The Lincolnshire Bird Club

We have recently returned from a very enjoyable Butterfly Holiday in Bulgaria -14th to 25th July 2008.

Our tour operator, Spatia Wildlife is based in Bulgaria which meant that we had to arrange the flight ourselves. So we ventured into the realms of internet flight booking, which turned out to be quite easy, and were met by two young men at Sofia Airport who looked after us very well for nearly two weeks. We spent our time in the mountains in the south west of the country, and stayed at 5 hotels and a guest house during our stay.

Each day we enjoyed a picnic in the shade of a tree watching the butterflies dancing over the wild flower meadows while our guides prepared delicious picnics. Normally the temperature is well into the 30s, but we were unlucky to have one cold day, when we resorted to Plan B and bird watched, and encountered really heavy thunderstorms on 2 days!

Not only did we see 102 species of butterfly but also 90 species of bird, not bad seeing as we were on a butterfly holiday! Unfortunately we were unable to find a Wallcreeper at a well known site!

To whet your appetite, some of the butterflies we saw:

Apollo, Lattice Brown, Nettle-tree butterfly, Hermit, Swallowtail, Scarce Swallowtail, Little Tiger Blue, Ripart’s Anomalous Blue, Bright Eyed Ringlet, Ottoman Brassy Ringlet, Oriental Marbled Skipper, Scarce Copper and Adonis Blue (both incredibly colourful), 17 species of Fritillary, loads of Blues including Mealegar’s Blue, Escher’s Blue, and 7 species of Grayling.

Among the birds we saw were: Nutcracker, Crag Martin, Bee Eater, Hoopoe, Alpine Swift, Short-toed Eagle and three species of Shrike.

We also saw Wedge-lipped Orchid, Bird’s Nest Orchid, Marsh Helleborine, Red Helleborine and Broad-leaved Helleborine.

We would be pleased to send anyone a full butterfly and/or bird species list by email.

Further details of Spatia Wildlife tours can be found on their web site at www.spatiawildlife.com

If anyone is interested Spatia Wildlife will be at the Bird Fair at Rutland Water 15th – 17th August.


Regards,

Colin and Sheila

Colin and Sheila,
Your post reads like a great trip - for both butterflies and birds. The admin arrangements sound fine. The brochure is a delight to peruse with its first-rate photographs and trip details. All in all, it certainly whets the appetite for a Bulgarian trip in the future.

Regards,

Freddy