Setting off from Melnik at 7:00am, we drove for 40 minutes to our site today: Kozhuh Hill, the remnant of an extinct volcano. It was extremely hot and dry, so we didn't see a great deal.

A Freyer' Grayling, quite an uncommon species, but one we'd seen here previously, was the most interesting butterfly, but frustratingly it refused to land anywhere except on our clothes, bags or hats! Other good finds were the attractive Bloodword Burnet (Zygaena laeta), and the longhorn beetle Purpuricenus budensis. Butterflies included Lesser Spotted Fritillary, Small Copper and Small Heath, and the best birds were Woodchat Shrike, Black Stork, Hoopoe and Black-headed Bunting. We were also pleased to see an adult male Balkan Green Lizard, and a young Hermann's Tortoise.

The highlight of the day was seeing 7 Bronze Glandular Bush-cricket (Bradyporus dasypus), a rare and impressive species endemic to the Balkans. We'd seen the species here on previous visits, but never this number. All seven were on the path itself, so had we explored further we surely would have found more. Spurred on by these and the lack of much else to see, I spent more time than I usually would photographing the Orthoptera at the site, coming up with White-faced Bush Cricket (Decticus albifrons), Blue-winged Grasshopper (Oedipoda caerulescens), Meadow Grasshopper (Pseudochorthippus parallelus), and (probably) Calliptamus barbarus.

At 10:30am we drove on a short way to Rupite hot springs, but didn't stay long as there was not much to see, just a few Black-tailed Skimmer and Southern Skimmer. As we didn't have anything particular planned for the afternoon, and given how hot it was, we decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel.