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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jos Stratford" data-source="post: 3597144" data-attributes="member: 12449">29-30 July. March of the Colonists, Part Two.I had planned to go to the Tatra Mountains this weekend, I had even departed and begun the long overnight drive. An hour down the road however, with the thought of another ten hours beginning to lose its appeal, a new idea popped into my head – back to the lands of the colonists. With excellent weather forecast, I would conduct a count of Marbled Whites and Meleager's Blues across their localities, exploring adjacent meadows for any additional new populations. What a good decision it turned out to be!29 July – my single most productive day of the year in Lithuania, notching up exactly 50 species, a total I rarely achieve in this country. Having stayed in a local hotel, I was on site at my favoured locality just as it was warming up, hordes of Marbled Whites already sitting on flower tops taking in the sun. The next few hours were phenomenal – exploring an adjacent area that I had never visited before (having wrongly assumed it was completely forested), I quickly realised it was every bit as good as the core area: diverse flower meadows, rich woodland edge and butterflies galore! Hundreds and hundreds of generation two Brimstones and Peacocks, plus the usual array of abundant Scarce Coppers, Map Butterflies, Small Whites et al, but so too oodles of Marbled Whites. With the habitat quite linear, counting was relatively easy – no less than 215 Marbled Whites in this sector alone!Even better however, more Meleager's Blues – as it was only a kilometre or so from the original localities of the previous year, I had hoped to find a few here, but what I did not expect was my biggest numbers to date! Two discreet colonies separated by a few hundred metres, the first contained 10 males and two females, while the next was even more impressive with a staggering 13 males and 10 females! Also noteworthy, abundant Chalkhill Blues too, a loose colony of about 65 decorating the short turf. Truly it was a case of butterflies everywhere, added attractions including a couple of Camberwell Beauties, three Little Blues, my first Reverdin's Blue of the year and several Mazarine Blues.After a brief coffee back at the car, I then walked the remainder of the locality, i.e. the area that I have covered before. A couple of Swallowtails drifted by, a half dozen Blue-spot Hairstreaks sat atop flowers, one Silver-spotted Skipper appeared on a grass stalk, a Large Copper graced a flower bank. Thousands of Brimstones on the wing, hundreds of newly-emerged Peacocks, numerous Scarce Coppers and Map Butterflies, plus Essex Skippers in good numbers, Small Skippers less so. In contrast to all other fritillaries, Dark Green Fritillaries seemed in increased numbers, same too Speckled Woods, at least ten of these active at forest edge. As for the colonists, I added another 295 Marbled Whites to the day tally, plus Meleager's Blues in four separate areas, each some hundreds of metres apart – five males at one place, two males and a female at the next, a single male at the third and a male and a female at the last.Totalling up the numbers for the locality as a whole, I was blown away – an approximate 510 Marbled Whites and 46 Meleager's Blues, almost surreal numbers that would have been just laughable a mere two years earlier.Superb stuff, and still plenty of time left to check other sites for further Marbled Whites et al. Wasted some of this time searching for non-existent meadows and exploring tracks that went nowhere, but was soon at another of my regular localities ...again quite amazing numbers of Peacocks and Brimstones, thistle patches absolutely brimming with them! Also, in the course of a couple of kilometres, 17 Swallowtails, several super-fresh Camberwell Beauties, my first Rock Grayling of the year and yet another batch of Chalkhill Blues, a loose colony of about 16 this time. Also 10 Short-tailed Blues, a late White Admiral and again quite a few newly-emerged Dark Green Fritillaries amongst their more tattered kin. More Marbled Whites too - split between a couple of adjacent sites, added another 65 Marbled Whites to the day's tally. This number increased even more with the exploration of further meadows - not massive numbers, but frequently a few here and a few there ...seems the entire southern border zone has been colonised to some degree. Equally nice, also found my first Brown Hairstreak of the season, plus a Large Grizzled Skipper, several Pale Clouded Yellows, more Blue-spot Hairstreaks and a couple of Red Admirals.Quite enough for one day, not only 50 species noted, including the mega numbers of Marbled Whites and Meleager's Blues, but three new for the year too. 30 July - exploration of localities 20-40 km north for any signs of spread of the colonists. Began at the site where I'd found four Meleager's Blues a week earlier (three males and a female). Very nice habitat - on a gentle slope, short turf meadow on sandy soils at the top, generously laced with flowers, gradually transforming into a richer traditional hay meadow at the bottom. Arrived at 8.30 a.m., immediately impressed with the numbers of Chalkhill Blues - several dozen sunning on grass stalks and flowers. Plenty of Dusky Meadow Browns too, and in not too long a time at all, refound Meleager's Blues at the same spot as the week before - managed two females and a male this time, so a total population of at least five at this locality. It was the Chalkhill Blues however that were the real stars however, loads and loads of them across the short turf areas. A very localised species in Lithuania, they occur at scattered sites in the south, but this number was looking quite amazing ...after a walking transects of the area, I ended up with an estimated total of 425. That is about 410 more than I saw in all of the 2016 season!Camberwell Beauties and Swallowtails active again, also one Reverdin's Blue. No Marbled Whites to report, so moved onto my next destination, more meadows about a half hour drive away. Climbing to 27 C now, quite humid too. Walked a few kilometres in prime butterfly habitat, the abundant Peacocks and Brimstones of the day before evident here too, so too a whole bunch of fairly local species, these including five Blue-spot Hairstreaks, one Large Copper, a single late Knapweed Fritillary, eight Spotted Fritillaries and two Silver-spotted Skippers. And, there fluttering across a slope, three Marbled Whites.At a number of additional sites I failed to find anymore. At the final locality that I visited, a traditional area good for whites, many hundreds of Small Whites and Green-veined Whites were flying, smaller numbers of Large Whites and Eastern Bath Whites too, but scan and wander the area as much as I did, still no sign of further Marbled Whites. So this year at least, it would seem that the colonisation is basically very much restricted to the extreme southern border area, very few appearing to have moved more than a handful of kilometres north.Succumbed to laziness in the heat of the afternoon, quitting in the early afternoon. 47 species seen this day, a grand total of 55 over the two days.BALTIC YEAR LIST   101. Brown Hairstreak    102. Reverdin's Blue    103. Rock Grayling.</blockquote>

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