Holiday to Spain part 5b

[Philzoid]

And so, my big day arrived but I didn’t get off as early as I would’ve liked as I needed to ensure that everyone else would be OK, had enough money etc.
I’d been thinking of following in Nick Morgan’s footsteps and going to the Sierra Nevada but chickened out over the distance involved . I convinced myself that the smaller (and nearer), Sierras de Tejeda (national park) would be just as good. Judging on what Nick saw it wasn’t …. but it was a great adventure nonetheless .

So, it was around 10:00 when I set off taking the A-7 E-15 east around Malaga exiting at Velez Malaga and heading north on the A402 with the road gradually climbing into the mountains. The hope that the landscape would become more verdant in the upper elevations soon disappeared. However, I took every opportunity to pull in wherever possible (lay-bys were virtually non-existent), take in the scenery and search the scrubby verges for butterflies. Stops were made at or around Vinuela; Venta de Zafarraya; La Alcaiceria and Alhama de Granada. The roads were an absolute pleasure to drive, deserted and winding through stunning landscapes like you see in our car adverts (but which don’t really exist ).

Heading to Venta de Zafarraya

I entered the small town of Venta d Zafarraya to check my map and an area of waste ground with weeds. The quiet was broken by a tethered guard dog barking at my approach and then (more significantly) by a motorcyclist who had stopped beside my parked car and had then felt the need to stand there revving his bike to the limit .

The spot didn’t turn out fruitful but a female Common Blue made for my first photo capture of the day.

I soon moved on, passing along straight roads through flat farmland fields before arriving at a 90 degree bend by a hotel at La Alcaiceria with another opportunity to pull in . Bean plants on trusses grew in the field next to where I’d parked the car. Across the road a ring wall, housed a white horse and some cattle. It had the feel of a scene from a spaghetti western.

Amongst the rows of bean plants, I spotted some fast flying blues (possibly/probably Long-tailed Blues) going in and out of the rows but they didn’t settle. Then a Clouded Yellow flew by and I thought I could be here a while . Though tempted to walk in and out the rows of crops it might have left me with some difficult explaining to do if the farmer found me so I decided to keep around the edges. There was quite a dense stand of herbaceous weeds (including willowherb) in flower as well as the usual scrubbier plants on the roadside verge.

The first butterflies I came across were Small (or Southern Small) Whites and I was pleased to get a shot of a Small White (Pieris rapae) feeding. The next butterfly was a first for the holiday: - Lycaena phlaes a Small Copper .. in fact two Small Coppers with the first one being a bit on the tattered side .

Small White

Pieris sp.

A striking Plant bug Spilostethus pandurus

Brown Argus and Common Blue were present too : -

Brown or Southern Brown?

There were skippers from the Grizzled Skipper group. This time I think the species is Pyrgus onopordi Rosy Grizzled Skipper (and a lifer if so) with which I struggled to get decent shots. Unlike the Sage Skippers I’d encountered previously these were more inclined to close their wings perhaps helping with the i.d.

Rosy Grizzled Skipper ?

Despite wanting that illusive upper-wing Skipper shot and hanging on in the vain hope of another Clouded Yellow turning up, I knew it was time to move on (if not just to get some respite from the heat). It didn’t take long after I’d set off again for another promising looking pull-in spot to present itself. The A-402 road at this point had started to twist and climb back up again into hills and mountains. Either side of my stop-off it was flanked by scrubby forest.

On Woody thistle flowers skippers abounded . These were the familiar (I hope I’m right on this) Sage Skippers.

Concentrating on the skippers I almost missed another butterfly nectaring on a woody thistle some 5 yards away, a large Fritillary …. a Cardinal and another lifer . Without thinking I raised my Canon macro combi and took a few snaps. I was shooting in full manual as usual, and in my excitement forgot to check and adjust the exposure for this butterfly was in part shade. The pics had to be cropped and reworked as they were under-exposed. After a few distance snaps, I decided to close-in slowly but the moment I moved the butterfly immediately took-off and disappeared across the other side of the road not to be seen again … drat .

part 5c to follow soon

[Chris Jackson]

A good story line, Phil.
And your IDs look good to me!!
I could do with some out-of-season holidays in that place.
Chris

[Philzoid]

A good story line, Phil.And your IDs look good to me!!

Thanks for endorsing my ID's. The anvil marking on the skipper's underside hind-wing is why I went for onopordi. Some more lifers in the next part (tomorrow).

It is a great place for a holiday as you can have a bit of everything, sun sea sand; food and drink; visit wonderful town and cities and find remote places to explore in the countryside. Plus some of the nature turns up on your doorstep literally.

[Padfield]

Hi Philzoid. I haven't been able to keep up with all your Spanish posts, as I've been busy with less interesting stuff. But it's interesting to see what you found and many of your observations match what I found on my own Spanish trip this summer. I was surprised to see rosy grizzled skipper laying on mallow, then looked in the books and found this is the foodplant in Spain. Your rosy is on mallow. I was also intrigued to see cardinals clinging to the shade, even roosting in deep shade in the middle of the day. You seem to have had a similar experience. Spain is a wonderful country, with lots of endemic species and subspecies, as well as fascinating behaviour in response to the extreme heat (especially this summer).

Guy

[Wurzel]

A cracking set of Skippers Philzoid and Cardinals as well - you really did play down your sightings on the trip, they're definitely worthy of a few more

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Hard to see what else it could be but onopordi, Phil. That heavy outline of the anvil mark on the underside pretty much rules out anything else. Nice Sage Skippers by the way.....a species I'm yet to see!

[Philzoid]

A cracking set of Skippers Philzoid and Cardinals as well - you really did play down your sightings on the trip, they're definitely worthy of a few more

Thanks Wurzel. I did (slightly ) underestimate my lifers in the first instance until their ID's became clear. The Cardinal was a bonus but a disappointment too as it didn't hang around. At the time I thought it could've been Silver-washed (I've seen this butterfly in Nerja Southern Spain in 2009) and was thankful the pictures showed just enough to confirm it's true identity

Hard to see what else it could be but onopordi, Phil. That heavy outline of the anvil mark on the underside pretty much rules out anything else. Nice Sage Skippers by the way.....a species I'm yet to see!

Thanks for the confirmation David The outlined anvil marking was the id indicator for me. Sage Skippers were much more common in my time out there and in retrospect larger than the onopordi too .

Phil

[Philzoid]

I was also intrigued to see cardinals clinging to the shade, even roosting in deep shade in the middle of the day. You seem to have had a similar experience. Spain is a wonderful country, with lots of endemic species and subspecies, as well as fascinating behaviour in response to the extreme heat (especially this summer).

Big apologies Guy, I somehow missed your post
The heat factor played a huge part in the butterfly’s behaviour. Initially noticeable was the Speckled Wood (although they often keep in more shaded spots) and the Pieris rapae taking ‘naps’ on the shady side of the apartment block. The Cardinal made off into the trees after re-fuelling then there was the Wall (“I’m not coming out in that”) at Cabopino; the Dusky heath and that Meadow Brown form hispulla which exhibited the type of behaviour documented for a Dusky Meadow Brown, sticking to deep shade. Finally, the colony (bar one ‘degenerate’) of Brown Argus under the shade of a tree by a roadside

On very hot days here in Woking I’ve had Peacock fly into my shed when the door is left open, presumably to seek refuge from the heat. The butterflies have got more sense than the ‘butterflyers’ when it’s too hot .

I was surprised to see rosy grizzled skipper laying on mallow, then looked in the books and found this is the foodplant in Spain. Your rosy is on mallow.

Thanks for pointing out the onopordi food-plant. Though I hadn’t given it much attention it had crossed my mind it might be mallow. I think it had a yellow flower rather than pink

Phil