Catalonia
Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 2:19 pm
Finally managed to see some butterflies - during a week in Catalonia.
First up was Western Dappled White ( I hope!) on a bit of waste ground near the hotel:
.
We took a car up into the Montseny National Park, where I was delighted to find a couple of Nettle-tree butterflies - first time for me. They proved very difficult to approach until I found this one, which seemed to be confident of its camouflage and allowed a close approach. Pic taken against the sun as I couldn't get round to the sunny side:
I had been told to expect Panoptes Blue and there were several small Blues flying around the path. They had chequered margins and were the right size, but the underside bore no resemblance to PB in any of my books... ID help please :
We went to a Wetland Reserve near Sils hoping for Spanish Festoon, but we were too early. (one was seen two days later ). there were many Cleopatras about and my first Green Hairstreak of the year :
We were staying on the coast and this chap was seen in the Blanes Botanical Gardens ( the best of its kind I have visited anywhere in the world!. If you are in the area, don't miss it). Not sure what it is - Herring Gull size but with yellow feet. Mediterranean Gull?? A birder I ain't...
A wall Brown seems to have crept in at the end??
Tony M.
First up was Western Dappled White ( I hope!) on a bit of waste ground near the hotel:
.
We took a car up into the Montseny National Park, where I was delighted to find a couple of Nettle-tree butterflies - first time for me. They proved very difficult to approach until I found this one, which seemed to be confident of its camouflage and allowed a close approach. Pic taken against the sun as I couldn't get round to the sunny side:
I had been told to expect Panoptes Blue and there were several small Blues flying around the path. They had chequered margins and were the right size, but the underside bore no resemblance to PB in any of my books... ID help please :
We went to a Wetland Reserve near Sils hoping for Spanish Festoon, but we were too early. (one was seen two days later ). there were many Cleopatras about and my first Green Hairstreak of the year :
We were staying on the coast and this chap was seen in the Blanes Botanical Gardens ( the best of its kind I have visited anywhere in the world!. If you are in the area, don't miss it). Not sure what it is - Herring Gull size but with yellow feet. Mediterranean Gull?? A birder I ain't...
A wall Brown seems to have crept in at the end??
Tony M.