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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jos Stratford" data-source="post: 3586298" data-attributes="member: 12449">1 July. Highlights of southern Lithuania.Weather across Lithuania was looking decidedly poor – cloud and rain forecast for a couple of days at least. With several target species in various quarters of the country, this was not good news, especially given that many of the butterflies I was seeking would be nearing the end of their season!A slight chink to the otherwise gloomy weather, the far south-east of Lithuania did look set for at least a few hours of sun on the 1st, so not withstanding that most of my main targets were actually in central Lithuania, off I went, arriving in the Marcinkonys area early morning to blue skies and a warm sun already burning down.And a fantastic day it turned out, not only 42 species noted, including several rather localised butterflies, but also a species I hoped to find, one that was new for me! At locality one, lots of butterflies were already flying when I arrived, Pearly Heaths and Chestnut Heaths, a Red Admiral, a few Dark Green Fritillaries, a scatter of Amanda's Blues and Mazarine Blues. Strolling meadows bordering mature pine, I soon found a Green-underwing Blue, a species I had been looking for at this locality a few weeks earlier in the season, then another and another – a total of twelve over the next kilometre or so. Quite windy it was, but it didn't seem to be keeping the butterflies down, I added a few faded Brown Argus, a couple of dozen Purple-shot Coppers, one Queen of Spain Fritillary and my first High Brown Fritillaries of the year, along with Heath, Small Pearl-bordered and Lesser Marbled Fritillaries and a good range of other common species.After a couple of hours here, with it rather questionable how long the sun would last, I decided to retrace my steps to the car. Three good butterflies on route - one male Large Copper, one Idas Blue and, perhaps best of the lot, a very nice Large Blue, always a good species to see.A few clouds were now scuttling along, time to move onto my next destination, just a few kilometres to the south – here I hoped to find, or moreover to identify, Assmann's Fritillary. Highly localised in Lithuania, and none too easy to distinguish from the Heath Fritillary complex, I was somewhat in doubt whether I would be able to conclusively identify one. As it was, in continuing sunshine, I stumbled across an absolutely superb forest ride, a broad open bank of flowers aside a track through mature pines, pleasantly stuffed full of butterflies. Plenty of Black-veined Whites, one falling victim to a crab spider, several Moorland Clouded Yellows, two White Admirals, one exquisite Cranberry Blue that seemed to take a fancy to me, alighting to take salts from my hand on numerous occasions, plus quite a few more species. Best of all though, no shortage of small fritillaries, a good bulk of which seemed to be spot on for Assmann's Fritillary! Was a while before I convinced myself I was really looking at the real thing, but with an orange/brownish infill to the marginal lines, full orange lunules and fairly dark uppers, I think there were at least 20 Assmann's Fritillaries at this single locality, quite possibly considerably more! A similar area a few hundred metres further added a few more, plus a couple of Small Coppers and my first Grayling of the year.Spent a good two hours and more, glancing up every now and then at the growing number of clouds that were edging in, then set off to seek out a few more species in the forests near Cepkaliai Bog. A quick stop in some meadows added a dozen Geranium Argus, then a wander in open cut forest resulted in several more Cranberry Blues, a couple of Silver-washed Fritillaries and, a species I do not see very frequently, two Cranberry Fritillaries. Now however cloud was really beginning to take over. In less than ideal conditions, I did a walk into wet bogland in the hope of Frigga's Fritillary (the only locality it occurs in Lithuania), but no sign – quite an arduous hike, I saw just three butterflies for my effort ...one Cranberry Blue and two Moorland Clouded Yellows!It was now late afternoon, the sun had lasted out most of the day and I was certainly more than content, I headed back to Vilnius, it had been a far better day than I had expected!BALTIC YEAR LIST    67. Moorland Clouded Yellow    68. Large Blue    69. Silver-studded Blue    70. Idas Blue    71. Cranberry Blue    72. Geranium Argus    73. Silver-washed Fritillary    74. High Brown Fritillary    75. Cranberry Fritillary    76. Assmann's Fritillary    77. Spotted Fritillary    78. Grayling.</blockquote>

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