Sierra Nevada continued

There is a meadow is just off the road at about 2,000 metres above sea level that I always visit when I go to the Sierra Nevada. It has a little stream running through it, which I expect is quite ferocious during the snow melt, but is mostly dry in the summer months. It is such an amazing spot, as there are so many butterflies in quite a small area. Again, the butterflies I saw this June were quite different from what I am used to seeing in July. There were far fewer, but they were lovely nonetheless.

Almost immediately a beautiful Knapweed Fritillary landed on a shrub in front of me. I think there must have been about ten of them in this area.

A few Iberian Scarce Swallowtails kept flying across the meadow and there must have been more than 40 Clouded Yellows.

All along the dried up stream bed there were little Lorquin’s Blues.

Despite their size they were quite aggressive, chasing off any other butterflies that dared to land too close! Here is one about to attack a Common Blue!

I normally see a lot of Marsh Fritillaries at this spot, but this year I only saw one. I also saw eight or ten Small Heaths. These had me a bit confused at first as some of them appeared to have some metallic scales on their wings.

The Queen of Spain Fritillaries here were a lot fresher than those higher up the mountains.

I was pleased to see some Common Blues, Polyommatus icarus, here. In most of Southern Spain they are replaced by the identical-looking Southern Blue, Polyommatus celina, but the Common Blue occurs in the Sierra Nevada, having been left behind as the climate warmed after the last Ice Age.

I spotted another little butterfly that I was surprised to see was a Green Hairstreak. I think I saw three different individuals. I have never seen these in the Sierra Nevada before and expected that they would occur earlier in the year.

Making up the numbers were Small Whites, Painted Ladies and Meadow Browns.

There were some Western Dappled Whites amongst them.

 I also saw a Southern Marbled Skipper.

And I had a lovely view of what I thought was a Spotted Fritillary. It wasn’t until I checked my pictures back home that I realised it was a Lesser Spotted Fritillary, Melitaea trivia, – a species I hadn’t seen before.

In each of my three previous visits to the Sierra Nevada, always in July, I have seen over 40 species of butterflies. This year, with it being earlier in the year I saw 23 species. I didn’t feel disappointed in the slightest. It would have been nice to have seen some of the rarer species higher up the mountains, but this delightful meadow was so lovely and it made up for the lack of variety I had seen earlier in the day.

Sierra Nevada Butterflies - June 2022

No visit to the villa in Alora would be complete without a visit to the Sierra Nevada. This year I visited on the 3rd of June, almost exactly a month earlier than normal. It is a three-hour drive to get there, but well worth it for the range of butterflies that occur there. There are three different locations that I normally visit, each with its own selection of butterflies.

Initially I drove up to the Hoya de la Mora carpark, which is as high as you can drive. From there I walked down into a valley with a lovely clear stream running through it. Normally, there is quite a variety of butterflies down there, but I started to worry after a few hundred metres and I had seen no butterflies.

Eventually, as I reached the stream I saw a Small Tortoiseshell. A little further along I saw a Small Copper. I was starting to get a bit fed up, as I had traveled all this way to see two butterflies, both of which I had seen in my garden before I left Scotland!

However, I soon cheered up when a Provence Orange Tip flew past me. Frustratingly, I saw at least two of them, but neither settled at all. Eventually, I just fired off my camera in their general direction and managed to get a picture of a little yellow and orange dot, a few pixels wide, just to prove I had seen them!

At least it now seemed worthwhile struggling down into the valley. On the way back up towards the carpark I saw a couple of Clouded Yellows and Queen of Spain Fritillaries.

So, just five species. Usually, in July I will see about 15 species on this same walk.

I then walked up to the small area where Zullich’s Blues are found. I anticipated I would be too early to see any, but thought it worth checking as I was there. I have sat on a rock up there in the past, eating my lunch, watching Zullich’s Blues sparing with Spanish Argus with the occasional enormous Apollo gliding past. Sadly this year, none of those species were flying yet.

On my way back down to the carpark I did see some Painted Ladies and quite a few Small Tortoiseshells. Also some Wall Browns and a Bath White.

Driving back down the mountain road, I stopped at the viewpoint I have visited in the past. This is a very reliable site and as usual, there were Swallowtails and Iberian Scarce Swallowtails hill-topping there. Also a lot of Wall Browns amongst the scrub. This year there were also quite a few whites flying. Those that stopped allowed me to identify them as Small Whites and Western Dappled Whites.

I was really excited to see a little Panoptes Blue flying there along with two Purple-shot Coppers.

There was also a mystery Skipper that didn’t land for long enough for me to photograph it and a large orange Fritillary whizzing around, which I had no chance to identify! Next I drove down to my favourite spot - a scrubby meadow. 

I will continue this in my next post.

Malaga Butterflies - June 2022

At long last we made it back to Spain this summer  after having to cancel our planned holiday for the last two years. We went to the same villa we have visited on and off for the last ten years, but this year we were joined by our now grown up children and their partners. The villa is on the outskirts of a village called Alora, which is about 45 kilometres north west of Malaga. And this year we went during the first two weeks in June, whereas previously we visited in July, during the school holidays.

Of course, I was interested to see what butterflies I would see one month earlier in the year and not surprisingly, things were quite different. Southern Spain had experienced an unusually wet spring this year and despite a hot spell since, it was noticeably greener than we would see in July. Also, being a little earlier in the year some of the olive groves hadn’t yet had the ground rotovated, so there were still a lot of wild flowers flowering.

Around the villa there were a lot of Painted Ladies, many of them heavy with eggs. I am not sure if this is normal in June, or if they were just having a good year. Every time I walked past a Lantana plant on the drive three or four would fly up.

There were also a lot of Cleopatras flying around the villa and surrounding area. 

There were also a few Brimstones, but they were outnumbered by Brimstone by about ten to one. I don’t think I have seen them before when we have visited in July. Certainly not in the numbers there were this June.

I regularly saw a Long-tailed Blue flying around a Polygala bush and zipping around the garden. However, it never appeared to land for more than a second. Other garden visitors were Small Whites, Geranium Bronzes and the odd Bath White.

Out on the track that ran past the villa was a steep bank, covered in Thyme, which was a big attraction to butterflies (and consequently me!). Here I would regularly see Meadow Browns, Southern Gatekeepers, Spanish Gatekeepers, Small Skippers and Western Dappled Whites.

Early one morning I set off up a steep path to the top of the mountain behind the house. Here I was pleased to see a lot of Wall Browns. It was strange that I only saw them there and not lower down.

There were also beautiful Dusky Heaths along with Clouded Yellows and various other species seen nearer the villa.

A visit to an area next to the River Guadalhorce specifically to look for African Grass Blues. Eventually I managed to find a couple of very worn individuals which were being chased by Mediterranean Skippers.

Other butterflies there were Southern Brown Argus, a Southern Blue and Mallow Skippers.

Generally, I think this was a better time of year to visit, as there were certainly more butterflies flying around. The one butterfly that I normally see in the summer is Lang’s Short-tailed Blue, but we were too early for that. I find it interesting visiting the same area at different times of year. We have now been to Alora in April, June, July and September.