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Macedonian Grayling
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Macedonia, July
2004 |
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Macedonia, July
2004 |
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Macedonia, July
2004
Very brief spell
of sunshine brought this place alive with P. cingovskii |
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Macedonia, July
2004 |
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Macedonia, July
2004 |
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Macedonia, July
2004 |
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Macedonia, July
2004 |
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Macedonia, July
2004 |
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Macedonia, July
2004 Infact
Satyrus ferula, the Great Sooty Satyr. Thanks to the correspondent
who spotted this error. Easily made so be careful! |
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| There is a long story behind us
finally getting to the Pletvah Massif in central FYROM (Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia, aka Macedonia or Republic of Macedonia). This is
the only place in the world where cingovskii flies - an area of
perhaps only 10 or 20 square km. It is very closely related to the Dark
and Dil's Graylings, P. mniszechii and P. orestes. Looking
at the guide books you can imagine the species merging together by
adjusting the tone and contrast control. Infact there is debate at the
moment if these taxa really constitute one, two or three species. That
said, cingovskii is very distinctive, particularly so in flight. It
is a cool pale grey brown, the upperside bands being particularly
noticeable. It is well adapted to the white limestone rocks over which it
flies. More grassy places are shunned where its pale colouration would
make it an obvious target for predators. By contrast a butterfly at rest
simply disappears on the white limestone. We arrived in very bad
conditions - cold and dark. However, with only glimmers of sunshine the
temperature rose to perhaps 15 degrees C and we found this species and in
some numbers too.
Twice we tried to hire a car to go into FYROM, once
from Greece, once from Bulgaria. On both occasions despite all our
contractual paperwork very clearly stating our hire conditions would allow
us entry to FYROM we were denied entry. For the Greek car, our hire
company hadn't organised a Green Card (it takes 7 days to organise) which
is required to cross the borders of Greece with a car. For the Bulgarian
car the hire company insurance didn't extend to FYROM even though we did
have a (very expensive) Green Card. Needless to say we were highly annoyed
on both occasions. On the second occasion though we had to go and the very
helpful hotel staff at our hotel in Greece near the border organised a
(very expensive) taxi for the day. Our advise is to be exceptionally
careful with hire companies when crossing the Greek border and phone well
in advance to triple or quadruple check the progress of preparations,
preferably speaking to as many different people as possible as opinions
seem to change!
Luckily our taxi trip was a success! |
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