Spain - 21 April to 3 May 2022

[Chris L]

I am enjoying the thread David and seeing for the first time relatives of the butterflies that I know here.

My favourite so far has been the Common Tiger Blue. What a lovely looking butterfly.

The initial first few days with the weather must have been extremely frustrating. Brisk winds, quite cool and lots of cloud.

[David M]

Common Tiger Blue was undoubtedly one of the highlights, Otep, and we were lucky that the weather was sunny and calm on the day we travelled west otherwise we'd have missed it. I believe SE Spain hasn't experienced spring weather like this for over 20 years!!

[David M]

Montes Universales - 29 April

After the excitement with the Spring Ringlets, we moved on to the grassy site at Noguera. This was a judicious move, as there were more butterflies concentrated here than we'd seen since we arrived.

Highlight of the afternoon was finding this Iberian Sooty Copper:

There were a handful of Panoptes Blues too:

Peacocks, Painted Ladies, Brimstones and Orange Tips made it feel a little like home, but to remind us we were on the continent there were also Provence Orange Tips, Large Tortoiseshells and Cleopatras:

Without doubt, this was the best day of the trip thus far.

[David M]

Montes Universales - 30 April

This morning, Jon and I were joined by our Spanish friend and regular co-guide, Pau, and his wife. We headed for El Vallecillo but on the way we were shocked when several dark butterflies flew across the road along a 200m stretch of the highway at about 1,500m.

We strongly suspected they were Spring Ringlets and we resolved to stop on the way back. In the meantime, we found a solitary epistygne at Vallecillo, providing evidence that this butterfly is quite widespread in the region.

We had another Large Tortoiseshell sighting, with this one settling for a photo opportunity:

After lunch, we drove down to the nearby chorrera where we found these Western Dappled Whites in cop:

As planned, we stopped at the side of the main road on the way back, and found a strong colony of Spring Ringlets. Between us, Jon & I counted 26 individuals in just 20 minutes, in largely cloudy conditions with the sound of thunder in the distance:

I strongly suspect that on a sunny, warm day there would be hundreds flying here. One for another time, perhaps.

[selbypaul]

"For another time perhaps" - indeed!

[Matsukaze]

Andalusia looked more like Mars in early March.

Lovely Spring Ringlets, one of my favourites, hoping to see them later this week. Glad you got to see them in numbers.

[David M]

"For another time perhaps" - indeed!

I could have said "next April", Paul.

[David M]

Andalusia looked more like Mars in early March.

Lovely Spring Ringlets, one of my favourites, hoping to see them later this week. Glad you got to see them in numbers.

Sure did, Chris. They were probably grateful for the rain to wash it all away!

Good luck with your jaunt to France.

[David M]

Los Monegros - 1 May

I got up at 6.15 this morning in order to leave Albarracin at 7am. As I poked my head out onto my balcony at 6.40am I noticed Venus and Jupiter in close proximity by the church steeple:

We were travelling to the foothills of the Pyrenees, near the town of Jaca, but after missing out on Spanish Greenish Black Tip at Baza, we decided to travel north via Los Monegros to see if we could track down the northern colonies of this heavyweight rarity.

By 10.30, we had arrived. The weather was the best we'd had since we arrived and the view was lovely:

By 11.30 the site was positively steaming with butterflies, and it wasn't long after that we saw our first Greenish Black Tip. In all, we saw 10 between us, although they were constantly airborne so the only shots I could get were in-flight ones:

[Chris L]

Your thread continues to be a source of interest and learning to me David. Thank you for sharing the photos and information. Unsurprisingly, I had not heard of the Greenish Black Tip. I had a look at it via Google. Amongst all of the nail varnish images, I saw a really splendid looking butterfly. My instant thought that it was a lemon colour and indeed, I later read that it is also known as the Lemon White, though that name was on Wiki so the usual caveats apply.

[Stevieb]

Los Monegros - 1 May

we saw our first Greenish Black Tip. In all, we saw 10 between us, although they were constantly airborne so the only shots I could get were in-flight ones:

David, that must have been so frustrating. I'd be pulling my hair out!

[David M]

Your thread continues to be a source of interest and learning to me David. Thank you for sharing the photos and information. Unsurprisingly, I had not heard of the Greenish Black Tip. I had a look at it via Google. Amongst all of the nail varnish images, I saw a really splendid looking butterfly. My instant thought that it was a lemon colour and indeed, I later read that it is also known as the Lemon White, though that name was on Wiki so the usual caveats apply.

Thanks, Otep. Until this year, I had no experience of either of the European Greenish Black Tips, but having now seen both Eastern and Spanish within the space of a calendar month, I can vouch for just how different they are from all other European species, although their propensity to remain airborne is a notable frustration, but one which I am determined to overcome as soon as practicable.

[David M]

David, that must have been so frustrating. I'd be pulling my hair out!

An occupational hazard, Steve, albeit a particularly unwelcome one.

It just makes me double-down and become more determined, to be honest.

[David M]

Los Monegros - 1 May

The heat peaked at 26c this afternoon, so it's not surprising that this was the best day in terms of butterfly numbers; we were almost tripping over them, with several species appearing for the first time:

Western Marbled White:

Berger's Clouded Yellow:

Swallowtail:

Knapweed Fritillary:

Tufted Marbled Skipper:

There were several Sooty Orange Tips too, although getting within 20m of them in the heat was impossible. Even Jon's sophisticated camera couldn't get a clear image. They were bombing around the fields like Lamborghinis and would settle only briefly on the lhp, hoary mustard, which is where I took the only image where I could identify the butterfly as a Sooty from the wing tips:

I briefly got my hopes up when I stalked what turned out to be a female Provence Orange Tip:

We knew we'd simply have to return here on a cooler, cloudier day.

[David M]

Pyrenees - 2 May

We left Los Monegros at around 5pm, and two and a half hours later we arrived at our next base, near Jaca, in the foothills of the Pyrenees.

The following morning was again largely cloudy, but every now and again the sun managed to penetrate the cloud so we decided to drive up one river valley and loop back round into a second.

The first site we stopped at provided a new species for the trip - Weaver's Fritillary:

The weather improved a little in the early afternoon and we ended up seeing quite a few butterflies in the Valle de Hecho. Best of these was when Jon shouted at the top of his voice that he'd found Spanish Fritillary, a major target for us. By the time I'd run down the hillside it was still there, but flew off before I could get an image. Jon very kindly let me have one of his:

Another new Fritillary for the trip then turned up - Glanville:

Walking up the track, this Wall Brown posed nicely:

We also saw a handful of Green Underside Blues:

[petesmith]

Ahhhh - that Spanish Fritillary!! What a beauty - seeing that photograph has actually caused me physical pain

[David M]

...and I suffered equal pain when it flew off and didn't return, Pete!!

We spent nearly an hour combing the slope but there was no further sign of it. I guess it might have been the only one emerged as it is, without doubt, a 'late' season in Spain thanks to the awful weather.

[David M]

Orchids

There were plenty of spectacular orchids to be seen and my travelling companion, Jon, can sniff them out like a bloodhound!

I hope I have all the names right as I was unfamiliar with just over half of them, having not seen them before.

Yellow Bee Orchid:

Pink Butterfly Orchid:

Fly Orchid:

Naked Man Orchid:

Mirror Orchid:

Burnt Tip Orchid:

Lady Orchid:

Bumblebee Orchid:

Woodcock Bee Orchid:

[David M]

In addition to the above, there were also a couple of orchids which, to my knowledge, do not have English names.

This first image is of one of the Tongue Orchids, Serapias parviflora:

This next one caused Jon to get quite excited, as it is a very rare one - Ophrys algarvensis:

Nearby, there were some wild Tulips growing:

[David M]

Los Monegros - 3 May

Ideally, we'd have stayed in the Pyrenees area today, but we had unfinished business following our wild goose chase at Los Monegros two days earlier, so we decided to head back there.

It was cloudier and considerably cooler than when we last visited, and we hoped this would subdue Greenish Black Tips and Sooty Orange Tips somewhat.

The theory was fine, but in order to test it, we needed to find these two species, and in an hour and a half we could not do so. By contrast, there were plenty of Western Dappled Whites occupying our time:

Try as I might though, I couldn't change them into Portuguese DWs - they all had that angular hindwing:

Even commoner were Adonis Blues; there were multi dozens of them about:

By midday, the temperature was 19c, as opposed to 25c two days previously. The cloud had largely kept away but I was surprised at just how much difference this made to the butterflies. There was nothing hilltopping whereas on 1st May the highest point was like Piccadilly Circus!! I spoke to Jon and we decided to spend the afternoon at the lower end of the hills near the river in an attempt to deal with Sooty Orange Tips.