Bulgaria Dragonflies 2026

 For the 2nd year I was lucky to co-lead a tour to Bulgaria with the main aim being the dragonflies and damselflies found in the Country.

We saw far too many to post all of them here, with 50 species seen we saw nearly all our main targets, as well as over 90 species of butterflies.

The diversity in Bulgaria really puts the UK to shame, with very little use of pesticides in the countryside the insects are allowed to live as they really should be allowed to everywhere in the World. 

Over the 9 days we were in Bulgaria, we headed south from Sofia, staying in 5 hotels in different areas which allowed us to see a vast range of dragonflies. We also one day visited Lake Kerkini in northern Greece to enable us to see even more species.

One of our rarest targets was the Ornate Bluet. This small blue damselfly was seen on our first day on the way to our first hotel. Last year at this site we only saw a couple. This year we did a little better with around 6, as well as a Winter Damselfly, a species we missed last year.

Ornate Bluet.

Winter Damselfly.

At a wonderful small lake we had huge numbers of dragonflies, all the time with a backdrop of listening to Nightingales, Golden Orioles, Turtle Doves and Great Reed Warblers. There was a large number too of emerging dragonflies. I really like the shot of a newly emerged Southern Darter resting next to its excuvia.

Southern Darter just emerged.

The Small Pincertail is another favourite, despite it being quite common. The male is very bizarre looking with its 'pincer like tail' that it uses to hold the female with during mating. Who would be a female pincertail?

Male Small Pincertail.

Female Small Pincertail.

Both Banded and Beautiful Demoiselle are quite different to the same species in Britain. The Banded has a much broader band, and the Beautiful is darker. There were many of both species, flying over the water like little jewels.

Beautiful Demoiselle.

One of our main targets was the very strange Odalisque. It is Europe's only member of the Oriental Gossamerwing family. In the same spot where we found this species last year, we found around 6 this year including a pair in tandem that would have been resting during egg laying. This was the first female Odalisque I have seen.

Pair of Odalisque in tandem.

Several Dainty Bluets were seen during the trip. This one was actually by the roadside after we had stopped to see a tortoise that was crossing the road. Nature was everywhere we looked.

Male Dainty Bluet.

Mating pair of Dainty Bluet.

The mating pair of Dainty Bluets were on the side of a near dried up dew pond. Also in the foliage around the pond were several Robust Spreadwing (Scarce Emerald Damselfly), some Small Bluetail which included several 'orange' immature females and a Migrant Spreadwing.

Immature female Small Bluetail. (Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly).

Migrant Spreadwing. (Southern Emerald Damselfly).

On another lake we came across some Lesser Emperor dragonflies that kept hovering nearby. I have always had mixed success at photographing dragonflies in flight, but these dragonflies gave me several attempts, and I feel that I got my best ever shot of one. Maybe even one of my best photos.

Lesser Emperor.

Our last stop one day was at a fuel station. The van was fed with fuel, and we took advantage of the ice-creams sold in the shop. We also had a target here of both Turkish and Blue-eyed Goldenring dragonflies. However, we certainly wasn't expecting it to be very easy. We were sitting round a picnic bench munching the ice-creams when someone spotted a Blue-eyed Goldenring land on a plant just feet away from us. The dragonfly had caught a spider and was eating it. Not an easy excercise taking photos of a dragonfly with one hand holding the camera and the other hand holding an ice-cream!!

It looks as though the dragonfly flew into the spider's web to catch the spider, and the some of the web stuck to the dragonfly's wings.

Blue-eyed Goldenring.

Last year I only saw a single Dark Spreadwing, and the photo I took was not really worth keeping, so I was quite pleased when I spotted this one.

Dark Spreadwing.

The Spearhead Bluet, known as the Northern Damselfly in the UK, which is only found in Scotland in the UK, is found in high mountain lakes in Bulgaria.

Spearhead Bluet. (Northern Damselfly).

On our day in Greece we came across another of our main targets. The Bladetail. Last year I did get some nice shots of this large dragonfly, but this year the glimpses were a bit brief, so our clients got priority with their cameras. We also found on the edge of Lake Kerkini some beautiful Violet Dropwing. It's difficult to give these dragonflies the justice they deserve as they are small and rarely rest within easy reach.

Violet Dropwing.

The Black Pennant is another tricky species. These are even smaller and are extremely active over the water. I have only seen one of these at rest before!! Hence it was only flight shots that I managed.

Black Pennant in flight.

Black Pennant egg laying in tandem.

We saw Red-veined Darters at several sites, although I only took a few images in the final couple of days. The female below was at the same lake as the Black Pennant, and was hunting a few feet back from the water.

Female Red-veined Darter.

This male however, was hunting from above the water. It was pretty hot on this particular day, and he was pointing his tail straight up to avoid overheating.

Male Red-veined Darter.

The images here are a small selection of what we saw during this brilliant 9 day tour. My next post will concentrate on the butterflies that we saw.

Elmley and Blean.

 Our final two days of our early summer trip were spent at Elmley and then Blean woods. Unfortunately, both these days involved more rain and strong breeze.

The Elmley day it didn't matter quite so much, although I was hoping for some rarer day flying moths, which obviously didn't happen. However, the drive along the entrance track did give us some excellent views of some young Oystercatchers out with their parents. We also saw half grown Lapwing and Redshank chicks as well as the usual Elmley Brown Hares and Marsh Harriers.

Oystercatcher with chick.

Oystercatcher with chick.

At one time one of the chicks came very close to the car.

Oystercatcher chick.

Our day in Blean was weatherwise even worse, with very dull conditions and drizzle on and off. However, as usual we didn't let that bother us too much, especially as Heath Fritillaries are quite easy to find in poor weather as they often roost on top of the Bracken.

As we moved along the woodland paths we found several fritillaries with ease, as well as a very fine example of one of my favourite micro moths. I have only seen the Dasycera oliviella once before and that was last year in virtually the same spot. A few were seen, but one did pose extremely well. Bear in mind this lovely moth is only 6-8mm long, it really is a tiny beauty.

Dasycera oliviella (Cream-spot Bark Moth).

Some areas of the woodland had more Fritillaries than others. Despite the wet weather we were surprised to find a mating pair of Heath Fritillaries. There were none flying at all so this pair probably joined up the previous day and then spent the night and following day attached to each other!! During the stroll we actually found 24 Heath Fritillaries scattered through the woodland.

Heath Fritillaries roosting on Bracken.

However, the best moment came when Lisa spotted a brand new Purple Hairstreak. It appears that this may well have been the first record for Purple Hairstreak in Kent this year. Strangely, a couple of days later we had the first Sussex record as well.

Purple Hairstreak.

It had been an epic trip with great butterfly stops on the way up and back from Yorkshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Kent. With so many birds also seen at Bempton, Hickling and Minsmere there were many highlights. Certainly a trip we will remember for a very long time.

Subbuteo.

 When I was a young lad I used to love playing Subbuteo with my friends, a table top football game. What I didn't realise at the time was that the inventor of the game was a very keen birdwatcher, and after not being able to call the game 'Hobby', which was his first choice but was not allowed due to patent issues, he decided to call it Subbuteo which is the Latin name for the bird of prey.

While Lisa and I were at Minsmere we had great fun trying to photograph these high speed birds as they hunted near us chasing dragonflies. There were many more bad shots than good ones, but I was actually quite pleased with a few of the results.

Hobby (Falco subbuteo).

A Four-spotted Chaser attached to a Hobby.

After trying for a couple of hours these are the only sharp shots achieved!!

A fly-by from a male Marsh Harrier was much easier.

Heading Home (slowly).

 After visiting Glapthorn on our way to Yorkshire and seeing lots of Black Hairstreak, we had the idea of perhaps visiting another great site that I had heard about, on our return journey, which was also going to incorporate staying in Norfolk, Suffolk and Kent. Yes, we were not in a hurry to get home, and we wanted to make the most of our trip.

Although I knew we were very late into the Marsh Fritillary season I thought it was worth at least checking out the site of Chamber's Farm Wood in Lincolnshire. Especially as we would be near to a very good friend of Lisa's that she was keen to visit.

As we headed to an area to park the car at Chamber's Farm Wood I saw a lovely Blackthorn area in the corner of the small meadow. I immediately thought there was a chance of Black Hairstreak there. I hadn't at that time heard of Black Hairstreak in this wood, but as we approached the scrubby area I immediately saw a hairstreak flying around the bushes, and it wasn't a surprise to see it was indeed a Black Hairstreak. In all we saw around 5 in this little corner, but only one landed in a photographable position.

Black Hairstreak.

After this wonderful sighting we headed to the area where the Marsh Fritillaries are known to be. On the way we saw our first White Admiral of the year as well as lots of Green Oak Tortrix. On entering the meadow my thoughts of us being too late to see the fritillary were quickly erased as there were still large numbers of these gorgeous butterflies. However, only one was seen that was worth photographing as they were generally very worn. However, the females were fresher, and just before we were ready to leave I spotted one that was actually pretty good.

Female Marsh Fritillary.

During our time in Yorkshire we had seen thousands of Painted Lady's, but a fresh one did land and pose near me so I decided to take only my 2nd photo of one of the whole trip.

Painted Lady.

Once again, our extra stop was well worth doing. Our next stop was in Lowestoft, which would position us well for both the North-east Norfolk and Minsmere. 

Our first day there the weather was far from ideal with drizzle and heavy cloud. However, we were determined to make the most of what we had, so we headed north to Buxton Heath in Norfolk. As we parked the car the rain started to get heavier, so we sat it out for a while, but eventually the rain became just a light drizzle, so we headed onto the heath to the area where we had seen Silver-studded Blue the previous year. It wasn't long before we started to find these lovely butterflies roosting, and no doubt, hoping for the weather to improve. As we walked along the paths of the heath we actually found 42 Silver-studded Blues. After a couple of hours and after having a picnic lunch sheltering from yet more rain, the sun suddenly appeared for around 30 minutes. During this brief interlude from the rain many of the butterflies started to wake up and some even took flight.

Female Silver-studded Blue at roost.

Female Silver-studded Blue waking up.

Male Silver-studded Blue at roost.

Eventually we decided to move on, and as the forecast was slightly better for the afternoon we decided to head to Strumpshaw Fen where we would stand a chance of a Swallowtail. As we parked the car the sun came back out, and as we headed to the visitor centre a Swallowtail flew past us and started nectaring on some Bramble flowers. However, it was extremely flighty and we didn't get a photo of it. At the visitor centre we were told that it was possibly the only one seen that day, as already the clouds had come back in. We were so lucky even having such a brief sighting, as some people had been there for several hours hoping and failing to see one. We did have good views of a couple of Cuckoos and I was more than surprised to bump into Julia, who had been on my Sussex Butterfly tour 3 weeks earlier.

The following day we headed to Hickling Broad. Last year we saw lots of Swallowtail here, and we were hoping for the same again, especially as the weather had improved. However, we only saw 3 Swallowtail, and the only one that posed was not in the best condition.

Swallowtail.

We were also hoping for Bittern sightings, but again these were a little disappointing. We did however, still have a few things worth photographing. A young Conehead Cricket nymph was nice to see as were good numbers of damselflies which included several Variable Damselflies, as well as large numbers of Four-spotted Chasers.

Conehead Cricket nymph.

Four-spotted Chaser.

Our final day before moving onto Kent was spent at Minsmere. Once again the weather was not perfect, however, during a sunny interlude we searched for Red-veined Darters as they can be seen here as they emerge from the pool near the visitor centre. We didn't get lucky with this, however, Lisa did spot a lovely Drinker larva.

Drinker larva.

We also enjoyed the challenge of photographing some fast flying birds. However, that will be the subject of my next post!!

Kittiwake and Fulmar and Auks.

As well as the many Gannets at Bempton, there is a good showing of other seabirds. Although I have a good local colony of both Kittiwake and Fulmar, they are not as easy to get close to at home, as they are on the cliffs of Bempton.

With the birds nesting so close it is very easy to get some half decent images.

Close up on a Kittiwake.

 

Nesting pair of Kittiwake.

Kittiwake in flight.

I have always enjoyed trying to photograph the Fulmar flying past. Here the lighting was much better than on the south coast, where one is normally photographing into the light. Fulmars have such a wonderful glide, hardly ever flapping their wings as they use the thermals off the cliff face.

Fulmar on the wing.

Auks are also common on the cliffs, with most of them being Guillemot, but there are also pretty good numbers of Razorbill and Puffin, although the Puffin doesn't show as well as some other sites, due to them nesting in holes on the cliff, rather than rabbit burrows.

Razorbill looking for its partner.

And here he is.

Puffin.

Off  on a Fishing trip.

Puffin returning empty beaked.