Hi David. If you do lose one or two spring things, you’ll gain one or two summer things - like Aetherie fritillary - so it all balances out. I don’t think you can go wrong in May.
Gibraltar day today.
I got up early - it’s a long bus trip to the Rock. Here is the Easter full moon setting as I struck out for the bus station:
When I arrived, I first headed for Holy Trinity Cathedral, to check that the chairs at the back still sported the little squares of rubber I laboriously cut from a lorry tyre 40 years ago this summer. They did. Gibraltar may have forgotten me but my legacy lives.
I think I cut those with my Swiss army knife.
Next, I headed up the Mediterranean Steps:
A very strong wind was blowing from the East and I didn’t expect to see much, but there were a few Spanish festoons …
… and I spotted a female Cleopatra laying eggs:
At just that moment a woman came down the steps and I paused to tell her about Cleopatras (she asked). I took this photo of the butterfly at her feet but couldn’t relocate the egg(s):
Here is the unromantically named cargo ship OS 35, which sank off Catalan Bay after a collision last summer:
And here the view over Catalan Bay from the Med Steps (the ship is just off to the right of this picture):
Those hideous skyscrapers have sprung up very recently.
Soon after I reached the top, I saw a Provence orange tip settle and got a quick shot:
Almost immediately after that, I saw a couple of
Euchloe sparring, but monkey-watchers disturbed them and I didn’t see them again. I guessed they should be Portuguese dappled whites - which would have been a lifer - because I know this species is supposed to fly on the Rock and this was the wrong place for green-striped whites. Then later, just before I headed down, another
Euchloe butterfly did settle, very briefly, and I was able to confirm Portuguese dappled white before more monkey-hunters stopped play. I waited a bit for it to reappear, but the wind was very strong, there were lots of people, and I had a return date with a bus looming. So this remains to date my only photo of
Euchloe tagis:
It’s not great, but a lifer’s a lifer!
Very pleased with the day, but regretting I didn’t have longer, I headed back down to the town, stepping over Barbary macaques on the way:
I had a quick once round the botanic gardens without seeing a monarch, then nipped into the Trafalgar cemetery, which is where I usually see them. It appeared at first as if there were none, but then one suddenly swooped past and landed high in an orange tree:
That was brilliant. It would have been a great shame to come to southern Spain and not see a monarch.
By the time I reached Málaga again, the empty street of the setting moon had become a heaving mass of humanity. I was lucky to get across just ahead of the procession, so I could actually get back to my
hostal:
Guy