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Exploring Spain in springtime has been something I've wished to do for a few years, so on 20 April I flew out on an evening flight to Malaga, stayed overnight at an airport hotel and picked up a vehicle the following day as well as my travelling companion who arrived that morning.

The first three days were spent near Almeria to check out the south east corner; the next four were based in central Andalusia, with a couple of days spent further south and west; whilst the second week was split between my familiar base in Albarracin, Montes Universales, and a couple of days in the foothills of the Pyrenees not far from Jaca.

As many people will know, Spain has had an abnormally mild winter followed by a prolonged spell of cool and wet weather since mid March. This made things quite difficult with many days being cloudy, wet and/or downright cold!

However, we made the best of things and managed to see most of our target species, with huge amounts of hard graft and an occasional slice of good fortune, which every butterfly enthusiast needs.

Here are a few images of the places we visited:

SE Andalusia - 21 April

We arrived in Cabo de Gata in the early afternoon. I picked the hotel due to its proximity to the damp dune areas nearby:
With all the recent rain, these dunes were indeed damp, and plenty of biting flies were around to irritate us. However, despite fairly cool and gusty conditions, our spirits were lifted by the Flamingoes in the lake half a mile down the road, as well as the handful of Green Striped Whites flying closer to the hotel.

This was the first time I've seen this species, and I knew as soon as I saw the broad upf discal spot that it had to be belemia:
When settled, there's no mistaking the underside pattern:

SE Andalusia - 22 April

Looking inland first thing in the morning wasn't a pleasant experience. Skies were leaden but the cloud appeared lighter near the coast so the sensible option was to head for a site recommended to me by Pete Smith, north of Cabo de Gata.

The place looked very inviting when we arrived an hour and a half later, although the clouds remained stubbornly in situ:
The good news, however, is that it was a grassy site, so walking through the sward disturbed lots of butterflies, most of them Spanish Gatekeepers:
Almost as numerous were Black Eyed Blues:
Three Lang's Short Tailed Blues were also found:
A handful of Lulworth Skippers were seen:
Find of the morning though was undoubtedly this mint fresh Spanish Marbled White, a lovely insect and a lifer for me:

Fascinating to see Spanish species new to me and the Spanish editions of our own butterflies David.

Otep wrote: ↑Wed May 04, 2022 7:38 pmFascinating to see Spanish species new to me and the Spanish editions of our own butterflies David.

Thanks, Otep. Plenty more to come...

SE Andalusia - 22 April

After midday, the clouds started to break up a little, so we ventured into the Sierra de los Filabres to another site Pete S had given me information for.

This was a barranco which still had water trickling through it, and the banks were grassy and lush with all the recent rainfall.

The sun actually came out a few times and it began to feel quite pleasant, even though the temperature was no more than 17c.

Best find along this track was a dozen or so Provence Hairstreaks, many of which were still in good condition given that this is towards the end of their flight period:

David M wrote: ↑Thu May 05, 2022 6:01 am SE Andalusia - 22 April



Best find along this track was a dozen or so Provence Hairstreaks, many of which were still in good condition given that this is towards the end of their flight period:

Very pleased that you got a few decent sightings at those sites David - that Spanish Marbled White is a cracker! And I agree with you that finding so many Provence Hairstreaks in reasonable condition this late in April is pretty unusual, and a sure sign of how slowly the season out there was unfolding. Look forward to further installments...

Thanks, Pete. Yes, it was the strangest of times with regards to the weather and the season. Daytime highs of 12c in Andalusia were NOT what I was expecting!!

SE Andalusia - 23 April

Another miserable morning with grey skies and strong winds meant that a visit to Hoya de Baza for Spanish Greenish Black Tip would have been folly, with daytime maxima of 12c forecast along with 30kmh winds!!

It was mid-afternoon when the sun decided to make an appearance, and given the strong wind was coming from the north west, we figured it would be best if we went round Cabo de Gata to find some shelter on the eastern side.

We stopped at the foot of a hill where there was a scrubby meadow. Not a single butterfly dared to take flight in the wind, but walking through the scrub threw up surprisingly good numbers of Spanish Gatekeepers and Spanish Marbled Whites. These butterflies would immediately plummet back to ground level, making it easy to pot this Spanish Marbled White to get a close view of the intricate and very beautiful undersides:

SE Andalusia - 24 April

What a relief it was to wake up to sunny skies and light winds this morning!

It was transit day but we had a last opportunity to find Common Tiger Blue at another site Pete S gave me a while back, close to Almeria.

Pleased to say we did find it, and what a tiny little gem it is:

West Andalusia - 25 April

Today had been the best weather forecast since we arrived, so off we headed west of Ronda to a reliable track for the rare Aetherie Fritillary.

It was a beautiful site, but not only did we not find aetherie, the atrocious spell of weather during the last few weeks meant that hardly any other butterflies were seen; certainly no more than three dozen in two and a half hours!!

We returned to Antequera earlier than planned and went up El Torcal to find orchids, of which there were quite a few. We also spotted this Spanish Festoon:
With tomorrow's forecast for yet more cloud and just 18c maximum temperatures, I confess that I was beginning to get a little weary.

Antequera, Andalusia - 26 April

There was no point looking for butterflies this morning in grey skies and 13c temperatures, so my travelling companion, Jon, and I checked out another orchid site near a dam to the north of Antequera.

We returned to the hotel just before 2pm, but by now the sun was breaking through, so I walked up the road from the hotel and found this very attractive wild meadow, with the imposing 'face-like' rock that lies just east of the town in the background:
Suddenly, for the first time on this trip, there were many dozens of butterflies to be found and it was lovely to see all the Pierids competing for airspace as I did a circuit of the field.

There were plenty of Bath Whites about, including this attractive female:
The other species that had me reaching for my camera was this Rosy Grizzled Skipper:

Loving the updates so far and looking forward to the ones to come!

Thanks, Paul. Things did get rather better weatherwise, and so too did the butterflies.

SW Andalusia - 27 April

Decent weather today, with mainly sunny skies and temperatures a reassuring 21c.

The first site visited was near Manilva, in a gorge which I visited last October. It was a lot greener this time, and something green was what we had come to find.

Twenty minutes or so after arriving, we spotted a likely candidate that was flying very weakly. It was easy to pot it to get a closer look:
The above images were taken with Jon's superior camera, and are sufficiently detailed to conclude that it is indeed a worn Chapman's Green Hairstreak.

Although faint, the unh streak stretches across the wing and the antennal clubs are orange right down the front. A shame it wasn't in better condition but age and the poor weather have taken their toll.

There were other desirable species around, including this male Provence Orange Tip:
An extremely fresh Spanish Festoon was also irresistible:

SW Andalusia - 27 April

In the afternoon, we chose to head down to Tarifa, the southernmost point of mainland Europe. Just 10 minutes up the road is the site I found both Monarchs and Plain Tigers last October. This time, the Tigers were absent, but in an hour and a half I saw 10 Monarchs, to add to the one we had fleetingly seen in the gorge earlier that day:
On the way back, we stopped to have a beer & a burger at the cafe situated on this mirador:
There was a huge difference between the habitat compared to last October, when I took an image of much the same view:

The rain has come since the turn of the year, as it was all looking burnt out in December.

Lovely butterflies...

It all started with the Calima in mid-March, Chris. Been cool and wet virtually ever since.

Montes Universales - 29 April

It took all day on 28th April to travel from Antequera to Albarracin, but the morning of 29th was mainly sunny with temperatures forecast to reach 19c in the afternoon.

I had a couple of sites for Spring Ringlet, and we arrived at the first one just before 11am. After 20 minutes or so of fruitless searching, Jon sent me a WhatsApp message to tell me we'd been looking on the wrong side of the road. I crossed over and walked into this clearing:
My first sighting was this female:
We found around 20 within the next half hour or so:
We then travelled to the second site and found a similar number in 40 minutes, all flying around a shallow bank at the side of the road.

It's a particularly beautiful member of the erebia genus, and not especially difficult to approach. They landed fairly frequently, usually on bare earth or warm rocks, although we saw a few nectaring on the hawkweed flowers.

Congrats David - epistygne is a fantastic Erebia species. I fell in love with it when I first found it in the pre-alps to the east of St.Vallier-de-Thiey a few years back. The spotting, the variation in the orange and yellow of the fore and hind-wing sub-marginal bands behind the ocelli, and that gorgeous underside all combine to make this a very special butterfly!

Thanks, Pete. Yes, there's a lot to like in this butterfly...quite well behaved too.