Holiday to Spain part 5b
Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2017 7:26 pm
And so, my big day arrived but I didn’t get off as early as I would’ve liked as I needed to ensure that everyone else would be OK, had enough money etc.
I’d been thinking of following in Nick Morgan’s footsteps and going to the Sierra Nevada but chickened out over the distance involved . I convinced myself that the smaller (and nearer), Sierras de Tejeda (national park) would be just as good. Judging on what Nick saw it wasn’t …. but it was a great adventure nonetheless .
So, it was around 10:00 when I set off taking the A-7 E-15 east around Malaga exiting at Velez Malaga and heading north on the A402 with the road gradually climbing into the mountains. The hope that the landscape would become more verdant in the upper elevations soon disappeared. However, I took every opportunity to pull in wherever possible (lay-bys were virtually non-existent), take in the scenery and search the scrubby verges for butterflies. Stops were made at or around Vinuela; Venta de Zafarraya; La Alcaiceria and Alhama de Granada. The roads were an absolute pleasure to drive, deserted and winding through stunning landscapes like you see in our car adverts (but which don’t really exist ). I entered the small town of Venta d Zafarraya to check my map and an area of waste ground with weeds. The quiet was broken by a tethered guard dog barking at my approach and then (more significantly) by a motorcyclist who had stopped beside my parked car and had then felt the need to stand there revving his bike to the limit .
The spot didn’t turn out fruitful but a female Common Blue made for my first photo capture of the day. I soon moved on, passing along straight roads through flat farmland fields before arriving at a 90 degree bend by a hotel at La Alcaiceria with another opportunity to pull in . Bean plants on trusses grew in the field next to where I’d parked the car. Across the road a ring wall, housed a white horse and some cattle. It had the feel of a scene from a spaghetti western. Amongst the rows of bean plants, I spotted some fast flying blues (possibly/probably Long-tailed Blues) going in and out of the rows but they didn’t settle. Then a Clouded Yellow flew by and I thought I could be here a while . Though tempted to walk in and out the rows of crops it might have left me with some difficult explaining to do if the farmer found me so I decided to keep around the edges. There was quite a dense stand of herbaceous weeds (including willowherb) in flower as well as the usual scrubbier plants on the roadside verge.
The first butterflies I came across were Small (or Southern Small) Whites and I was pleased to get a shot of a Small White (Pieris rapae) feeding. The next butterfly was a first for the holiday: - Lycaena phlaes a Small Copper .. in fact two Small Coppers with the first one being a bit on the tattered side . Brown Argus and Common Blue were present too : - There were skippers from the Grizzled Skipper group. This time I think the species is Pyrgus onopordi Rosy Grizzled Skipper (and a lifer if so) with which I struggled to get decent shots. Unlike the Sage Skippers I’d encountered previously these were more inclined to close their wings perhaps helping with the i.d. Despite wanting that illusive upper-wing Skipper shot and hanging on in the vain hope of another Clouded Yellow turning up, I knew it was time to move on (if not just to get some respite from the heat). It didn’t take long after I’d set off again for another promising looking pull-in spot to present itself. The A-402 road at this point had started to twist and climb back up again into hills and mountains. Either side of my stop-off it was flanked by scrubby forest.
On Woody thistle flowers skippers abounded . These were the familiar (I hope I’m right on this) Sage Skippers. Concentrating on the skippers I almost missed another butterfly nectaring on a woody thistle some 5 yards away, a large Fritillary …. a Cardinal and another lifer . Without thinking I raised my Canon macro combi and took a few snaps. I was shooting in full manual as usual, and in my excitement forgot to check and adjust the exposure for this butterfly was in part shade. The pics had to be cropped and reworked as they were under-exposed. After a few distance snaps, I decided to close-in slowly but the moment I moved the butterfly immediately took-off and disappeared across the other side of the road not to be seen again … drat . part 5c to follow soon
I’d been thinking of following in Nick Morgan’s footsteps and going to the Sierra Nevada but chickened out over the distance involved . I convinced myself that the smaller (and nearer), Sierras de Tejeda (national park) would be just as good. Judging on what Nick saw it wasn’t …. but it was a great adventure nonetheless .
So, it was around 10:00 when I set off taking the A-7 E-15 east around Malaga exiting at Velez Malaga and heading north on the A402 with the road gradually climbing into the mountains. The hope that the landscape would become more verdant in the upper elevations soon disappeared. However, I took every opportunity to pull in wherever possible (lay-bys were virtually non-existent), take in the scenery and search the scrubby verges for butterflies. Stops were made at or around Vinuela; Venta de Zafarraya; La Alcaiceria and Alhama de Granada. The roads were an absolute pleasure to drive, deserted and winding through stunning landscapes like you see in our car adverts (but which don’t really exist ). I entered the small town of Venta d Zafarraya to check my map and an area of waste ground with weeds. The quiet was broken by a tethered guard dog barking at my approach and then (more significantly) by a motorcyclist who had stopped beside my parked car and had then felt the need to stand there revving his bike to the limit .
The spot didn’t turn out fruitful but a female Common Blue made for my first photo capture of the day. I soon moved on, passing along straight roads through flat farmland fields before arriving at a 90 degree bend by a hotel at La Alcaiceria with another opportunity to pull in . Bean plants on trusses grew in the field next to where I’d parked the car. Across the road a ring wall, housed a white horse and some cattle. It had the feel of a scene from a spaghetti western. Amongst the rows of bean plants, I spotted some fast flying blues (possibly/probably Long-tailed Blues) going in and out of the rows but they didn’t settle. Then a Clouded Yellow flew by and I thought I could be here a while . Though tempted to walk in and out the rows of crops it might have left me with some difficult explaining to do if the farmer found me so I decided to keep around the edges. There was quite a dense stand of herbaceous weeds (including willowherb) in flower as well as the usual scrubbier plants on the roadside verge.
The first butterflies I came across were Small (or Southern Small) Whites and I was pleased to get a shot of a Small White (Pieris rapae) feeding. The next butterfly was a first for the holiday: - Lycaena phlaes a Small Copper .. in fact two Small Coppers with the first one being a bit on the tattered side . Brown Argus and Common Blue were present too : - There were skippers from the Grizzled Skipper group. This time I think the species is Pyrgus onopordi Rosy Grizzled Skipper (and a lifer if so) with which I struggled to get decent shots. Unlike the Sage Skippers I’d encountered previously these were more inclined to close their wings perhaps helping with the i.d. Despite wanting that illusive upper-wing Skipper shot and hanging on in the vain hope of another Clouded Yellow turning up, I knew it was time to move on (if not just to get some respite from the heat). It didn’t take long after I’d set off again for another promising looking pull-in spot to present itself. The A-402 road at this point had started to twist and climb back up again into hills and mountains. Either side of my stop-off it was flanked by scrubby forest.
On Woody thistle flowers skippers abounded . These were the familiar (I hope I’m right on this) Sage Skippers. Concentrating on the skippers I almost missed another butterfly nectaring on a woody thistle some 5 yards away, a large Fritillary …. a Cardinal and another lifer . Without thinking I raised my Canon macro combi and took a few snaps. I was shooting in full manual as usual, and in my excitement forgot to check and adjust the exposure for this butterfly was in part shade. The pics had to be cropped and reworked as they were under-exposed. After a few distance snaps, I decided to close-in slowly but the moment I moved the butterfly immediately took-off and disappeared across the other side of the road not to be seen again … drat . part 5c to follow soon