Day 1 ARRIVAL
The tour starts in Bratislava. We take an early scheduled flight from London to Bratislava and drive to the White Carpathians, a hilly range that extends along the Czech/Slovak border and reaches only 1,000 m.
We will have enough time to visit an extensive area of sand dunes, which is now a NATO training base, and is accessible by permit only. This fact has helped several species to survive in large numbers. Military vehicles simulate large scale ground disturbance management. Surprising number of butterflies benefit from the military presence. Ilex Hairstreak, Large Blue, Spotted Fritillary, Rock Grayling, Oriental Meadow Brown and Dusky Meadow Brown are all common in the area.
After dinner, if the weather is good, we will try to run the moth trap just outside our room windows. Species likely to be trapped are Orache, Rosy and Scarce Footman or hawk moths.
Walk: 1 mile, Drive: 110 miles
Days 2-3 WHITE CARPATHIANS and VAH RIVER VALLEY
These mountains extend along the Czech/Slovak border and reach only 3000 ft. We will sleep on the Czech side in a small and modest hotel. A pre-breakfast walk should prove an ideal time for photography with a number of grassy areas close to the hotel where several interesting species occur such as Large, Purple-edged and Scarce Copper.
After breakfast we will enjoy the wooded hilly country of White Carpathians, a UNESCO Biosphere reserve. Here extensive flowery meadows dotted with solitary trees and clusters of bushes provide diverse habitat for many butterflies. We will head for the larger reserves south from our base where host plants are best preserved. We expect a late Twin-spot Fritillary, mainly June-flying species living here on its north-western edge of distribution. Also Lesser Marbled Fritillary and Black Hairstreak have healthy populations in protected areas as well as Large Chequered Skipper. They should be accompanied with High Brown Fritillary, Blue-spot and Purple Hairstreak, Eastern Short-tailed and Chapman´s Blue, Scarce Copper, Heath and Nickerl's Fritillaries.
The real target of the day will be two of the rare blues – Dusky and Scarce Large Blue. The latter is more numerous on dry meadows with burnets. Common day-flying moths are Nine-spotted (Syntomis phegea), Clouded Buff (Diacrisia sanio) and Wood Tiger (Parasemia plantaginis).
Foothills of White Carpathians will be also explored. Alcon Blue is locally abundant but it may be too late for it. Large Copper has recently spread to virtually every corner. Meleager's Blue will be showing off and Purple and Lesser Purple Emperors will be hopefully found on the ground.
At this time most breeding birds are hard to find. Typical species are Corn Bunting, Red-backed Shrike, Black Redstart, Barred, Icterine and River Warblers, elusive Black Stork or Black Woodpecker are fairly numerous breeders here.
Local meadows rank amongst the richest in Central Europe. Mid July is a late season but we hope to admire Martagon and Orange Lilies (Lilium martagon et bulbiferum), Branched St. Bernard´s Lily (Anthericum ramosum), Yellow Flax (Linum flavum), mulleins, Clustered Bellflower (Campanula glomerata), Gladiolus imbricatus, Wolfsbane (Aconitum vulparia), European Michelmas Daisy (Aster amellus), Cyanus triumfettii, Large Self-heal (Prunella grandiflora), Mountain Germander (Teucrium montanum), scabious Scabiosa ochroleuca, Dense-flowered Orchid (Gymnadenia densiflora), Marsh Helleborine (Epipactis palustris) or Crested Cow-wheat (Melampyrum cristatum).
We will head east to Slovakia the other day and visit an attractive locality - the well-drained Tematinske Hills. These dolomite hills host good number of species that can be easily inspected from a paved road. We should be looking for Lesser Spotted Fritillary, Lesser Purple Emperor and Polyommatus slovacus, former split from Chalk-hill Blue now regarded as a two generation form of the latter. The walk is very mild and we will be able to focus on other local butterflies including Woodland Grayling, Sloe Hairstreak, Turquoise Blue and Lulworth Skipper.
Many flowers growing on the limestone soil will already in seeds but we should come across the endemic pink (Dianthus lumnitzeri), Hen-and-chickens Houseleek (Jovibarba sobolifera) and the attractive vetch (Astragalus onobrychis). Additionally, on dikes along the River Vah, we will try to use pheromones to lure some of the local clearwings, the Dusky Clearwing being the most interesting of them.
Latter in the day we will explore an area where the endangered Danube Clouded Yellow still survives. Search for this handsome species extinct in all neighbouring countries will conclude the day.
Walks: 1-2 miles each day, Drive: 50 miles each day
Day 4 TRANSFER TO TATRAS
Our first stop of the day will be at steep limestone cliff in NE White Carpathians that can be reached by bus. No climbing is needed as the road cuts the cliff. Here we should be rewarded by sightings of Apollos flying gracefully above meadows. This place also has a population of Mountain Green-veined White which together with Large Blue, Eastern Baton Blue and Geranium Argus we will hope to locate.
After some driving we approach the Chocske hills and make a break for lunch and also a brief excursion. Former village pasture usually hosts some nice flowers and butterflies ranging from Turquoise Blue to Red Underwing Skipper.
Walk: 2 miles, Drive: 200 miles
Day 5 THE HIGH TATRAS
We will make our way up into the High Tatras Mountains National Park. The park includes the largest peaks in the Carpathian Range, some as high as 8000 feet (2650 metres), and embraces a wide diversity of habitats including jagged granite and limestone pinnacles, alpine meadows, over 100 glacial lakes and vast expanses of spruce and mixed forest. Our explorations here will take us high up into the alpine zone.
For the next two nights we will be based in the village of Zdiar, an opportunity to explore the peaceful mountain meadows and conifer forests that are backed by the towering and jagged limestone peaks of the Belanske Tatras range.
We will set on our whole day excursion at around 8AM. We start some 5 miles from our base and ascent from 1000m up to saddles in the Belanske Tatras (1750m and 1825m). Our planned journey is around 7-8 miles long. There will be a lot to see from the very beginning and, of course, it will be possible to walk at your own pace or return back at any point. The walking is not too strenuous. At the beginning we will explore small valley of a mountain stream with Dippers in it and Common Rosefinches along the trail. Later we reach our first meadow and then through the mountain forest to the alpine zone.
This is the best time of the year for alpine flowers of this region. We can find many mid summer species such as Mountain Lentil (Astragalus penduliflorus), Pallid Milk-vetch (Astragalus frigidus), Alpine Milk-vetch (Astragalus alpinus), Austrian Milk-vetch (Astragalus austriacus) and Norwegian Milk-vetch (Astragalus norvegicus), Silky Milk-vetch (Oxytropis halleri), Yellow Milk-vetch (Oxytropis campestris) and Oxytropis carpatica, Glacier Pink (Dianthus glacialis) and Dianthus superbus, Styrian Gentian (Gentiana frigida) and Gentianella lutescens, Delphinium oxysepalum, Aconitum firmum, Linum extraaxillare, Alpine Pansy (Viola alpina), Edelweis (Leontopodium alpinum), Malaxis monophyllos, and False Orchid (Chamorchis alpina). Above the tree-line, we will also search the meadows for Spotted Gentian (Gentiana punctata), Alpine Bellflower (Campanula alpina), Campanula tatrae and Fairy´s Thimble (Campanula cochleariifolia). It is very probable that we will observe very endangered Tatra race of the Chamois living their precarious existence on the mountain crags.
In mid July it is the right time for the high altitude butterflies. We will have a good chance of finding both Blind, Dewy and Mountain Ringlets, Shepherd´s Fritillary and Mountain Green-veined White plus nominate race of Purple-shot Copper and perhaps Water or Silky Ringlet.
As we will descend from the saddle to the forests at lower altitude we can hope to see many other flowers like Large Yellow Foxglove (Digitalis grandiflora), Sudeten Violet (Viola sudetica), Marsh Felwort (Swertia perennis), or Alpine Clematis (Clematis alpina) and Chequered Skipper that disappears in June at lower elevations. After a full day of exploration of this spectacular region we will return to our hotel for second night.
Birds possible to see are Nutcracker, Three-toed Woodpecker, Crested Tit, Firecrest, Crossbill and Goshawk. Golden Eagles often soaring over the crags looking for Marmots whilst at ground level we may find Water Pipits perched low above the ground.
We will spend our second morning in the Tatras at lower elevation. A brief excursion will take us to meadows and mires where several butterflies thrive. We hope to see Arran Brown, False Heath, Pearl-bordered and Cranberry Fritillaries. Flower highlight of this habitat will be king of the local heathland, the magnificent Moor King Pedicularis sceptrum-carolinum. Lesser Spotted Eagle could be nice bonus before we give farewell to the Tatras. We then continue to Slovak Karst.
Days 6-7 SLOVAK KARST
This day we have to transfer ourselves to the last base in Slovak Karst (2hours).
We now travel south to the Slovak Karst, which is an open landscape of seven large limestone plateaux steeply rising from broad valleys, mainly covered with woodlands, forest-steppe and diminishing pastures. It is a dry, sunny region, and the outstanding plant community here displays a correspondingly eastern quality, while the butterflies are more typical of regions further south with few but exceptions from the east.
Our hotel is found 5 minute walk from a nature reserve and has grassland just outside. Many insects are attracted by the light of terrace bulbs and we can expect dozens of moths coming into our trap on a good night.
The Slovak Karst was formerly less wooded than today but still provides good conditions for many species, some of which prefer light forests and forest fringes. We will be looking for Scotch Argus, Woodland and Great Banded Grayling, Large Tortoiseshell, Camberwell Beauty, White Admiral and Common and Hungarian Gliders as they hawk gracefully along the woodland edges. Adonis, Large, Eastern Baton, Chequered, Little and Idas Blue, Purple-shot Copper, Dryad, Large Grizzled Skipper and a host of fritillaries including Silver-washed, Niobe and Lesser Spotted rather prefer more open habitats. We have recorded 60 species in Slovak Karst on one July afternoon. Butterflies often gather in large numbers on a moist ground in summer heat and we hope to witness this phenomenon.
On one day, we will walk up through a deeply cut valley, with beech forest and forest-steppe which are typical of this area, slowly climbing to the large plateau from where we will spend the rest of the day slowly descending towards our coach.
Slovak Karst holds outstanding flora. Many flowers are out much earlier in the season but they can be still in flower like Turna Golden Drop (Onosma tornense), local endemic that comes to full blossom in mid June. A host of other colourful and localised species will include Pannonicum Thyme (Thymus pannonicus), Onosma visianii, Asyneuma canescens, Cyanus triumfetti, Yellow Monkshood (Aconitum anthora), Hairy Flax (Linum hirsutum), Erysimum pallidiflorum, endemic Campanula xylocarpa and Carpathian Bell (Campanula carpatica).
Birds here can include occasional Imperial Eagle and Saker drifting over the slopes. Dipper, Red-backed Shrike, Barred and Marsh Warbler, Rock Bunting, Crested Lark, Wryneck, Grey-headed and Syrian Woodpecker, Hawfinch and Golden Oriole all occur in wider environs of our hotel.
Day 8 DEPARTURE
We transfer to the airport at Bratislava for an afternoon homeward flight. Journey back takes about 5 hours and we will do only short comfort stops.
