Picos de Europa, NW Spain - 6th to 12th July 2021

[petesmith]

Easily the most numerous was our own galathea; the Cantabrian ones looking much like ours too rather than the much darker form I'm used to seeing in the French Alps.

I wasn't sure whether they occurred in these mountains, but they certainly do - hundreds of them, although they didn't overlap much with the other two in this group:

60. Esper's Marbled White
61. Iberian Marbled White
62. Marbled White

David - again your experience mirrored ours from a couple of years back. In fact we didn't see any overlap at all between galathea and lachesis. The puerto de San Glorio seemed to form a natural barrier separating the two - to the east and north east of this pass we found only galathea, whereas to the west and sout-west only lachesis (and russiae).

[David M]

I never saw russaie alongside galathea, but I did see lachesis flying with galathea at a site just 5km or so outside Potes.

I take your point about the general boundary being Puerto de San Glorio though. That seems to be a 'Maginot' line for several species in the region.

[David M]

Nymphalidae - Browns

At times, it was like being in the UK with Meadow Browns, Marbled Whites and Ringlets regularly cropping up in numbers at various sites.

I was pleased to see a few Spanish Gatekeepers, and my first sightings were on a part cloudy day, meaning they were often settling with open wings:

It was only towards the end of my trip that I saw Hedge Browns (fewer than a dozen of them).

A few Large Wall Browns seen, but they were always too frisky to get near. Our own Wall Browns were present too, sometimes alongside their larger cousins. I finally managed to get an image of a female:

Speckled Woods were encountered quite frequently too:

68. Large Wall Brown
69. Wall Brown
70. Speckled Wood
71. Meadow Brown
72. Ringlet
73. Spanish Gatekeeper
74. Gatekeeper

[David M]

Hesperiidae

A bit hit and miss with this group. There were good numbers of golden skippers, and quite a few Lulworths in the right habitat:

The odd Red Underwing Skipper would turn up now and again:

I stumbled upon a couple of Mallow Skippers on my final day:

A handful of lovely Marbled Skippers were found at altitude:

[David M]

Hesperiidae, cont...

Apart from the Fuente Dé plateau, I saw relatively few pyrgus. At least two Oberthur's seen at lower altitude:

Several that looked like Large Grizzled Skippers from the uppersides, and a few more that looked good via their undersides:

There were quite a few Safflower Skippers higher up:

I probably did see Olive Skipper, but a trawl through my images hasn't found clear evidence of any, so I'll have to leave that off the list.

75. Large Skipper
76. Small Skipper
77. Essex Skipper
78. Lulworth Skipper
79. Marbled Skipper
80. Red Underwing Skipper
81. Mallow Skipper
82. Dingy Skipper
83. Oberthur's Grizzled Skipper
84. Large Grizzled Skipper
85. Safflower Skipper

[David M]

Aside from the butterflies, this trip was notable for the beautiful, green landscape and impressive mountains. The area receives much more rainfall than most of the rest of Spain, and in July temperatures are generally very comfortable (although wall to wall sunshine is far from guaranteed!)

I'm not a birder, but there are many interesting species here, with raptors frequently seen and even storks following the tractors which cut the grass:

It's also a lot cheaper than France - my accommodation in a 3 star hotel was just €50 per night, and a three course meal in the town square (which included a bottle of wine) cost just €15.

There is also a mosaic of habitats in a relatively small area, ranging from montane to dry, arid scrub. This explains how so many species can be recorded in just 6 days, even if 2021 seemed to be a relatively poor year for butterflies.

[Benjamin]

Having been away from these pages for a few weeks I’ve only just caught up with this David. A real pleasure to read your interesting and highly informative report - thanks so much for taking the time to write it up so thoroughly.

[David M]

Having been away from these pages for a few weeks I’ve only just caught up with this David. A real pleasure to read your interesting and highly informative report - thanks so much for taking the time to write it up so thoroughly.

Thanks, Ben. The visit was an absolute pleasure and writing it up reinforces the memories.