SPAIN EARLY 2017.

[LancsRover]

Hi Folks, I'm back in Spain again for my winter fix of sunshine, although we didn't see much sunshine for the first 3 or 4 days coming down from Bilbao, via Zaragoza to where we are now, just north of Benidorm, with the A23 motorway closed due to heavy SNOW!!!

Tuesday 24th January 2017. Cloud/bright. 15c light wind.
First trip out from Almafra camp site to the usual old orchard, now scrubland a 10 minute bike ride away, butterflies seen in order of appearance;
Red Admiral,
Speckled Wood(southern Europe type), x2
Small White,
Bath White
and a Humming bird Hawk moth.

Cheers Russ.

[LancsRover]

Sunday 29th January 2017, 4pm. Hazy sunshine, 15c.
A trip out to the scrubland near our camp site produced nothing at all, so I continued through the orange groves and came across a track leading to a small valley with a rocky bank. Here I found 3 or 4 Wall Browns, a Red Admiral and a Humming bird hawk moth when the sun came out for a 15 minute spell.
Things seam about 2 weeks behind where they should be for this time of year, the ground has not dried out completely and there are not the same amount of flowers out.
Rumour has it that this is the worst winter in some parts for 98 years???
Things can only get better

Russ

[NickMorgan]

Looking forward to reading about what you see Russ. It will be interesting to see the impact of the hard winter. I am sure everything will bounce back, but just a little later than normal.

[LancsRover]

Cheers Nick, yeah things should pick up once we get a few consecutive days of warm sunshine
I hope it's not too cold north of the border and your butterflies are soon on the wing.

Kind regards Russ

[LancsRover]

Monday 30th January 2017 sunny, warm 16c at 2pm.
Guadalest village and reservoir some 15 miles north of Benidorm, between 1500 and 2000 feet above sea level.
I've been here a couple of times before but it's a beautiful part of Spain and I always visit this area if I can.
We struggled to get the village due to the landslips across even the CV70 which is a major highway but the Spanish are working hard moving tons of wet soil to clear all the roads.
We parked in Guadalest village and walked down the very steep road to the reservoir, passing many Brits. rock climbing on the cliffs just outside the village, the reservoir was over flowing down the barrage wall, never seen that before.
There were a few butterflies flying but nothing stopping, probably hungry after the bad weather Spain has had so far this year, we saw 4+ Red Admirals, 3 Cleopatra, a couple of Clouded Yellows and a single Long Tailed Blue(15+ seen 2 years ago), so no pics. of butterflies but a few of Guadalest.
Russ.

[essexbuzzard]

At least somebody somewhere in Spain seems to be catching some of that rain, judging by those reservoirs! Certainly they seem better at storing what little rain they get than we do...

[Matsukaze]

If I'm interpreting this right, 25 species of butterfly were seen in Spain in January!

https://proyectolepides.wordpress.com/ropalocera/

[LancsRover]

I've now moved about 120 miles further south to La Manga, a rather large camp site on the edge of a lagoon that is connected to the "Med", I've never been here before, it's in an area of countryside that is very agricultural and after a few days out and about on my bike, I have seen very little in the way of butterflies. I'm getting the feeling that a lot of insecticides are used on the crops of cabbage, lettuce etc in the local fields.
There are plenty of wild flowers but no insects???
There are a few birds about, so I'll show you a few pics of those for now.
Russ

[bugboy]

All that blue sky is making feel very jealous

Regarding the Parakeet, it's a Monk or Quaker Parakeet, a native of Argentina but like the Ring necked Parakeets in South East England, there are many naturalised populations dotted around the Iberian Peninsular southern France and Italy. I agree about the Black Redstart as well, can't see what else it could be!

[David M]

...there are many naturalised populations dotted around the Iberian Peninsular southern France and Italy.

Indeed. I remember well the hundreds of small parrots I saw back in 2004 in the parkland around Barcelona zoo. Apparently they were deliberately released and made a hime for themselves much the same as Ring-Necked Parakeets have done in SE England.

[LancsRover]

Cheers Bugboy and David M for info. and comments.

Thursday 9th Feb. 2017, sunny 15c but quite wind.

We decided to go a little further from the campsite, away from the fields and into the coastal hills, up a steep track and into the Parque Regional Calblanque. We left our bikes at the information building, the two lovely senorita's there let us put them in a spare room, and we continued on foot down a track towards the sea some 1500 metres away.
Almost immediately we came across a Clouded Yellow, which quickly disappeared, then a Large White in a dry stream bed, then 2 or 3 Red Admiral, and I saw something small flying up from a rocky slope, as the Red Admiral flew over it, it was a lovely Mallow Skipper.
We continued all the way down to the sand dunes but there wasn't anything close to the sea, on our way back we saw 2 or 3 more Whites and a couple of Humming Bird Hawk moths which were flying very close to the ground and avoiding the flowers, very odd behaviour
So at last, after a week of searching, I have found some butterflies
Photo's attached.
Russ

[LancsRover]

Tuesday 14th Feb. 2017. Sunny, 20C.
A day out to the famous city of CARTAGENA, Hannibal's capital city on the Iberian peninsula and a strategic port for the Romans.
Just a Geranium Bronze seen(1st this year) on a tubular steel restaurant chair whilst we were have our alfresco lunch in the lovely warm sunshine but it disappeared before I could get my camera out
I did get a photo of a Peacock but it was the avian type
A few pics. of the trip below.
Russ.

[LancsRover]

Wednesday 15th Feb. 2017.
Another trip to Calblanque Reg. Par. temperature said 16c but it felt like 11/12c in the cold northerly wind, just the odd "white" flying in the very short period of time when the sun shone but I did see a little wild life munching their way across the terrain slowly.
Russ

[LancsRover]

Tuesday 21st February 2017.
Another trip on my bike to P.R. Calblanque, this time to the Salinas Del Rasall(old salt beds) just off the south shore of the parc. I haven't been to this area before, the temp was about 15c but I was plagued again by a cool 25mph wind from the north, although it was a little bit sunnier today.
I didn't see anything until I got behind a couple of large bushes and out of the wind, here I found 2 or 3 what are think are Lang's short-tailed blues, a male which was very blue in flight and a female a little less blue. There was nothing else flying apart from a few hundred small bees, then I saw their hives about 50 metres away, again plenty of flowers around but it must be the inclement weather stopping the butterflies???
Russ

[Chris Jackson]

Hi Russ,
It does look like that cool breeze is keeping the butterflies in hiding.
The closest I can get for your unnamed flower is Viper's Bugloss (or Blueweed). The flowers start off purple then turn blue. I'd be glad to hear any other suggestions.
Chris

[Mikhail]

I'd say it's Purple Viper's Bugloss Echium plantagineum.

M.

[NickMorgan]

Hi Russ,
Interesting observations about the lack of butterflies on the agricultural land and in the cool wind.
I have often noticed the same and came to the same conclusion that pesticides have probably been used on the crops. Large areas of wild flowers along the edges of fields would be devoid of butterflies and then I would spot several in a dried up miserable-looking spot!
I have also noticed how the butterflies in southern Spain just don't fly when it is cool by their standards. Anything above about 10 degrees and we see butterflies flying here in East Lothian, but those same species stay put in Spain unless the temperature breaks 20 degrees!

[Lee Hurrell]

Hi Russ

Nice to see some butterflies from Spain! It surely won't be long before things get going. I am hoping to get there myself soon.

Pretty sure your blues are LSTB, but are all male I think. Here's a female I found in Cyprus last year.

Best wishes,

Lee

[Chris Jackson]

I'd say it's Purple Viper's Bugloss Echium plantagineum.
M.

Well done Mikhaïl, Purple Viper's Bugloss looks good.

As for female L. pirithous, I agree with Lee, they should look blotchy on the forewings, like this:

Chris

[LancsRover]

First of all I must apologize for the late replies, my internet has been up and down, plus I've been going to the local medical centre everyday for the last 4 days, nothing life threatening but I won't be riding my bike in the near future
Russ

Hi Nick, Yes there are plenty of wild flowers on the edge of the fields but not much on them. The only place I've found any b/f's is in the regional park(nature reserve) and here it is still very patchy, depending on sun and temperature. The locals say that it was a wet December as well as January but with a big improvement in the weather these last few days things should now "catch up"(ever the optimist).
I must admit I've been a little disappointed with this area of southern Spain compared to what I normally see in Alcossebre(northern Spain) but it could be the bad weather??? We'll see what is happening next week when I move to Alcossebre.
I see it's gone a little cool in Scotland Nick, hopefully spring is just around the corner.
Cheers Russ


Thanks Chris and Mikhail for the flower ID.
Russ


Hi Lee, Yes you are right about them being all males, I just thought with the "female" bf photo, it might have been female because it was so much browner than the other males, that's all it was based on.
As I said earlier the weather has greatly improved the last few days so good luck with your trip
Regards Russ