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| Immature Lammergeier / Bearded Vulture (Quebrantahuesos / Gypaetus barbatus). |
The bird drifted off after some time and disappeared down towards Granada City so I carried on along the track that I had started along and almost straight away I hit a large slab of snow which I needed to cross to get to the spot I was heading for to see the plants I wanted. Almost straight away I found flowering clumps of the beautiful endemic
Nevada House Leek (Sempervivum vicentei ssp lainzii),
Eryngium bourgatii,
Erigeron frigidus,
Arenaria pungens,
Anthyllis vulneraria subsp pseudoarundana,
Silene boryi,
Sideritis glacialis,
Leontodon boryi and
Draba hispanica subsp hispánica. I moved on along the track and made my way on to the area of borreguillies, on the way I saw the days first
Apollo (Parnassius apollo subsp nevadensis) butterflies along with several
Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae),
Niobe Fritillary (
niobe),
Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus),
Grayling (Hipparchia semele) and lots of
Silver-studded Blues (Plebejus argus).
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| Gentiana sierrae. |
Just as I reached the wet area I met a young chap from the Junta who was doing some work with the butterflies, we only had a brief chat as he was desperate to get back along the track to get some views of the Vulture which had reappeared over the distant ridge. In the same view as we looked back we also had 2
Golden Eagles (Águila Real / Aquila chrysaetos), a single
Griffon Vulture and two tiny specks which were mobbing the
Lammergeier which turned out to be
Common Kestrels (Cernicalo Vulgar / Falco tinnunculus) once I had them in the bins.
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| Alpine Gentian (Gentiana alpina). |
I said good luck to him before walking out into the area of wet flushes and searching for more endemic plants, the first and most obvious were hundreds of spikes of both
Gentiana sierrae and
Pinguicola nevadensis, next came
Starry Saxifrage (Saxifraga stellaris subsp robusta),
Myosotis decumbens subsp teresiana,
Lotus corniculatus subsp glacialis,
Digitalis purpurea subps nevadensis on the drier rocky areas,
Black Sedge (Carex nigra / Carex negro) and the tiny uncommon
Moonwort (Lunaria menor / Botrychium lunaria) which was growing on a small ridge just out of the wetter areas.
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| Pinguicola nevadensis. |
A little further
down towards the bottom of the flushes I came across a nice patch of the
Gentiana sierrae and a couple of larger blue trumpets which turned out to be a new plant for my list, they were the beautiful
Alpine Gentian (Gentiana alpina). Just up above this spot I came across several spikes of
St Bernard's Lily (Anthericum baeticum) and down in the water there were several flowers of
Viola palustris subsp palustris,
Anarrhinum laxiflorum,
Alchemilla glabra and just at the start of the walk back
Linaria aeruginea subsp nevadensis.
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| St Bernard's Lily (Anthericum baeticum). |
I then walked back along the same track towards the car adding a family party of
Rufous-tailed Rock Thrushes (Roquero Roja / Monticola saxatilis) to the day list along with
Rock Sparrow (Gorrión Chillón / Petronia petronia),
Northern Wheatear (Collalba Gris / Oenanthe oenanthe),
Pallid Swift (Vencejo Pálido /Apus pallidus),
House (Avión Común / Delichon urbica) and
Crag Martins (Avión Roquero / Ptyonoprogne rupestris),
Black Redstart (Colirrojo Tizón / Phoenicurus ochruros),
Linnet (Pardillo Común / Carduelis cannabina) and
Tawny Pipit (Bisbita campestre / Anthus campestris).
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| Nevada House Leek (Sempervivum vicentei ssp lainzii). |
Once I reached the car I dropped down through the resort and parked up again. From here I started to walk out on one of the many tracks out on to the slopes along side the Ski Resort, as soon as I got on to the track I started to pick up new butterfly species for the day, the first was a very nice
Black Satyr (Satyrus actaea) but unlike last year when I saw a couple of hundred of this species during this walk this and three or four others were my lot, however there were good numbers of the endemic
Apollo along here again, dozens of the beautiful
Silver-studded Blues,
Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas),
Queen of Spain Fritillary (Issoria lathonia),
Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris),
Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera),
Small White (Artogeia rapae),
Bath White (Pontia daplidice),
Cardinal Fritillary (Argynnis pandora),
Iberian Marbled White (Melanargia lachesis), a single
Meadow Fritillary ( parthenoides) and
Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui).
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| Leontodon boryi. |
Birds were less numerous but I did locate
Rock Bunting (Escribano Montesino / Emberiza cia),
Common Cuckoo (Cuco Común / Cuculus canorus),
Blue Tit (Herrerillo Común / Parus caeruleus),
Wren (Chochin / Troglodytes troglodytes),
Serin (Verdecillo / Serinus serinus),
Cirl Bunting (Escribano Soteno / Emberiza cirlus),
Common Whitethroat (Curruca Zarcera / Sylvia communis) and a singing
Dunnock (Acentor Común / Prunella modularis). Several more species of wildflower were seen along the edge of the track and on the banks and streams, these included
Aquilegia nevadensis,
more
Digitalis purpurea,
Nevada Mullien (Verbascum nevadense),
Veronica anagallis-aquatica and
Lactuca tenerrima.
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| Apollo (Parnassius apollo subsp nevadensis). |
From here I started to make my way down the hill back towards Granada to pick up Jayne but noticed a group
Dactylorhiza type orchids in a small wet area which looked slightly odd so I stopped for a look. In the area there were several spikes of what will probably just be
elata but they looked very different in structure, looking more compact, flat topped and with tightly grouped flowers and much more variable in colour ranging from pale pink through to dark purple. Also here there were lots of the spider
Aculepeira armida who's webs covered most of the gapes between the clumps of Juncus.
From here I dropped down and Jayne and myself went for some lunch and then headed home.
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| Aquilegia nevadensis. |
The
Lammergeier / Bearded Vulture was released back in June 2012 in Sierra de Segura and is called Encina.
