SW Andalucia - 5th to 9th October 2021

[David M]

My thanks to fellow UKB member Pete Smith for providing some site information 3 years ago regarding this southernmost area of Spain which was sufficient for me to make a last minute decision to visit given the prolonged spell of unfavourable weather we were experiencing in the UK.

The government had announced that from Oct 4th there would be no requirement to self-test prior to returning home from non-red foreign destinations, so I duly checked out flights and hotels in the Tarifa area and ended up on the 6am flight from Bristol to Malaga on the 5th with Easyjet, returning on the 810pm flight with Ryanair on the 9th.

I still had to purchase a Day 2 PCR test, but the difference with this is that you can take it once you have returned meaning that if it is positive you are able to self isolate at home.

I opted for a hotel about 7km north of Tarifa, and at just £260 for 4 nights (which included breakfast and evening meal) it proved to be excellent value.

At this time of year, the weather is still sunny and warm in this region (between 24c and 27c), and whilst most butterfly species are either done for the year or coming to an end, there are several that persist and even continue through the winter months, and it was these I most wished to find.

Here are a few images of the views to be seen in the area:

[David M]

I had my hire car by 10.35am, and the journey from Malaga to Tarifa was quicker than I had anticipated, meaning that I was able to find time to head for a coastal site 10km beyond my hotel prior to checking in.

The butterfly I'd come to see was Monarch, and I actually saw one as I was opening my boot to extract my camera stuff from my suitcase. By the time I'd got myself organised however, it had flown on, although it didn't take long to find more, as the larval host plant, milkweed, was growing all over the place in the damper gullies of the site.

I saw 10 in total in around an hour and a half, although being such a huge butterfly, it was almost impossible to get open wing shots. Generally, they were settling with wings closed or part-closed, and given the fairly strong coastal breeze they were surprisingly tricky to photograph.

[petesmith]

Excellent David - glad you found the Monarchs - they are always a fantastic species to spend time with!

Without pre-empting your next post, I hope that I know what's coming next...

[Matsukaze]

There are almost always at least some butterflies on the wing in the far south of Spain - not just the migrants you might expect, but also whites, Wall Brown, Small Copper and maybe Speckled Wood.

We were in this area in February 2010. We had directions to a site for Monarchs which turned out to be round the back of a nightclub on a particularly desolate patch of coastal development - plenty of discarded condoms but no butterflies. It was that week when I saw my first Spanish Festoons, though, so the area can be forgiven to a certain degree.

[Andy02]

I always see them in multi 10s in Paloma Park , Benalmedena. I have even seen odd ones Xmas week there.

[David M]

Excellent David - glad you found the Monarchs - they are always a fantastic species to spend time with!

Without pre-empting your next post, I hope that I know what's coming next...

They're quite something aren't they, Pete?

It felt quite bizarre to see them flying around casually on European soil, but conditions are acceptable for them to complete their life cycle successfully this far south and long may that continue!

[David M]

There are almost always at least some butterflies on the wing in the far south of Spain - not just the migrants you might expect, but also whites, Wall Brown, Small Copper and maybe Speckled Wood.

We were in this area in February 2010. We had directions to a site for Monarchs which turned out to be round the back of a nightclub on a particularly desolate patch of coastal development - plenty of discarded condoms but no butterflies. It was that week when I saw my first Spanish Festoons, though, so the area can be forgiven to a certain degree.

Yes, Chris, there were quite a few 'common' species around although most of the flowering plants had gone over. Shame about your own experience back in 2010. I'm pleased to say the location Pete gave me was a relative oasis of greenery with not a nightclub in sight!!

[Padfield]

Looking forward to the rest, David! It's worth the trip just for monarchs, but I can guess a few more species you were hoping to see - and which I suspect you saw. I've never actually been to Tarifa. I lived in Gibraltar for a while almost 40 years ago and frequently pop back to that part of the world, but even when I've stayed in Algeciras I've always gone east rather than west. Like Gibraltar, Tarifa is a funnel for migrant birds and I imagine at the beginning of October you will have seen quite a few wanderers from the UK passing overhead on their journeys south.

I hope my guesses are right ...

Guy

[David M]

I always see them in multi 10s in Paloma Park , Benalmedena. I have even seen odd ones Xmas week there.

I think they can be reliably found almost anywhere where the lhp grows, Andy. I know there are plenty of colonies around Marbella, and on this trip I also saw a couple well inland in places I didn't expect them.

[David M]

Looking forward to the rest, David! It's worth the trip just for monarchs, but I can guess a few more species you were hoping to see - and which I suspect you saw. I've never actually been to Tarifa. I lived in Gibraltar for a while almost 40 years ago and frequently pop back to that part of the world, but even when I've stayed in Algeciras I've always gone east rather than west. Like Gibraltar, Tarifa is a funnel for migrant birds and I imagine at the beginning of October you will have seen quite a few wanderers from the UK passing overhead on their journeys south.

I hope my guesses are right ...

I'm sure your guesses are indeed correct, Guy. The only species I didn't see which I thought I might was Two Tailed Pasha.

You're right about the migratory birds. I went up to the observatory a few km north of Tarifa on one afternoon and there were plenty travelling south (hundreds of swallows mainly).

Tarifa appealed because it's the southernmost point of the European continental landmass. It's an interesting place with a decent sized port and a fascinating island which, sadly, is not open to visitors at the moment.

[David M]

This oasis where the Monarchs live was alive with other butterfly species too. Here's an overview from part-way up the hillside:

The plant of interest was asclepias curassavica:

It isn't just Monarch that uses this as an LHP, there were also plenty of Plain Tigers investigating it too. I saw 40-60 on this first afternoon, although they were extremely flighty and getting decent images was almost impossible:

Occasionally, these two species would bump into one another, but in truth they showed little interest in jousting:

[aeshna5]

Lovely shots from an area I did my last foreign trip. I noticed that Dittrichia viscosa, the yellow flower above, was a very popular nectar plant for butterflies & other insects.

[David M]

Thanks, Aeshna. Yes, that plant (Sticky Inula is its common name, I think) was just about the only thing in full flower, and unsurprisingly most butterflies were spending time nectaring from it.

[David M]

During this relatively brief excursion, I saw a total of 14 different species, with 3 of them being lifers. Clearly, Monarch was the main attraction, but I also found False Mallow Skipper, C.Tripolinus, for the first time:

I also came across Southern (or Austaut's) Blue, both male and female:

A couple of African Grass Blues were seen on the grassy slope:

Lang's Short Tailed Blue was the commonest species, with around 100 seen:

There were at least half a dozen Clouded Yellows:

The other species were Small White, Long Tailed Blue, Bath White, Brimstone, Cardinal, Swallowtail & Mediterranean Skipper.

[selbypaul]

Thanks as ever David for sharing your trip report. I wouldn't have imagined an early October trip would have been so productive. Your three "lifer" species are all species I've not yet seen, with Mediterranean Skipper being a fourth for me also. Well worth a visit!

[David M]

Thanks as ever David for sharing your trip report. I wouldn't have imagined an early October trip would have been so productive. Your three "lifer" species are all species I've not yet seen, with Mediterranean Skipper being a fourth for me also. Well worth a visit!

Cheers, Paul. Yes, it's a combination of location and time of year - I only saw 25 species but one fifth of those were lifers. I'd recommend a visit down here to anyone; it's relatively cheap and with daytime temperatures around 25c and night-time lows of 16c, conditions are near perfect.

[David M]

After this extremely pleasant 90 minutes or so, I headed back in the direction of my hotel, stopping at a cafe on the way which was located at a mirador which provided excellent views across the water towards Morocco:

After checking in, I spent 20 minutes or so exploring the scrubby ground adjacent to my hotel. I was delighted to find this male Holly Blue, bringing my first day's total to 15 species:

[David M]

It only gets properly light here at 8.15am at this time of year, so I took a leisurely breakfast before heading back down to the same coastal site at 9.40 to hopefully see the Monarchs and Plain Tigers behaving a little more co-operatively.

I decided to walk through the grassy roadside area first:

The Plain Tigers, when they finally appeared, were just as flighty as they'd been the previous afternoon, but this female Monarch was more accommodating:

This Long Tailed Blue was equally restful:

I thought I'd spotted another Mediterranean Skipper so I moved in to take an image, only to realise that I was looking at a Zeller's Skipper, one of the main targets of my trip:

Pete S had warned me to look out for them anywhere on the coast and I duly ended up seeing two.

Meadow Brown and Painted Lady turned up too, taking my tally now to 18 species. Just before noon, I decided to drive to Zahara to check out what was around further up the coast:

This was a nice spot, but I didn't find any Zeller's Skippers here, although a tatty male Silver Washed Fritillary made an appearance:

[petesmith]

David I am so glad that you found Zeller's Skipper at that spot! Great to know that they seem to be established there, even if only in small numbers. I am hoping you saw more elsewhere...I shall await further installments with eager anticipation
By the way - are you sure that ragged SW Frit isn't a tatty Cardinal?

[selbypaul]

Wow, that Zeller's Skipper really does look very different to anything else, doesn't it! The guide books just don't do it justice!