Here be dragons!
During our recent tour of Rhodes in Greece we encountered the Rhodes Dragon, also known locally as “Kourkoutavlos”, almost everywhere we went. Its “proper” name is the Starred Agama lizard Laudakia stellio. It is the only Agama lizard in Europe and can only be found in a few areas of Greece or Malta (it was introduced in Malta). They are otherwise confined to Africa, Asia and Australia (about 300 different species). On Rhodes they are the most abundant reptile species.
Adult seen with several others on rocky walls around an acropolis site
Their appearance is quite dragon or dinosaur looking really, with their rather spiny appearance, quite short and broad flattened bodies and almost triangular shaped heads. They feed mainly on invertebrates, but will also take smaller lizards and some plants – particularly flowers and fruits. They can grow up to around 30cm from head to tail, so they are a reasonably large animal. They are adept climbers of trees and rocks, where they also hide in holes and crevices when disturbed or when sheltering.
Adult basking on a Pine tree
Interestingly, they are capable of some colour change, becoming lighter when warm and darker when cold. Their slight similarity with the Chameleon doesn’t end there either, as they have distinctive teeth that are pointed, flattened and bladelike and fused to the jaws.
This one is performing a Spider balancing trick!
Photo of the week – Holy Flame
Orchis sancta – Holy Orchid. A fairly common species on the island of Rhodes (in stark contrast to other areas) so it is the best place in Greece to see it.
The 300
Despite the title and the fact that the subjects featured are all from Greece, this post isn’t about the 300 Spartans from the legendary Battle of Thermopylae! Instead, it is merely to show some butterfly images that were taken with a 300mm prime lens.
Instead of getting close to the subjects and aiming for maximum detail by using a macro lens, these have all been taken from at least 1.5 metres away and mostly more, up to about 8-10 metres from the main subject. The idea behind this method is to capture the habitat too and thus the sense of place – the world in which the butterfly lives. In addition, with this style of photography one has more of a chance of capturing the essence of what was seen too – in this case that is the chaotic but beautiful meadow, presented in its raw form. A butterfly alone on a flower or stem and associated plain background are NOT part of this world! Integration with the butterflies environment is the goal here, not isolation.
I am finding myself drawn more and more to this kind of image lately and I look forward to trying to do take more of them. The ultimate goal is to try and capture some of the beauty that was seen and enjoyed by the naked eye and through the viewfinder. If that is just 1% then the images should be worthy of sharing 
For your information, all these images were taken on our recent wildlife & culture tour on the island of Rhodes.
A spring beauty – the Orange-tip butterfly
Today there was some reasonable weather in Suffolk and during a short walk in Holywells Park I managed to find a stunning male Orange-tip butterfly that was topping up its nectar tanks for the day on Garlic Mustard Alliaria petiolata. This plant is one of the main larval food plants for this particular butterfly and so if you are looking for Orange-tips its one of several plants that it pays to look out for. Another is Cuckoo Flower, also known as Ladies Smock Cardamine pratensis. This plant can usually be found in damp grassland habitat.
Male Orange-tip
If you look closely at the photo above, you may well notice the orange bottle shaped object amongst the flowers. This is in fact an Orange-tip egg that a female has laid on this plant. These eggs are fairly easy to find as not only are they orange in colour, but they are deposited in and around the flowers and adjacent stems of the larval food plants, so no need to search amongst leaves. Incidentally, you may sometimes spot pale cream – white eggs of a similar size and shape, these will most probably be eggs of another butterfly, the Green-veined White. The two species can share plants as Orange-tips eat the seed pods (their caterpillars are camoflagued to hide amongst them), whilst the Green-veined White caterpillar noshes on the leaves.
Orange-tip egg
Here for reference is a photo of the other plant mentioned in this post, Ladies Smock. I hope this post encourages you to get out and enjoy some Orange-tips yourself, they are a wonderful feature of the British spring so don’t miss them whilst they are on the wing!
Ladies Smock or Cuckoo Flower
Sunday in Suffolk – butterfly hunting!
The weather today in Suffolk was reasonable, with some sun appearing amongst the clouds and temperatures a bearable 15 degrees. So I decided to get out and visit a few local sites to see what wildlife I could find. My main targets were butterflies and I hoped to see some Green Hairstreak, as, despite seeing hundreds recently in Greece, I still find pleasure in seeing a few local ones and they are one of my favourite species.
I visited 2 locations where I usually see them in reasonable numbers, but on this occasion only managed to see two (one of which is pictured below).
I also enjoyed seeing a handful of Small Coppers, managing to photograph one of them as it basked in low vegetation. To get the shot I had to lay on the ground and shoot up through the wings, in order to get the pleasing backlit effect. It isn’t glamorous photographing butterflies, one must contend with loss of dignity, being stung, scratched and bitten – sometimes all of those at once! But, if you want to get some good photos, you have to get down and dirty from time to time!
My tally of butterfly species seen reached 10. They were:
Green-veined White (pictured below)
Large White
Small White
Orange-tip
Brimstone
Green Hairstreak
Small Copper
Speckled Wood
Comma
Peacock
As well as butterfly hunting, I also spent some time watching Viviparous Lizards at a local heathland site. They were easily found basking on log piles that Butterfly Conservation volunteers (led by me and a couple of others) had built during the winter. It was gratifying to see wildlife already using the piles and it makes it easier to find Lizards to watch and photograph when you have basking sites like these to visit during a walk.
Photo of the week – Ophrys colossaea
This is an endemic species to the island of Rhodes in Greece. It was seen during our recent tour of the island. It is named after the famous Colossus of Rhodes, the huge bronze statue that once stood on the island and was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. This Orchid is large and statuesque, hence the name colossea.
It was found growing in an Olive grove, so basically agricultural land. At this particular location there used to be thousands of them, but due to the grove being ploughed nearly all have been lost. The only ones that remain are those near trees or around the edges of the grove. It is a case of ignorance rather than malice that the farmer has done this. It would be great to try and get up a dialogue with Greek farmers and see if more sympathetic management could be adopted. We’ll be working with local Greek conservationists and trying to do just that in the near future….
Photo of the week – Balkan Green Lizard
Here is a portrait of the vividly coloured Balkan Green Lizard (Lacerta trilineata). It was photographed in Greece. I am now confident of the ID and that it isn’t a European Green Lizard (Lacerta viridis), which, after some research, doesn’t appear to inhabit the island where this was taken. The two species are hard to differentiate as adults – far easier when immature as the two species have differing body stripes and spots.
These lizards are extremely fast so I was pleased to get reasonably close to this one (with 300mm lens) as it basked underneath a bush. Please click to view it large to see it at its best – for some reason wordpress inserted photos don’t look sharp in posts!
Green Lizard
Photo of the week – Horseshoe Orchid
Horseshoe Orchid Ophrys ferrum-equinum in Greece.
The Famous Five – part 2
It has only been a couple of weeks since I found my five Purple Hairstreak eggs on a single Oak bud cluster, but already there has been a development – I am now the proud father of 2 caterpillars!
Although I have kept the twig in the fridge to slow development of the eggs and try to keep them in tune with those that are still outside on Oak trees in the wild, they have begun to hatch. I check on them regularly and today I instantly noticed that 2 out of the 5 eggs had holes in the centre of them – the tell tale sign that the caterpillars have hatched.
A quick scan on the buds soon resulted in me finding 2 tiny caterpillars. Because the twig was cut some weeks ago it is dry and so the buds are of no use to the caterpillars as food. They would normally hatch and then bore into the bud to eat it from the inside, safe from most predators. To provide them with food I have cut a fresh twig from an Oak with well avanced buds and have transfered my tiny pets (very carefully, using a very fine & damp paint brush) onto the fresh buds. These twigs are now standing in water to keep them fresh for as long as possible.
In the photo below you can see quite clearly the 2 empty egg shells and on the left hand bud is one of the caterpillars. The 2 eggs at the bottom are also very close to hatching (note the tiny starter holes).
The photo is not as good as I wanted due to a slight breeze at the time and being in a bit of rush. I also missed out on photographing one actually eating its way out of the shell by a matter of seconds, doh!
Anyway, I am now waiting “like the proverbial expectant father” for the remaining 3 to join their siblings on the next part of their life journey – watch this space for the next update!
The Famous Five!
In a previous post I explained how some local heathland management had resulted in the inveitable and necessary removal of some Oak trees to benefit the heather and heathland species such as the Silver-studded Blue butterfly. Some of these trees had Purple Hairstreak butterfly eggs on them, albeit a tiny percentage of what must be on the entire site. A lot of these have been salvaged to be home reared or tied on to living Oak trees so that the hatching larvae can continue with their life cycles.
From all the branches looked at (dozens!) some had 2 eggs around the buds, a few even had 3, but here I would like to introduce you to the star bud cluster that has got no less than 5 eggs nestled amongst a trio of terminal buds!
The Famous Five - Purple Hairstreak eggs on one bud cluster
The Famous Five - up close and personal!
I have decided to try and rear these 5 myself as a “pet” project! I hope to be able to provide updates (with photos) about their lives from hatching out of these tiny eggs (approx 1mm diameter) to the caterpillar stage, through to pupation and (fingers crossed) to them being reborn as the stunning adult butterfly around July time. Will all 5 make it? There is only one way to find out and that is to keep reading the blog!
