Bulgaria 2007: Some Invertebrates

There were moments last week when we found ourselves looking, mirabile dictu, at things other than birds. I took a few pictures of organisms we found pretty or interesting.

Cool mornings brought out the slugs and the snails, including good-sized edible snails.

As the day warmed, butterflies emerged, sometimes reaching impressive densities in fields and along woodland edges. This is a small tortoiseshell, a description and a name.

Salty puddles drew large numbers of blues.

Some of them were even BLUE.

I think that this was a green-veined white, nectaring sluggishly in the early morning.

Of the apparently several fritillary species, the silver-washed was most common and most conspicuous.

And it was good to see peacocks again, even if they did elude the camera’s eye (or at least its focus).