Balkan Tracks

Discover somewhere new. Incredible nature, centuries of history. Come join one of our small-group tours.

[Balkan Tracks @BalkanTracks]

@rafredarrows @fletchera108 @RAFRed10 Will miss this when your training finishes next week. Can see our house here! Our little one now looks up, whether inside or outside, when he hears the rumble overhead.

[Balkan Tracks @BalkanTracks]

Brilliant image. And we can see our house in the top left! Taken above Evia looking over the south Evian gulf to the Greek mainland.

[Red Arrows @rafredarrows]

Another view of Boomerang - this time from above and taken by Circus 10, Corporal Adam Fletcher (@fletchera108), flying with @RAFRed10. #RedArrows

[Balkan Tracks @BalkanTracks]

Red-rumped swallow (Cecropis daurica), graciously showing its behind to the camera. Found throughout the Balkan peninsula each spring.

Attica, Greece.
#balkanbirds

[Balkan Tracks @BalkanTracks]

@nigel0061 Quite. Wasteland can put on a decent display given half a change.

[Balkan Tracks @BalkanTracks]

Never really noticed the ‘wasteland’ next to the supermarket car park. We did today!

[Balkan Tracks @BalkanTracks]

All about the Greek red damselfly. Endemic to Greece and also southern Albania. But no one knows exactly where. @ppnea

[Simon Leather 🔶🇪🇺 @EntoProf]

Insects and the great unknown by @garyfromleeds https://t.co/yVj1j8jixL Another great article from an @EntoMasters @HarperAdamsUni

[Balkan Tracks @BalkanTracks]

@ppnea a rare piece on a rare Albanian species. With a record (if we remember correctly) near the Blue Eye.

[Balkan Tracks @BalkanTracks]

Very little is written on the Elizabeth of the dragonfly world - the Greek red damselfly. Hardly anyone has seen them, hidden as they are in plain sight in Albania and Greece. Will @garyfromleeds spend a few springs in the old Pashalik of Ali Pasha? Maybe write an epic poem!

[Balkan Tracks @BalkanTracks]

@garyfromleeds 3/3 Third spring maybe reward yourself with a stay on the Albania coast. More castles (can't move for them). Maybe enlist @bladetail for a bit of advice on those appendages. So, start in 2021 then. See you there.

[Balkan Tracks @BalkanTracks]

@garyfromleeds 2/3 then the next spring you'd probably rent a tower house in Gjirokastra. Nice bit of UNESCO old town, good castle action, excellent food, unexplored rivers, Egyptian vultures flying around. And over the hill from the Blue Eye, another P. lizzy record spot.

[Balkan Tracks @BalkanTracks]

Managed to get a bit of footage of Red Arrow training camp. Not that easy given how blasted quick they are. You hear rumblings in the house and have to really dash out. (Promise it'll be back to our usual flying things of birds, butterflies and bugs tomorrow)

[Balkan Tracks @BalkanTracks]

The red arrows are training over our heads... in Greece. Just had nine buzz past, loop round, then buzz again. Don’t see that every day. Our seven month old particularly excited. Fair bit of noise.

[Balkan Tracks @BalkanTracks]

@garyfromleeds

[Balkan Tracks @BalkanTracks]

Our first 'snake eagle' of the year. Hovered above us, whilst we stopped to collect a bit of chamomile.

And that was feeding an interesting little beetle. At least we think it's a beetle. But can't immediately find it in Brock. ID? @garyfromleeds ?

#balkanbugs #insects #greece

[Balkan Tracks @BalkanTracks]

@garyfromleeds Ah, bravo, Gary. Not a lot online, but that looks bang on. Wonderful thing https://t.co/S7U33cJYqC

[Balkan Tracks @BalkanTracks]

@aphidman you’d think after years of cuts, and with more to come, that folks would be very happy to save bucketloads not cutting all the ‘grass’ and using it for other threatened public services instead. Even if one didn’t give two hoots about nature, just the cost of ‘keeping tidy’. Alas.

[Balkan Tracks @BalkanTracks]

Our (football) field of orchids.

100s of what we think are bumblebee orchids (Ophrys bombyliflora?) and also a serapias. (S. vomercea perhaps?)

Whilst we'd love to see kids here using the field - the neighbourhood is low on families - it being mowed once a year has advantages.

[Balkan Tracks @BalkanTracks]

@garyfromleeds Went back to the site of this morning’s breakfast and, lo and behold...

[Balkan Tracks @BalkanTracks]

Enjoying breakfast this morn and noted someone else was munching away too.

Or at least we think it's eating. Do woodlice often eat on their backs?