Scarlet Darters at Silverlake.

 Not long after returning from Bulgaria, Lisa and I decided to head down to Dorset to see the colony of Scarlet Darters that have set up home there. Of course, I had seen plenty of these gorgeous dragonflies in Bulgaria, where they are known as Broad Scarlet.

The Scarlet Darter has in recent years appeared in Britain, but they are still regarded as an extremely rare migrant species, and this colony at Silverlake is the only known breeding colony as far as I'm aware. I had seen reports over the past couple of years concerning them being seen here, but to be honest I wasn't too worried about going to see them as I had seen them many times abroad. However, Lisa is now on a mission to see all the dragonflies that are found in the UK, although I don't expect the Scarlet Darter is even on the proper UK list yet.

We did however, have another reason for heading down that way, as I have only seen the rare Southern Damselfly once before and that was many years ago. 

Plans were made, and we decided to make a couple of days of it, we booked a one night stay at Poole, which could be cancelled if the weather wasn't suitable. As it was, we nearly cancelled due to it being too good, in other words it was in the middle of one of the many heatwaves. However, we decided to go anyway and if we couldn't find shade we could just have a quick visit.

I knew that one of my dragonfly contacts had been before, so I asked her where the best spots were likely to be so we didn't have to wander about too much in the heat. It was quite bizarre that she came back to me to say she was also going the next day and would see us there.

On arrival at Silverlake we saw Polly in the distance walking towards where we were having our breakfast picnic. She went onto the main lake, with us following shortly after. As we walked around the lake, we very quickly saw our first Scarlet Darter. It was very apparent that were loads of dragonflies and damselflies around the lake, and it was clear many were still emerging. Excuvia was everywhere on the reeds around the water showing how odonata rich the lake was. The Scarlet Darters were landing on the ground or in bushes close to the bank, not particularly photogenic spots, but later on, as it got really hot, the darters started to land in much better positions.

It was far from just the Scarlet Darters that were present, as there were large numbers of so many other species. As the heat of the day increased we did manage to stand under a large tree by the lake, so we could look out without getting too hot. It was fantastic being able to photograph and observe all the species here. I was particularly pleased with some shots of Black-tailed Skimmer, a species that mostly settles on the ground.

Male Black-tailed Skimmer.

As we were chatting to Polly, she suddenly spotted a young Grass Snake that had popped its head up through the weed. We then watched as it swam along, with it gradually getting a little closer to the lakeside bank. We walked very carefully along with it hoping that it would come closer, which it did, as when it came on land it almost went over my feet. A lovely encounter.

Young Grass Snake.

Heading to the bank.

As well as the Black-tailed Skimmer, there were also a few Keeled Skimmer. Where I see them at Ashdown Forest, they seldom rest on foliage where you can get a decent image, so I was pleased that this male kept landing near where we were.

Male Keeled Skimmer.

There were lots of damselflies around the lake, including one my favourites, the Small Red-eyed Damselfly. It's been a while since I last photographed one, so it was great to get mating pairs and singles showing well. On this mating pair image the excuvia from recently emerged damselflies can be seen to the left of the damselflies.

Pair of Small Red-eyed Damselflies.

Male Small Red-eyed Damselfly.

Meanwhile there was a lot of egg laying going on by lots of female Dragonflies and Damselflies.

Female Emperor Dragonfly egg laying.

We had spent a lot of time trying to get close to the Scarlet Darters. They were extremely active, and a pair that seemed to keep joining up to mate, were only in the mating wheel for a few seconds each time. However, as the day got much hotter, eventually the dragonflies slowed down a little giving us a bit more of a chance. We couldn't believe it when the pair suddenly settled right in front of us and stayed in the mating wheel long enough for us both to get some good shots. The male Scarlet Darter is an incredible colour, and to see it on British soil in good numbers was an amazing experience. During the day we saw over 20 of them.  As the day continued to get hotter still the insect became easier to photograph. It was also interesting seeing them point their abdomen more and more upward to decrease their exposure to the sun. The biggest problem was the harsh contrasty light from the sunlight, but hopefully some of the photos are not too bad.

Mating Scarlet Darter.

Male Scarlet Darter.

Whilst we were chatting to Polly, we spotted a very large Horsefly around our part of the lake. We kept an eye on it just in case it fancied a bit of human flesh for its lunch. A little while later I spotted it on a reed, where it was next to something white and a bit odd looking. We looked closer and realised that it was egg laying. It was an amazing thing to watch as the layers of eggs kept getting larger. I'm not sure what the grey fluffy object is in front of the fly, but we kept watching it for a few minutes. I found out later it was called a Large Marsh Horsefly, a very apt name for a very large Horsefly!

Large Marsh Horsefly

A couple of hours later, I checked out the progress and saw that the eggs had changed colour, but also saw that a parasitic fly or wasp had already found the eggs and was busy laying its own eggs into the horsefly egg mass.

Large Marsh Horsefly egg mass being parasitised.

With it now being so hot we decided we had better move on, but not before we had seen a Red-veined Darter and Lesser Emperor, both quite rare migrant species. With Lulworth Cove being around 40 minutes away, we decided to head there to see the Lulworth Skipper. We saw a number very quickly, although they were all looking a little bit past their best. It was good to see them though as it's a butterfly that I have only seen a couple of times before, and Lisa only once before.

Female Lulworth Skipper.

Following this we headed for the cove itself so we could chill off with a swim in the sea. It was absolutely gorgeous.

Whilst we were at Silverlake, we hardly saw anyone else, apart from Polly and a friend of hers that joined us. A local couple of guys did stop and chat with us and they told Lisa about a site for the Southern Damselfly in Dorset. We had planned to try and see these in the New Forest on the way back home. However, after a good nights sleep we decided that as we were going to be driving close to the Dorset site we may as well try that too. As it happened although we saw the damselflies at both sites the photos from the Dorset site were much better, with better lighting and more confiding damselflies.

Male Southern Damselfly.

I even had a mating pair fly past and land really close. 

Mating Southern Damselflies.

Male Southern Damselfly.

The area where the damselflies were was very small, but we did stay longer than expected, but eventually we moved on and headed to the site that I knew in the New Forest. The car parks near the site were closed to protect ground nesting birds, so we had to use a car park a 30 minute walk away. As my back was still playing up, Lisa volunteered to drop me and the camera gear off and head off to park the car. I headed down into the shade to wait for her, although I was watching and photographing the damselflies by the time she had returned. I found a female Southern Damselfly that was a different colour to the female in the mating pair the previous day.

Female Southern Damselfly.

I didn't improve on the male photos though. However, there were some nice Small Red Damselflies which gave me something else to photograph. Including a mating pair.

Male Small Red Damselfly.

Mating pair of Small Red Damselfly.

A Keeled Skimmer also posed well for me again.

Keeled Skimmer.

It really was a fabulous couple of days away, despite the extreme heat. At the New Forest site a few Silver-studded Blues were also seen and as I waited for Lisa to go and collect the car I saw a Purple Hairstreak fly above a large Oak tree. Lisa had also added two more species to her list.

When Lisa had returned with the car, she told me she had spotted an amazing number of cigarette butts on the side of the road that had obviously been thrown from cars by their drivers. With this hot dry summer it doesn't take much imagination to see how dangerous that could become. As I write this I know there has neen a really bad forest fire in the New Forest. Hopefully not following a cigarette butt thrown from a car!!

Bulgaria Bits and Bugs.

Dragonflies and butterflies were the main focus, but Bulgaria has such a diverse spectrum of other insects there was always going to be many other highlights.

Here are a few of the other delights that we saw. As I didn't have my birding lenses, most of the  pictures are of the smaller creatures. Needless to say though, we did see an awful lot of spectacular birds. The favourites being the countlesss Golden Orioles and Bee-eaters. However, Shrikes were also seen well as were several Swift species, Black Stork, Roller, Cirl Bunting, Montagu's Harriers, Griffen Vultures, Short-toed Eagle and so much more.

Back to the smaller creatures, although the first two cannot really be called small, as they were two huge crickets.

The stunning Bronze-glandular Bush-cricket are mostly seen as they cross the road. Unfortunately, many are squashed in the process, but we did our bit by stopping to help a couple of them reach the other side!!

Female Bronze-glandular Bush-cricket.

The other huge cricket was the Balkan Predatory Bush-cricket. This species actually feeds on other large crickets, including the impressive Wart-biter. We came across this beautiful cricket twice during the trip.

Female Balkan Predatory Bush-cricket.

Not for the fainthearted!!

A couple of other crickets seen included the Alpine Dark Bush-cricket in the grounds of the highest hotel we stayed at.

Alpine Dark Bush-cricket.

Meanwhile, the Bellied Bright Bush-cricket was seen in good numbers all through our stay.

Female Bellied Bright Bush-cricket.

A couple of keen spotters found the Mantid seen here. Two were seen with this one found munching through a Meadow Brown.

Fasciated Conehead Mantid eating Meadow Brown.

I have always enjoyed seeing Bee-flies. I only managed to photograph two species in Bulgaria, but they were both impressive.

Black-banded Bee-fly.

This one below, also has a very impressive, and fun Latin name. When I found out the name of it I had a good chuckle.

Villa hottentotta.

Around one of the ponds there were many Oriental Tree-frogs. These were escapees or more likely releases from some time back. Needless to say they are enjoying their environment here and are doing rather well.

Oriental Tree-frog.

This tiny micro moth flew past me and settled on a leaf in front of me. A very impressive pair of antennae.

Euplocamus ophisa.

My first ever foreign trip was when I was 23 when Pen and I went to Spain with her Mum and brother. One day I went on my own up into the high hills behind the resort, where I found the most impressive caterpillar that I had ever seen. Ever since I have hoped to see another one. It is the larva of the Spurge Hawk-moth. Jo from our group finally gave me my wish when she found two of these beauties at one of our stops. After these, we found more, and by the end of the week we had found around twenty. Ranging in size from small to enormous.

Spurge Hawk-moth larva.

A greener version of Spurge Hawk-moth larva. Note the baby one above it.

Spurge Hawk-moth larva.

In a another meadow I spotted this fritillary larva. It seems it's the larva of the Queen of Spain Fritillary.

Queen of Spain larva.

Near the QoS larva was a couple of gorgeous Wood Tiger. I normally find these only when they are worn, but this one was very fresh.

Wood Tiger.

A species I used to watch when I was a young lad in the local woodland was the Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth. Unfortunately these are now extinct locally to me, so when I see them on my travels it brings back some lovely memories. Unlike the familiar Hummingbird Hawk-moth, the Bee Hawk-moth places it's feet on the flower that its neactaring from. This gives the photographer a second longer to focus on it. It's still near on impossible even then though!

Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth feeding.

Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth settled.

Several of this lovely weevil were seen. Quite a bit bigger than many weevil species.

Lixus iridis.

We also saw at least two Ant-lion species. This one was quite a bit smaller than the Mottled-winged Ant-lion that was the main species that we saw.

Ant-lion.

Around Lake Kerkini the birdlife was very impressive. Only this Squacco Heron really came near enough for my short insect zoom lens though.

Squacco Heron.

One of our group also spotted a pair of Coypu. This is not a native animal but was still a nice addition to our sightings, as well as being totally unexpected.

Coypu.

On our final butterfly site we also saw the very impressive Balkan Lizard Orchid. 

Balkan Lizard Orchid.

Another really good orchid moment was nearly missed due to being so enthralled by all the insect life. Unfortunately, I should have taken much more care while photographing this Red Helleborine. A species that is mega rare in the UK, and so carefully protected it is almost impossible to see. As I was rushing to catch the rest of the group up, and as it was also raining very hard I quickly took an image on the phone. A bit frustrating really, and I kick myself for missing what is likely to be the only chance I will ever have of photographing one of these.

Red Helleborine.

Bulgarian Butterflies 2026.

 Although our tour was mainly focussed on Dragonflies, the diversity and number of butterfly species was once again very impressive, and for the 2nd year we saw over 90 species of butterfly in our 9 days in the Country.

Of course, not all of them posed for the cameras, but all the guests that were into photography had a brilliant time with all the insects.

There are not many sights more impressive than seeing numbers of Black-veined Whites flying over flower meadows. In the early 20th century this was possible to see in the UK until the insect became extinct. However, plans are afoot to re-introduce the Black-veined White into a few sites in Britain.

On our first afternoon we saw plenty of these large butterflies floating over a meadow, and one of our team spotted a mating pair in a Hawthorn bush. What made this even more interesting was the pupal case next to the female. The male clearly found her before she flew and joined up with her before she could escape his advances.

Mating pair of Black-veined White with pupal case.

Black-veined White on Viper's Bugloss.

On the 2nd day we found a sparkling new Spotted Fritillary, one of my favourite butterflies in Bulgaria.

Spotted Fritillary.

As we gradually moved south through the week we came across so many species. Many have the pretext 'Eastern' here. Like the Eastern Knapweed Fritillary.

Eastern Knapweed Fritillary.

Or some had the pretext 'Balkan'.

Balkan Zephyr Blue.

Mating Clouded Yellows.

Plenty of Queen of Spain Fritillaries were seen throughout the whole tour with them being seen on 6 of the 9 days.

Queen of Spain Fritillary.

Grecian Copper.

As well as the Grecian Copper we also saw Sooty Copper, some very dark Small Copper, Scarce Copper, Purple-shot Copper, Purple-edged Copper, Lesser Fiery Copper and Balkan Copper.

Scarce Copper.

On the higher slopes where we saw the Spearhead Bluet, I spotted a stunning female Amanda's Blue. As the sun was getting lower in the sky she was opening her wings for the sun and then closing them when the sun went in. She did however, still give us a peep of her top wings.

Female Amanda's Blue.

One of the hotels that we stayed in had a magnificent wild meadow in front of it. We were only there the one night, so it was an early start looking for the special insects that were hiding in the meadow. Our only Balkan Copper of the trip was found here along with several Eastern Large Heath, Pearl-bordered Fritillaries as well as a newly minted Glanville Fritillary. It was a very special meadow and much better than the actual hotel!!

Balkan Copper.

Eastern Large Heath.

Glanville Fritillry.

We then drove to a wooded area where we had some more special sightings. The most impressive being a Poplar Admiral which unfortunately escaped my camera, but fortunately, several members of the group did get photos.

It was nice to see some other beautiful species though with Mazarine Blue, Pearly Heath, Silver-studded Blue, Chequered Skipper and Wood Whites.

Pearly Heath.

Chequered Skipper.

We then did a little birdwatching as the gorge we were in is a regular spot for seeing Wallcreeper. Although our views were not up to last year it was lovely seeing these cracking birds as they parachuted down the steep gorge.

In another area we had clouds of butterflies mud-puddling. These included several types of Skipper, Wood Whites, Scarce Swallowtail and various Blues. Nearby Hummingbird Hawk-moths were feeding on the Viper's Bugloss along with a Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth, Eastern Festoons and Clouded Yellows.

Eastern Festoon.

Further up the road we visited my favourite butterfly spot from last year. Unfortunately some bad weather had returned and most butterflies had gone to roost. This would have been a disaster had Dansko, our Bulgarian leader, not spotted a fantastic Yellow-banded Skipper. Possibly the highlight for me of the butterflies that we saw. A first for me as well. I took lots of photos as it roosted. Only a couple were really sharp enough to keep as the light was awful, and the rain was also falling.

Yellow-banded Skipper at roost.

We decided that on our last full day we would try to return to this very productive butterfly site, which I'm glad to say we did.

Two Cardinals were seen throughout the tour. This one was around the lake where we were watching the Black Pennant dragonflies. It was fortunately more than content nectaring on the giant thistle heads.

Cardinal.

On a much better day we then returned to the spot where we had seen the Yellow-banded Skipper.

I had only just got out of the van when I spotted a butterfly known as The Hermit. unusually it was nectaring instead of taking salts from the ground. A lovely butterfly of the Grayling family.

The Hermit.

We also had several Grayling that were taking salts from the ground. One of the problems here is that the Grayling and Delattin's Grayling are so similar that they can only be identified by examining the male genitalia, so that was not going to happen!! However, going by the fact we were in Southern Bulgaria it was most likely that these were the Delattin's, as the Grayling we know from Britain doesn't usually occur this far south.

Probable Delattin's Grayling.

We also had some Woodland and Great Banded Grayling and several types of Blue butterflies joining in.

Woodland Grayling.

Male Meleager's Blue.

Eastern Baton Blue.

Great Banded Grayling.

Anomalous Blue.

It really was as well that we did return to this wonderful site as our butterfly list grew quite a bit here.

Our last full day was also hit by some poor weather. After visiting our sites for dragonflies we headed to a site where last year we had some beautiful Large Coppers. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived here the clouds had rolled in, and although we did have a few brighter patches, these were very brief. We did see Lesser Fiery Copper, but the only other notable butterfly was a rather nice Eastern Bath White. This actually was the last photo I took on the trip as we were heading back to Sofia early the next day.

Eastern Bath White.

There are still some fantastic creatures that were photographed, although the dragonflies and butterflies were what most of us were really interested in.