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Hi All, I'm back in Spain for a couple of months moving up and down the MED. coast.

Monday 27.01.14.
A walk around GAUDALEST reservoir, 10 miles north-west of Benidorm.
Sunny 19c, very windy.

Butterflies, seen in order, on the 6 mile walk.

Humming-bird Hawk-moth also seen but no pic.

Regards Russ

What a lovely thought - to be in Spain for a couple of months!

I'd hazard a guess that is a Cleopatra, rather than a brimstone, and it is certainly a large tortoiseshell, not a small! I've never seen a large tortoiseshell in January - I think it needs to go back to bed until its larval foodplants are a little closer to coming into leaf ...

Guy

Cleopatra - 99%. Well, actually, 100% but there's room for 1% that might just at the extremes of variation.

Roger

Hi Russ,
Nice to see you up and running early in the season. How lucky you are. I will be following your report from Spain closely, hoping that its a forerunner for me . Guy's and Roger's observations on the Cleopatra? are interesting because I also am not 100% sure when trying to distinguish between some Cleopatras and Brimstones down here in the South, particularly if the subject is a female some distance away.

Chris

Hi Guy,Roger & Chris,
Thanks for your input;
On the Cleopatra, it didn't move, it was just sun-bathing on a grass bank as I walked past it and I didn't disturb it but on a closer look I think I can see yellow/orange between it's wings?
The Large Tort. is a lovely bonus as it is a new b/f to me, I just thought it was a faded S/Tort., it just shows that I need to keep more of an open mind when away from the UK.
Thanks again for your help.

Russ

Sunday 2.2.14 16c, very little wind.
Waste land outside Almafra campsite, 3 miles N/W of Benidorm.

Short walk outside our camp site, on very parched waste land but many wild flowers just begin to open. Only out 50 minutes but about 10 small whites seen, 1 large white, 1 clouded yellow in very good nic. but all too fast, and last but not least a geranium bronze(?)see attached pics.
it was the smallest b/f I think I have ever seen.

Russ

Hi Russ. Some geranium bronzes are just mutantly small - much smaller than any of the tiny blues, like African grass blue.

This one, photographed next to my little finger (and I have quite small hands), was the most physically improbable butterfly I've ever seen:



But he was quite happy!

Guy

Keep an eye open for African grass blues, which are usually smaller than geranium bronzes (and much smaller than small blues). They seem to turn up on artificially watered lawns - around hotels, golf courses etc. The books say they don't fly in winter, but I have seen them in the far south of Spain on 30 December, and suspect they are continuously brooded in the right locations.

Wow,a couple of months in Spain-wish i were there!
We are hoping to spend a few days in the south of Spain ourselves in the spring,so i am looking foreward to reading of your sightings over the coming weeks!

Good luck!

Guy/Mats & Essex,
Thanks for your input, the farthest south I will be going is 25 miles south of Alicante, then back north of Valencia later. I have been very encouraged by what I have seen so early in the trip/year, so let's hope it keeps going thru to April.

Tuesday 4.2.14.Waste ground near our camp site, very windy 15C

Short walk around a different part of the waste ground.
I saw, what I thought were 2/3 small whites fighting the strong wind, but on closer inspection they looked like female Orange Tips,(when I saw the green/white fleck on the under wing), but when I saw them on my laptop(with my glasses) they seem to have a lot more green than the English species, so I am open to expert opinion, how about PORTUGUESE DAPPLED WHITE?or a BATH WHITE?(but it may be a little small?). I'm sorry the opened wing shots are not brill. but it was very windy and you know what whites are like to photo?
The only other butterfly seen was a Painted Lady(attached photo's).
Also seen, was a large green dragonfly(at pace) and a red(more chocolate brown) squirrel, (sorry no pics.)

Russ

Hi Russ.

Those are Bath whites. Do watch the whites carefully, though - and take nothing for granted! In the south of your trip you are likely to come across green-striped whites. Western dappled white is probable anywhere and if you are lucky you might also find Portuguese dappled white. These are all quite difficult to separate without an underside view.

Guy

Hi Russ
From your report I was already starting to get the feeling that I was seeing a mirror image of the species that we see around Marseilles towards the end of the season - the Bath White seems to confirm this further.
Without any experience of Spain, I would hazard a guess that the conditions in the south of Spain allow these species to 'lap over' to the start of the following season without a real 'winter' break. How interesting. Looking forward enthusiastically to more.
Chris

Hi Guy, Thanks for the ID. and yes I will be checking every white I see carefully. I saw the green-striped in my book, so I will be keeping an eye out for that one especially.

Hi Chris, Thanks for comments and I am enjoying following your year

Thursday 6.2.2014 18C, light wind. 12 noon.
Scrub land close to Almafra camp site.
Considering how warm it was and how light the wind was for this area, I was a little disappointed on how little was flying, whites zooming around but none stopping, 4/5 geranium bronze keeping low in the scrub and a couple mating(notice the great difference in size, which is the male?) and a battered red admiral, and that was it.

Russ

Russ Greetings from a very wet Lancashire. Good to see you made it down safely and have got ' amongst them '. Good record shots. Went to Gaudalest ( and Valencia ) a few years ago on a photographic holiday, so I recognise the reservoir but I only saw it from the town. I'll watch your progress.

Hi Russ,
Tolman & Lewington show the male to be the smaller of the two. Are there any geraniums nearby? on the campsite perhaps? When I see marshalli down my way, a flowery balcony is never far away - never more than a few tens of meters away!! I have never seen a GB in my scrub-land, they seem to be the nemesis of the Green Hairstreak who never comes out of the scrub-land, never the twain shall meet.
Chris

I have just occasionally seen them in natural-looking environments, but they are by far the most urban of the European species, sometimes taking this to the most ridiculous extremes - I recall a colony on planted pelargoniums in the central square in Valencia, and another resting on the petrol tank of a scooter in central Nice.

Green Hairstreaks too can do odd things once in a while - I have seen them in villages, once outside the door of the house we were staying in. On one memorable occasion I remember finding one on the forecourt of a long-disused petrol station, where it was accompanied by a Baton Blue. But, as you suggest, these are very much exceptions.

Hi Chris, The G/B are on the second highest terrace of an old mixed fruit tree orchard, which looks like it has not been in use for quite a few years. This scrub-land is in a semi rural area with houses some 600 metres away, like you I have only seen them before in a more urban setting eg; the centre of Locarno,Switzerland(on flower beds) and in the centre of La Croix-Valmer(not too far from you?) both times on cultivated flowers(which they are well known for).
Maybe they will move back into the gardens later in the year?
As for Green hairstreaks I have only seen them on the edge of moorland on bilberries, didn't see any in my local area in 2013 due to the snow we got in late spring.

Russ

Friday 7.2.2014 16c Windy.
Usual scrub land, 1 mile from our camp site.

Short visit around the usual land; found what I think is a Mallow Skipper in the same area where I saw the G/B, it was in very good condition(see pics.)
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Mystery b/f seen a couple of times now, at the top of the same shrub, about 12 feet up, very small, greyish/blue in colour, maniac flyer, only managed one shot from underneath, poss. small blue but I think I could be too far south for a small blue? All entries accepted on the little evidence available.

Also poss. sighting of a swallowtail(?), but nothing def.

From what little can be seen of the mystery blue, Lang's Short-tailed looks favourite to me. The skipper looks good for Mallow.

Roger

I agree with Roger, spot on. These 2 do not surprise me in these latitudes. That mottled underside is quite distinctive of the LSTB.
Chris