Grazalema, Spain - last week
Posted: Tue May 03, 2022 6:14 pm
Back towards the end of 2019, just before the world tilted on its axis and COVID chaos emerged, I had planned a trip out to south-west Spain at the end of April 2020, with the express aim of tracking down a few niche butterfly species. Of course you all know what happened next...
The trip in 2020 was duly cancelled, and rescheduled for 2021. Alas, who could have foreseen that this postponed trip would also fall victim to ongoing restrictions a year later.
So, it was with great anticipation that I flew out from Gatwick to Seville on Sunday 24th April 2022, "third time lucky", with my wife in tow. Our home base for the week was to be the Hotel Fuerte Grazalema, a wonderfully friendly hotel set amidst a Cork Oak forest, with stunning views, very friendly staff, a remarkably good breakfast and some rather fine house wines.
I had four objectives for this holiday: first and foremost, to see and photograph the Aetherie Fritillary, which would be a life-tick; secondly, to reconnect with a few species that I had only seen once before, and of which I needed better photographs - these were False Baton Blue, Spanish Marbled White, and Lorquin's Blue. It didn't seem that I was asking too much.
Thanks to some much valued help from a fellow European butterfly enthusiast (cheers Dave), I had a couple of "known sites" for my main target species.
We arrived late on the Sunday and settled in to our home for the week, with rather stunning views across towards the "pueblo blanco" of Grazalema.
On our first full day we immediately headed out to some prime habitat. The weather was middling, with temperatures around the mid-teens and some scattered sunny spells, but we managed to connect with a small colony of False Baton Blues, which were active and occasionally obligingly settling down. It was great to see this rather localized speciality in reasonable numbers!
Pseudophilotes abencerragus
On day two we headed south of Ubrique in search of our main quarry, but of the Aetherie there was not a sniff. Close by we found good numbers of Provence Hairstreaks, an absolutely delightful species and a huge pleasure to see. They were quite fresh and abundant, considering we were towards the end of April.
Tomares ballus
It seemed that the season was running late, and butterflies were in general quite thin on the ground at many sites. But the flowers were sensational, and while we were failing to find some of my main targets, I found myself paying closer attention to the flora - in particular the abundance of certain orchid species.
Mirror Orchid
Yellow Bee Orchid
Rich flora
The rest of the week flew past in a blur - plenty of lovely species appeared, including frequent encounters with Spanish Festoons and Provence Orange-tips. The festoons were very variable in terms of "red-ness".
Zerynthia rumina
Anthocharis euphenoides
A personal highlight of the trip was an encounter with what is only my second ever Lorquin's Blue, spotted by my wife.
Cupido lorquinii
Other delights included the Iberian Scarce Swallowtail, the very orangey European form of the Speckled Wood , Long-tailed and Black-eyed Blues.
Iphiclides feisthamelii
Pararge aegeria
Lampides boeticus
Glaucopsyche melanops
So, in terms of targets, I spectacularly failed to see my number one target of aetherie, and also failed to find Spanish Marbled White. On a more positive note, Lorquins and False Baton Blue were re-acquaintances that I was delighted to indulge in, as was the rather unique Provence Hairstreak. In this game, failing can just be a great excuse to try again - and I fuly intend to try again to meet up with the two targets that I missed.
To paraphrase, or perhaps rephrase a certain late rocker, "two out of four ain't bad".
The trip in 2020 was duly cancelled, and rescheduled for 2021. Alas, who could have foreseen that this postponed trip would also fall victim to ongoing restrictions a year later.
So, it was with great anticipation that I flew out from Gatwick to Seville on Sunday 24th April 2022, "third time lucky", with my wife in tow. Our home base for the week was to be the Hotel Fuerte Grazalema, a wonderfully friendly hotel set amidst a Cork Oak forest, with stunning views, very friendly staff, a remarkably good breakfast and some rather fine house wines.
I had four objectives for this holiday: first and foremost, to see and photograph the Aetherie Fritillary, which would be a life-tick; secondly, to reconnect with a few species that I had only seen once before, and of which I needed better photographs - these were False Baton Blue, Spanish Marbled White, and Lorquin's Blue. It didn't seem that I was asking too much.
Thanks to some much valued help from a fellow European butterfly enthusiast (cheers Dave), I had a couple of "known sites" for my main target species.
We arrived late on the Sunday and settled in to our home for the week, with rather stunning views across towards the "pueblo blanco" of Grazalema.
On our first full day we immediately headed out to some prime habitat. The weather was middling, with temperatures around the mid-teens and some scattered sunny spells, but we managed to connect with a small colony of False Baton Blues, which were active and occasionally obligingly settling down. It was great to see this rather localized speciality in reasonable numbers!
Pseudophilotes abencerragus
On day two we headed south of Ubrique in search of our main quarry, but of the Aetherie there was not a sniff. Close by we found good numbers of Provence Hairstreaks, an absolutely delightful species and a huge pleasure to see. They were quite fresh and abundant, considering we were towards the end of April.
Tomares ballus
It seemed that the season was running late, and butterflies were in general quite thin on the ground at many sites. But the flowers were sensational, and while we were failing to find some of my main targets, I found myself paying closer attention to the flora - in particular the abundance of certain orchid species.
Mirror Orchid
Yellow Bee Orchid
Rich flora
The rest of the week flew past in a blur - plenty of lovely species appeared, including frequent encounters with Spanish Festoons and Provence Orange-tips. The festoons were very variable in terms of "red-ness".
Zerynthia rumina
Anthocharis euphenoides
A personal highlight of the trip was an encounter with what is only my second ever Lorquin's Blue, spotted by my wife.
Cupido lorquinii
Other delights included the Iberian Scarce Swallowtail, the very orangey European form of the Speckled Wood , Long-tailed and Black-eyed Blues.
Iphiclides feisthamelii
Pararge aegeria
Lampides boeticus
Glaucopsyche melanops
So, in terms of targets, I spectacularly failed to see my number one target of aetherie, and also failed to find Spanish Marbled White. On a more positive note, Lorquins and False Baton Blue were re-acquaintances that I was delighted to indulge in, as was the rather unique Provence Hairstreak. In this game, failing can just be a great excuse to try again - and I fuly intend to try again to meet up with the two targets that I missed.
To paraphrase, or perhaps rephrase a certain late rocker, "two out of four ain't bad".