Spain - 21 April to 3 May 2022

[David M]

Los Monegros - 3 May

Every so often, life throws you an exceptionally lucky break. We received one of these early this afternoon whilst driving down the rough track to the riverside meadows.

I was driving very slowly, keeping my eyes on the fields to my left, while Jon did likewise to the right. Suddenly, I noticed a whitish butterfly bobbing about a hoary mustard floret in a peculiar way. I stopped the car and asked Jon to quickly check it out. I couldn't believe my ears when he shouted back that it was a Sooty Orange Tip pair.

We'd spent hours not being able to get near one and now suddenly, a male and a female were perched right in front of us. The male persisted for a little while with the female, who was clearly not up for it:

He soon got the message and settled on the flowerhead in front of her:

He happily nectared away for a couple of minutes, totally unfazed by our presence:

It was near impossible to believe that this was the same species that had had us sprinting around and cursing two days earlier. When the male flew off, the female remained behind and was incredibly approachable:

I gently picked her up and put her on the ground for a few moments:

Even when I put her back on the flower she didn't move. She looked quite worn, so I wonder whether she was nearing the end of her life-cycle. Hopefully she has fulfilled all her goals and had a productive life. Rarely have I ever been so grateful to a single butterfly!

Further excitement was to come when we were driving back out of the site. This time, Jon was at the wheel but I spotted a Spanish Greenish Black Tip flying near the base of the adjacent hillside, so we stopped and got out.

Jon soon spotted another but neither settled, so this particular aim will go thwarted....till next time!

[SarahM]

Hi David,

I have enjoyed reading your Spanish trip reports and looking at your photos. It's good to hear you've had lucky breaks too, after some disappointments.

Your Sooty Orange Tips have amazing underwings which look like they are mirroring the flower heads of the Hoary Mustard plants they are on.

I look forward to your next instalment.

Sarah.

[John Vergo]

Hi David
Good to see that you finally had som luck

[David M]

I have enjoyed reading your Spanish trip reports and looking at your photos. It's good to hear you've had lucky breaks too, after some disappointments.

Your Sooty Orange Tips have amazing underwings which look like they are mirroring the flower heads of the Hoary Mustard plants they are on.

I look forward to your next instalment.

Thanks, Sarah. Like in the UK, studying butterflies on the continent has highs and lows, but the positives outweigh the negatives by a wide margin.

There's always something new to see and get baffled by. All part of the learning process.

[aeshna5]

Beautiful photos of the Sooty Orange Tip, but the plant is certainly not Hoary Mustard which has different flower structure & totally different seed pods to this. Hoary Mustard is now one of the commonest big yellow crucifers around London so a plant I'm very familiar with.

[David M]

Good to see that you finally had som luck

I think we earned it after putting up with the freakishly poor weather for this time of year in Spain, John.

Like Gary Player once said: "The more I practice, the luckier I get".

[David M]

Beautiful photos of the Sooty Orange Tip, but the plant is certainly not Hoary Mustard which has different flower structure & totally different seed pods to this. Hoary Mustard is now one of the commonest big yellow crucifers around London so a plant I'm very familiar with.

Thanks for the heads-up on the crucifer, aeshna. I note that the seed pods are purse-shaped on the flower above, whilst hoary mustard has rod-like structures. I'll have to do a little research to find out what it was; probably one of the biscutellas. There were multiple mustard plants growing in that steppe environment. No wonder it was full of Pierids!

[Roger Gibbons]

I'm also going bright green at the sight of the Spanish Fritillary, but I might be less green if I'm lucky enough to see one on the French side next week.

A very enjoyable thread, so thanks David for posting.

I did wonder if your Tufted Marbled Skipper might have been Southern Marbled.

Roger

[selbypaul]

It's a fascinating two week set of observations, given the poor weather. Just shows the potential Spain has at that time of year. Indeed at all times of year!

[David M]

I'm also going bright green at the sight of the Spanish Fritillary, but I might be less green if I'm lucky enough to see one on the French side next week.

A very enjoyable thread, so thanks David for posting.

I did wonder if your Tufted Marbled Skipper might have been Southern Marbled.

Thanks, Roger. We saw two of the skippers, and I got a good look at both and I'm confident they were flocciferus.

Good luck with desfontainii in France. I'll be having a good search for it myself in a fortnight!

[David M]

It's a fascinating two week set of observations, given the poor weather. Just shows the potential Spain has at that time of year. Indeed at all times of year!

If we could find as much as we did even in the very worst of times, Paul, I shudder to think what would be recorded in a good spring! I fully intend to test that out.

[David M]

Here are the butterflies seen by family:

Hesperiidae

All of the following were seen in single figure numbers. I should have tried harder with the False Mallow Skipper but it was at the Monarch site and my attentions were understandably elsewhere.

I did grab an image of a Southern Grizzled Skipper:

1. Lulworth Skipper
2. Rosy Grizzled Skipper
3. False Mallow Skipper
4. Mallow Skipper
5. Southern Grizzled Skipper
6. Tufted Marbled Skipper
7. Red Underwing Skipper

[selbypaul]

You have Mallow Skipper twice David, in positions 4 and 8!

[David M]

You have Mallow Skipper twice David, in positions 4 and 8!

Not any more!!

Thanks for spotting that, Paul. Would have caused chaos to my numbering by the end!

[David M]

Lycaenidae - Coppers and Hairstreaks

Not many of these, but three good ones:

8. Small Copper
9. Iberian Sooty Copper
10. Provence Hairstreak
11. Green Hairstreak
12. Chapman's Green Hairstreak

[David M]

Lycaenidae - Blues

Easily the commonest of these was Black-Eyed Blue, which was especially numerous in the SE of Andalusia, although we found some in both Montes AND in the foothills of the Pyrenees.

We also found decent numbers of False Baton Blues on the hillsides at Antequera:

13. Black Eyed Blue
14. Common Tiger Blue
15. Lang's Short Tailed Blue
16. Southern Brown Argus
17. Southern Blue
18. Holly Blue
19. Panoptes Blue
20. False Baton Blue
21. Common Blue
22. Brown Argus
23. Adonis Blue
24. Chapman's Blue
25. Green Underside Blue

[David M]

Danaidae

11 beautiful Monarchs seen.

26. Monarch

Only a handful of feisthamelii, and machaon didn't show up till the second week. However, to compensate, there were several Spanish Festoons at a lot of places we visited, although numbers were fewer further north.

Papilionidae

27. Iberian Scarce Swallowtail
28. Swallowtail
29. Spanish Festoon

[David M]

Nymphalidae - Aristocrats

Small numbers of all these, although it's always nice to see Large Tortoiseshell.

30. Painted Lady
31. Red Admiral
32. Peacock
33. Large Tortoiseshell
34. Comma

[David M]

Nymphalidae - Fritillaries

None at all during the Andalusia leg, and just Queen of Spain in Montes. However, early May saw the emergence of a few others in Los Monegros and the Pyrenees:

35. Queen of Spain Fritillary
36. Knapweed Fritillary
37. Spotted Fritillary
38. Spanish Fritillary
39. Glanville Fritillary
40. Weaver's Fritillary

[David M]

Nymphalidae - Satyrids

Spanish Marbled White was common in the south east, whilst Spanish Gatekeeper was extremely numerous in that area as well as cropping up in other parts of Andalusia.

Spring Ringlet was easily encountered in Montes and Western Marbled White was clearly just emerging during the latter three days of the trip.

41. Spanish Marbled White
42. Spanish Gatekeeper
43. Wall Brown
44. Small Heath
45. Speckled Wood
46. Spring Ringlet
47. Western Marbled White