Danube
Clouded Yellow rush to Transylvania. 36 hours
drive for a 10 hours fieldwork is not the best deal you can
do, but we had no choice, as it was the last chance with good
weather to see DCY before starting the busy autumn season.
Also we had to take home our good friend, Zoli, who was located
to the major DCY spot of Romania for some scientific research.
There was 20 spots he monitored every second day, 20 minutes
at each spot, and at the days between he was following well-established
transects to figure out the local movements of the species.
He tried to catch and mark every single specimen he can, which
yielded a fantastic 391 specimens total, means the population
is certainly over a 1000. The best daily catch was actually
90. There will be tonns of useful information coming-up from
his records, GPS and diaries, and next year we have a similar
plan with the species and Zoli... discover new sites, based
on satellite maps and GIS.
The day also resulted fantastic other observations, incl.
80+ (eighty plus, yes!!!) Camberwell Beauty, Feston's Wood
White (yes! :)), some very old Pallas's, and an unusually
late Titania's Fritillary as well. The spot also inhabitated
with Osiris and Geranium Blues, Marsh Fritillary... Large
Blue also common, and there is a good place for Wallcreepers
nearby as well, not to mention the number of Brown Bears in
the area.
On the way home we wanted to check two other habitats where
DCY showed-up in good numbers this year, but unfortunatelly
we have got a serious torrential rain. Fantastic day, fantastic
experience... Transylvania is always was and will be the middle
of my heart, visited this year at least 5 occasions during
my tours, but never ever would be enough!
(31, August, 2010)
After
18 hours drive in one sitting, we find ourselves in the middle
of DCY heaven. This is one of the most wanted species of Romania,
on the brink of extinction. I am the unlucky one who had seen
the last specimens of Hungary in 2001... so it always a very
touching encounter for me. Our
good friend, Zoli stayed on the spot for two months. Here
using his last opportunity to get further specimens for a
capture-recapture project, before we take him home to Hungary. Wow...
What a gorgeous fresh specimen...
Writing
the wings... Number
380 is ready to fly... ...
and taking some rest before flying away with his new records. "Number
94", the very oldest specimen recaptured, was at least
22 old on this weekend. A
nice fresh CDY with the fingerprints of Zoli. The number is
on the other side. We
were incredibly lucky two see the white variation of CDY,
called "f. alba". I have seen two collection specimens
in my whole life, but known to be occur here by local specialists,
especially during the autumn. The
gloriously beautiful Titania's fritillary is another good
species of the area. We
also have got some incredibly rare plants during this short
hours of fieldwork, this is called Ranunculus penicillatus
and occurs at probably 1-2 places in Romania.
We
photographed this extremely rare and endemic water snail on
the way home near Oradea, which is actually its only known
location, called Melanopsis parreyssi.
