Our family summer holiday this year was to Menorca between 26th June and 10th July. We rented an old farm house more-or-less in the middle of the island and it came with about half an acre of orchard (my daughter counted 19 different kinds of fruit trees!). Next door was another orchard tended by Pedro, who would bring us baskets of pears or peaches most evenings. The rest of the area around the house was made up of small fields. The ground is very stony and I guess when they improve the soil the easiest way to get rid of the stones is to build walls, so each small field is surrounded by large wide limestone walls. Many of the fields are unused now, so many of the walls are covered in ivy and brambles and there are a lot of fruit trees with fruit just dropping onto the ground.
Before we went away I tried to research what butterflies occur in Menorca and it seems that up to 30 species have been recorded, but some of those were one-off records. I think that 25 species is probably more realistic. So, I went with low expectations of seeing much.
However, what Menorca may lack in variety it certainly makes up for in quantity!
The abandoned fields with their wild flowers, fruit trees and walls make perfect butterfly habitat. I really couldn't get over the number of butterflies in our orchard. At any one time between 8am and 8pm there must have been over 100 butterflies in the orchard. Over the two weeks, between family trips I went for various walks around the island. There is a coastal path right around the island, a nature reserve at Es Grau and the amazing Algendar gorge, all of which offer different habitats and potentially different butterflies. There was also a great selection of damsel flies, dragon flies and birds.
It was interesting, that having searched for butterflies in various areas of the island, all 20 species that I saw occurred in our orchard (I could have saved myself a lot of walking in the heat!).
The first butterflies we spotted when we arrived at our rented house at 8:30pm were speckled woods. There were two real hot spots in the garden, both around plum trees where there would regularly be 10 or more speckled woods.
Holly blues were the most common butterflies around the house. They were found along the track to the house and in the ivy on the walls of the orchard. It was really lovey to see so many. On an average walk around the place I would see about 40 on the track to the house (I think they roosted in the brambles) and as many again in the ivy around the orchard.
It was funny finding wall browns there, having only just seen them in Scotland.
Clouded yellows were the most common of the whites. Apparently Berger's clouded yellow occurs there, too, but I believe that the best way to tell the difference is by looking at the caterpillars. There were some paler variants on the island and I watched one laying eggs in the orchard. Unfortunately, I didn't find any caterpillars.
This painted lady (I assume it was always the same one) was the only one I spotted, but it was always in one small area of the orchard and was there for about 10 days.
There were usually one or two large whites on patrol in the orchard.
And the occasional small white.
More common were the cleopatra. These were beautiful, with their orange tint to the upper wings and their ability to blend into the ivy when they roosted. I had never seen these before. Some web sites say that brimstones are found on the island, but as far as I am aware I only ever saw cleopatras.
I chased after many common blues as I had read that adonis blues also occur on the island. Every one turned out to be a common blue and I believe that the adonis blue is very localised.
Other little butterflies that were in the grass amongst the fruit trees were brown argus ...
... and small heath. I was interested to note that these behaved differently from the ones in Scotland. They just seemed to get on with their daily business and were usually nectaring whereas the ones back home spend much of their time tilting their wings towards the sun. An obvious reflection on the different climates!
Around the house swallowtails regularly visited the plants in the pots and flower beds. They rarely were still, hopping from plant to plant and continually vibrating their wings. Another regular visitor to the pot plants were geranium bronzes.
More familiar butterflies for me were small coppers and meadow browns.
I was so excited when my wife spotted a two-tailed pasha on a plum tree, feeding on the fruit. We saw one on three different occasions and it was amazing seeing its powerful flight and then gliding amongst the fruit trees. It is a spectacular butterfly and very alert, not allowing me to get close at all. I took this standing on top of a wall using full zoom!
On my walk through the Algendar gorge I spent ages chasing after a southern gatekeeper without managing to get a picture. Luckily for me a couple of days later I found one in the orchard which was a little more obliging.
A long-tailed blue also made an appearance in the orchard, but I wasn't quick enough with the camera. However, on our last day of the holiday I spotted a Lang's short tailed blue on a shrub next to the swimming pool. It was interesting that it stayed on that shrub for most of the day, obviously enjoying the nectar.
It was a fabulous holiday, both as a relaxing family holiday and for people like me who are obsessed with butterflies! While we were there the island was experiencing unprecedented numbers of a particular moth. They flew in the day and night and there would be thousand of them around each street light. Apparently they experience large numbers of these on a four year cycle, but the numbers this year were exceptional.