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A client travelled on our 'Bulgaria's Dragonflies' tour and submitted this entry to our writing competition.
Yellow-spotted Emeralds
Grey skies and endless rain. Cool temperatures. Insects taking what appeared to be a gap year. Boy, was I glad that I had decided to take my first ever specialist dragonfly holiday in this particular year. I’d chosen the trip to Bulgaria on the evidence of a holiday I’d taken there 18 years before. That was a bird-based tour, but I’d found myself being constantly distracted by the wealth of butterflies on show. It therefore struck me that it would be the ideal place to further my growing interest in dragonflies. I was not to be disappointed.
Factor one was the prospect of sunshine – as much as possible, and that was delivered in a most un-UK like fashion. We had something in the region of 90 hours of sunshine in our time there, which made finding our insect quarry almost a formality. But of course it wasn’t really like that. We had top quality leaders who gave 100% dedication to the job of seeking out the key species, and we had the odd bit of luck thrown in too! How else do you explain the finding of a species – yellow-spotted emerald – last seen in the country 42 years before?
That really was the culmination of a run of success that saw us visiting a series of sites, which almost without exception were set amidst stunning scenery and subject to little or no disturbance. It was an almost forgotten joy to be able to turn up at a small lake, pond or stream, disembark from the minibus, and just walk down to the water’s edge unhindered. The only trouble was that it could actually take quite a while to get there as one tended to become sidetracked by birds, bugs or butterflies in turn.
One day in particular epitomised this. Only if the circus had been in town could we have crammed in more wildlife encounters in the available daylight. First we had a dawn appointment with firecrest, nutcrackers and some cracking close-up serins. Then there were moths to check out around the hotel entrance including U.K. ultra rarity Purple treble-bar, before we were off on our mountain jaunt. I’ve always thought the Alpine Swift a special bird, but here they moved up another notch in my estimation as they screamed and chased in close formation just metres above the road. They seemed oblivious to the passing juggernauts as they checked out the niches in the sheer cliff face, sometimes flying just in front of a vehicle as if playing a game of dare. After this excitement, a serene stroll down a side valley of the gorge brought plenty of insect interest with so much I had never seen before. I was particularly taken with the bee beetle and the broad-bordered bee hawkmoth. Both species are to be found in the U.K., but I’ve never managed to see either of them in all my years of watching wildlife around Britain: here it had taken about an hour.
After all of this, I didn’t expect the main event, a visit to the wallcreeper site, to rate very highly. But the little beauty put on quite a display in the bright sunlight, almost seeming like a cave-painting that had leapt from the rock face and come to life. It even belied its name for a time, becoming a roadcreeper as it descended to just a few feet in front of us to take a dust bath. I felt like I was seeing something never seen by the likes of Bill Oddie, David Attenborough et al.
Our hunger for nature may have been temporarily sated, but our need for nourishment was still sharp. So, much as we tried to resist, we forced down our trout and chips whilst scanning sideways towards a hillside meadow graced by the ever-impressive Apollo butterfly. The things you put yourself through in pursuit of your desires!
It did not matter that we lost the sunshine soon after arriving at our final stop – a small lake, where, amongst other things, we found a male yellow-winged darter, as well as a string of small pearl-bordered fritillaries – we were still bathing in the glow of the earlier highlights. However this day, which had already given up so many examples of nature’s bounty, seemed reluctant to take leave of us, even squeezing in a fly-by nightjar as the evening slipped into a grey gloom. Still, no need for us to be gloomy, the next day’s delights were only eight hours away! And that sunshine …
Read more abour our 'Bulgaria's Dragonflies' holiday.