33+ species of butterflies and a lot more.
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Marsh Fritillary (Euphydryas aurinia). |
We started the day at the deep water Embalse de Canales in the Genil Valley above Granada, we walked out on to the dam wall and immediately started the butterfly list off with a male Long-tailed Blue (Lampides boeticus) which was moving between a couple of broom bushes.
Also on these brooms were a single female Violet Dropwing (Trithemis annulata) dragonfly and several Carpenter Bees (Xylocopa violacea) which with their large size and dark colouration look quite menacing but are quite harmless unless you are a beam in some ones old house!
We walked out to the far end of the dam to the cliffs where we soon picked up a couple of Blue Rock Thrushes (Roquero Solitario / Monticola solitarius), a male Black Redstart (Colirrojo Tizón / Phoenicurus ochruros) and a pair of Red-billed Choughs (Chova Piquirroja / Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) which flew from the cliffs to join a second pair on the Embalse control tower.
In the air there were goodnumbers of both Pallid (Vencejo Pálido / Apus pallidus) and Common Swifts (Vencejo Común / Apus apus), House Martins (Avión Común / Delichon urbica) and Barn Swallows (Golondrina Común / Hirundo rustica).
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Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris). |
We continued on further up the valley passing a large group of school children who were making their way along the same valley. We stopped a little further on and walked a short track down to the river and crossed the bridge to a spot where a couple of years ago I had taken some nice shots of a Queen of Spain Fritillary (Issoria lathonia) and after just a few seconds we were in luck as the species was still at the same spot. A cracked flew up and down the center of the track and chased of several other species including Spanish Gatekeeper (Pyronia bathseba) and our first Marsh Fritillary (Euphydryas aurinia) of the day.
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Marsh Fritillary (Euphydryas aurinia). |
Our next stop was just a little way along the same road where we again dropped down to the river but this time we went right down on to the pebbly margins where we were in for quite a wildlife treat as there were at least 3 to 400 adult Marsh Fritillaries all down on the edge of a 20 meter length of the stone river bank, along with these there were several Southern Marbled Skipper (Carcharodus boeticus) and Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris), Holly Blues (Celastrina argiolus), Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) and Small White (Artogeia rapae).
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Lesser Spotted Fritillary (Melitaea trivia). |
We then turned around and caught up with Pam who was doing some artistic shots of some very large Goats-beard type seed heads, a short walk along the road from here to an area of flowers on a steep bank gave us two very interesting species, both of which have turned out to be new for my Spanish list. The first was a female Escher’s Blue (Polyommatus escheri) which looked really good in amongst a clump of Tufted Vetch (Vicia villosa).
The second was a Lesser Spotted Fritillary (Melitaea trivia) which was at first down the steep bank and out of the range of the cameras but one of the many Marsh Frit’s flushed it and it flew up and landed right next to Pam and we managed to get some shot.
I had at first identified this insect as the Spotted Fritillary (Melitaea didyma) as the Collins guide shows the distribution of the Lesser being just in the North of the Peninsular but after checking the new book on the butterflies of Sierra Nevada I find it is within range.
We did really well at this spot and also added Cardinal Fritillary (Argynnis Pandora), Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus), a late tatty looking Spanish Festoon (Zerynthia rumina), Southern Blue (Polyommatus celina), and Large White (Pieris brassicae). A little further on we again stopped on the road side this time to have a look at a couple of Orchids which grow in a roadside ditch, the first Robust Marsh Orchid (Dactylorhiza elata) was in full flower but the much rarer Epipactis fageticola was at least a week away from blooming.
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Lesser Spotted Fritillary (Melitaea trivia). |
Birds included Woodpigeon (Paloma Torcaz / Columba palumbus), Turtle Dove (Tórtola Europea / Streptopelia turtur), Subalpine Warbler (Curruca Carrasquena / Sylvia cantillans), Hoopoe (Abubilla / Upupa epops), Great Tit (Carbonero Común / Parus major), European Bee-eater (Abejaruco Común / Merops apiaster) several flying over head, Common Magpie (Urraca / Pica pica), Bonelli’s Warbler (Mosquitero Papialbo / Phylloscopus bonelli), Blackcap (Curruca Capirotada / Sylvia atricapilla) and Blackbird (Mirlo Común / Turdus merula).
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Grayling (Hipparchia semele). |
From here we took the track out towards the Barranco de San Juan but there was a cool wind and not many butterflies, we did however see a single Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae), an Iberian Marbled White (Melanargia lachesis) and on the bird front a couple of male Northern Wheatears (Collalba Gris / Oenanthe oenanthe), Common Kestrel (Cernicalo Vulga / Falco tinnunculus) and several more Pallid Swifts. As there were so few butterflies here were dropped down through the resort and made our way out on to a track which took us out onto the ski slopes, there were a few more insects here including our only Provence Orange-tip (Anthocharis euphenoides) of the week and this turned out to be the only new species seen up at this altitude.
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Escher’s Blue (Polyommatus escheri). |
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