Because I had to cancel my birthday trip last week, it was decided to move it to the following week. As it took three hours, weather conditions slightly shifted from clear to moderately cloudy skies and from very weak to moderately strong winds by the time the trip ended, with temperatures peaking at 25°C (12:02 PM).
+-------------------------+---------------------------------+--------+ | Species | Location | Status | +-------------------------+---------------------------------|--------+ | Aglais io | Meisel (South) | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Argynnis paphia | Meisel (West / South) | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Celastrina argiolus | Meisel (South) | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Coenonympha pamphilus | Meisel (West / South) | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Lasiommata megera | Meisel (South) | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Lycaena phlaeas | Meisel (South) | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Maniola jurtina | Meisel (West / South) | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Melanargia galathea | Meisel (West / South) | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Pieris brassicae | Meisel (South) | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Pieris napi | Meisel (South) | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Pieris rapae | Meisel (West / South) | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Polyommatus coridon | Meisel (South) | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Polyommatus icarus | Meisel (South) | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Thymelicus acteon | Meisel (South) | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Thymelicus lineola | Meisel (South) | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Thymelicus sylvestris | Meisel (South) | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Vanessa atalanta | Meisel (West / South) | Adult) | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Aeshna cyanea | Meisel (West) | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Sympetrum sanguineum | Meisel (West) | Adult | +-------------------------+---------------------------------+--------+
First a brief description of the area: Unlike during the previous trips, my usual spot was not visited and instead I wanted to take the whole route encircling the forest. While the western area was fully accessible to me, after roughly 700 meters along the southern side of the Meisel the path suddenly ended and I could only follow the way left behind by some car tyres. After having walked half of the southern part of this "path", I was forced to cross an area largely covered in young bushes and a dead tree dangerously looming above what used to be the rest of this path. Crossing the area eventually became less cumbersome, yet once I reached the southeastern brink of the Meisel, there was not even a hint of a path left. What once used to be a path for tourists got claimed by a large corn field. Going all the way back, I noticed the signs ironically misleading everyone, even if the old path still were to exist. Just 1.5 out of the stated three kilometers were studied.
With two damselflies dominating the western brink of the forest, most butterflies naturally preferred the southern side, despite it largely lacking a decent amount of nectar plants. Due to this lack, the invasive great globe thistle has begun to take over various spots, which appears to be highly popular among A. paphia, bumblebees and some moths.
After a little more than one kilometer, i made my very first observations of L. phlaeas and females of P. coridon. Overall, the entire path was dominated by A. paphila and C. pamphilus, followed by T. sylvestris and T. lineola. Only on my way back to my starting point I managed to identify one T. acteon.
Despite the rather huge amount of observations I made despite of the state of this area, it still is disappointing to have discovered an official hiking path to be in such a castrophic state. Flora-wise, the only significant observation I ended up making was a large amount of common oaks and few durmast oaks dominating the southern parts of this rather tiny forest. Sadly, most of them were inaccessible to me.