfly is described by the Larsens, as one of the most common butterflies in Dhofar (Southern Oman) on the coast and in the mountains. It had not been found in the North of Oman at the time of publishing and I have never seen in it during my forays into North Oman.

During my nature searching days in Dhofar, in October and November 2019, I only found two of these butterflies. They were up on the high escarpment above Mirbat.

We traveled the whole of the coastline, from the Yemen border to the north, and spent much time in areas where they should be prolific but, sadly only two sightings…

They are a beautiful species of butterfly.

I hope when I finally am able to return I will have more success in finding the numbers previously indicated…

Apr 8 2020

Oman Butterfly diary 3-Charaxes varanes bertrami (Riley, 1931), Pearl Charaxes…

This is a butterfly that has eluded my camera on previous visits to Dhofar, Southern Oman, or so I thought.

The presence of this butterfly in Oman is limited to the Dhofar region. It is common in Africa, but there are no current records from Southwestern Arabia and Yemen, however, any investigation is not easily possible in Yemen.

As it stands the population in Dhofar seems to be quite isolated and the subspecies found locally is named in honour of explorer Bertram Thomas who caught the species in Dhofar, whilst preparing for his Rub Al Khali expedition in 1930. The butterfly seems to be relatively common in open parts of the scarp. Both sexes are fond of fermenting fruit, rotting crab or shrimp and patches of urine.

We had seen them, fluttering past on scarp tracks, stopped the jeep, but I chased in vain as they tauntingly settled, then flew away fast whenever I thought I had one in focus for THE shot. They are fast on the wing and often fly high. Fairly frustrating, but then sometimes an unexpected opportunity arises.

In October 2019, we decided to have a day visiting the various Ayn’s (valleys) which form at the base of the Dhofar escarpment.

Usually, there are spectacular waterfalls during the Khareef (monsoon) season and the Ayn’s are lush and emerald green, home to a variety of endemic and migratory birds, butterflies, dragonflies, and flora.

Khareef had finished a month previously but owing to some unusual weather in the region, the drying out of the environment hadn’t quite reached its usual barren state.

In one of the Ayn’s we started to climb up towards the escarpment and I spotted the Pearl fluttering from branch to branch. We noticed there were two, but only one settled on branches.

Sadly, it was torn and ragged, probably at the end of its flying season, but I managed to catch some shots.

Whilst looking through photos from 2018 from a location 20 km away, I found I had photographed this butterfly before and in much better condition. Only one photograph, but a good catch. It was fairly gratifying to stumble across the photograph, two years later!

Habitat Information from the “The Butterflies of Oman” by Torben and Kiki Larsen.

Apr 5 2020

Oman Butterfly diary 2-Byblia ilithyia, Joker…

Oman diary, October 2019: We had decided to travel along the coast from Salalah to the Yemen border, retracing steps from previous years, but it’s a fantastic drive with many unexpected sights, so it’s always a pleasure to retrace, but that’s for another post.

One deep wadi, Wadi Sayq is the last major road construction hurdle before you get to Sarfayt, the town before the Yemen border.

Quite how this road was constructed amazes me, carved down the sides of the towering cliffs, hairpin bends, horrifying drops and, with the effects of the previous year’s cyclone and the rains just before we arrived, landslides and road cave-ins littered the route down.

The wadi is inaccessible from the coast, towering heights plummet down to the shore on either side and unless you are fully equipped and ready for some serious boulder climbing, there are few places you are able to access the wadi where the road crosses it.

Wadi Sayq pools…The accessible part of the Wadi…

But it is worth trying to find those few places. Wadi Sayq is remote, inaccessible and home to a huge variety of flora and fauna, not least the Arabian leopard, according to papers from many different biodiversity expeditions to this Wadi.

It’s where I found my first and so far, my only find of a Joker butterfly.

Byblia ilithyia is unmistakable. The underside, a honey color crisscrossed with pattern and the upperside a deep orange with black bars, it’s a strikingly, beautiful butterfly.

The distribution of ilithyia stretches from Niger/Burkina Faso to Ethiopia, Southwestern Arabia and Dhofar; it reappears in dry Southern India and Sri Lanka.

In Dhofar, this butterfly is quite common in the dense vegetation of the scarp and in the valleys of the coast

it was an unexpected sight to stumble across, but I had my camera to hand!

It didn’t stay around too long, but I took my shots… very gratifying to stumble across this beauty!

Habitat Information from the “The Butterflies of Oman” by Torben and Kiki Larsen.

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….

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…