 |
One of the many wet flushes at 2500 meters. |
For the first time the four of us set off for Granada on the way we picked up
Little Owl (Mochuelo Europeo / Athene noctua),
Barn Swallow (Golondrina Común / Hirundo rustica),
Common Swift (Vencejo Común / Apus apus),
Blackbird (Mirlo Común / Turdus merula),
Common Magpie (Urraca / Pica pica),
Woodpigeon (Paloma Torcaz / Columba palumbus) and
Jackdaw (Grajilla / Corvus monedula). We reached the city where Pam and Jayne were going to spend the day in the city looking around the shops and checking out some of the museums while John and I headed up the road towards the Ski resort of Sierra Nevada. On the way up to our first stop at the barrier we had a female
Golden Oriole (Oropéndola / Oriolus oriolus) fly across the road in front of us which made fora good start. We arrived at the parking area near the big green military building before starting to check out the rocky areas between then the large slabs of snow, the first species as usual to be seen were
Black Redstart (Colirrojo Tizón / Phoenicurus ochruros), a couple of males were seen and heard singing from the crags below. Next came
Crag (Avión Roquero / Ptyonoprogne rupestris) and
House Martins (Avión Común / Delichon urbica),
Northern Wheatear (Collalba Gris / Oenanthe oenanthe),
Rock (Gorrión Chillón / Petronia petronia) and
House Sparrows (Gorrión Común / Passer domesticus) and then came the species we had come for.
 |
Lesser Spotted Fritillary (Melitaea trivia). |
We had distant views of a
Alpine Accentor (Acentor Alpino / Prunella modularis), which was a lifer for John, even though the bird was distant we could see the main identification details. From here we dropped down to a point in the town and walked out on to one of the tracks on to the ski slopes, on the way out we had good views of two singing male
Dunnocks (Acentor Común / Prunella modularis) the one bird was seen to accompany a female bird to what appeared to be a nest site. Also along here we had at least two displaying male
Common Whitethroats (Curruca Zarcera / Sylvia communis), a singing
Wren (Chochin / Troglodytes troglodytes) and
Rock Bunting (Escribano Montesino / Emberiza cia). We retraced our steps with out seeing a single butterfly species, once we got back to the car we headed down the hill to the start of the old road down to Guejar-sierra and Pino's Genil.
 |
Blue Hedgehog Broom (Erinacea anthyllis). |
We stopped at a grassland area after a few Kms and checked the area finding
Small White (Artogeia rapae),
Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus),
Iberian Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides feisthameli),
Panoptes Blue (Pseudophilotes panoptes),
Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina),
Berger's Clouded Yellow (Colias alfacariensis),
Southern Blue (Polyommatus celina),
Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui),
Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera),
False Ilex Hairstreak (Satyrium esculi) and then we had a surprise
Lesser Spotted Fritillary (Melitaea trivia) which was a pain to get shots of as it was spending all it's time chasing off the
Iberian Scarce Swallowtail.
Birds included
Subalpine Warbler (Curruca Carrasquena / Sylvia cantillans),
Serin (Verdecillo / Serinus serinus),
Common Chaffinch (Pinzón Vulgar / Fringilla coelebs),
Coal Tit (Carbonero Garrapinos / Parus ater) and
Jay (Arrendajo / Garrulus glandarius).
In amongst the grassland and under the pine trees there were plenty of wildflowers and a few Orchids including
Berberis hispanica, Carduus granatensis,
Onosma tricerosperma subsp granatensis,
Blue Hedgehog Broom (Erinacea anthyllis),
Red Phlomis (Phlomis purpurea),
Southern Red Bartsia (Parentucellia latifolia),
Meadow Saxifrage (Saxifraga granulata),
Tragopogon pratensis,
Yellow Phlomis (Phlomis lychnitis) and both
Southern Early Purple (Orchis olbiensis) and
Lange's Orchids (Orchis langei).
 |
Berberis hispanica. |
From here we dropped down to the area near the Seminario Diocesano where we picked up
Robin (Petirrojo Europeo / Erithacus rubecula),
Grey Wagtail (Lavandera Cascadena / Motacilla cinerea),
Sardinian Warbler (Curruca Cabecinegra / Sylvia melanocephala),
Spotless Starling (Estornino Negro / Sturnus unicolor),
Bonelli's Warbler (Mosquitero Papialbo / Phylloscopus bonelli),
Common Chiffchaff (Mosquitero Común / Phylloscopus collybita) and
Common Cuckoo (Cuco Común / Cuculus canorus). New butterflies included
Grayling (Hipparchia semele),
Western Dappled White (Euchloe crameri),
Spanish Festoon (Zerynthia rumina),
Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus),
Spanish Gatekeeper (Pyronia bathseba),
Black-veined White (Aporia crataegi),
Orange-tip (
Anthocharis cardamines) and Marsh Fritillary (Euphydryas aurinia).
No comments:
Post a Comment