Casarabonela butterflies June 2024

A couple of days before we left Spain I decided to visit Casarabonela, which is a beautiful village about 20 minutes drive from where we were staying. I have visited a couple of times before and always noted how much greener it is there. Even this time during the extreme dry spell there was still water running in a stream there and I could hear water running in a deep ravine in the middle of the village.

Looking at Google Maps I chose a car park on the northern edge of the village, high on the hill. I was a little disappointed when I arrived, as it was a dry dusty area below a Pine woodland. However, I spotted a couple of butterflies in the car park - a very ragged Geranium Bronze and a Southern Brown Argus.

As I set off on a marked trail up the mountain I spotted an area of Thyme growing above the car park, so I scrambled up to it and I was delighted it was covered in butterflies.

These included Southern Marbled Skippers, Sage Skippers, Small Whites, Dusky Heaths and Southern Blues.

I was also distracted by the arrival of an Iberian Scarce Swallowtail.

I continued up the trail and saw an extremely worn Blue-spot Hairstreak and the odd Dusky Heath on my way.

After a while I came across another area of Thyme. This time there were Small Coppers, Spanish Gatekeepers and Clouded Yellows as well as numerous Dusky Heaths.

Along the path there was the occasional Wall Brown and Speckled Wood.

And then a little further up the path I saw two large Lavender bushes. There were two Cleopatras continually flying around them, briefly stopping for less than a second on a flower before doing another couple of laps.

They were occasionally joined by a Clouded Yellow and more Dusky Heaths!

I noticed that the Thyme close by was covered with butterflies and this area appeared to be a real magnet for them. There was a Striped Grayling, Southern Brown Argus and loads of Dusky Heaths.

There were also some Large Whites, as well as more Wall Browns and Meadow Browns. It really had been worth the climb!

Before I left Casarobonela I decided to check out a ravine in the centre of the village. This had housing and a street above one side with olive and citrus trees growing down the other. In the bottom of the ravine were fig trees and small areas of vegetables. I could only view this area from above, but as on my previous visit I saw a number of Holly Blues flying amongst the fig trees, as well as some Large Whites.

It had been a fantastic two-week holiday to Spain. I now have various favourite spots to visit to look for butterflies when I am there. All together I saw 50 species on this trip, which was primarily a family holiday! It was great to see that butterflies appear to be doing well despite the extremely dry year they have experienced in Spain.

Antequera, Spain - Butterflies June 2024

On 21 June I drove up towards Antequera to walk along a track that runs along the north side of the Torcal de Antequera. The track itself is about three kilometres until it joins another track that heads up into the Tocal. However, I have never managed to walk that far because usually I see so many butterflies I run out of time and have to turn back!

I parked the car at the side of the road and spied a large bank of brambles growing at the start of the track. This proved to be quite a magnet for butterflies. The first I was was a little dark butterfly that turned out to be a Spanish Gatekeeper when I caught up with it.

As well as the numerous Small Whites there were some Long-tailed Blues and Bath Whites feeding here.

As I walked along the track I saw Southern Gatekeepers amongst the Thyme growing on the hillside. I must have seen over 50 of them in total.

A very large dark butterfly flew up from under a bush as I walked past and then disappeared, but I soon saw another, which I saw was a Striped Grayling. In total I counted over 30 of them and at one point I disturbed four of them along with some Meadow Browns and Southern Gatekeepers, all sheltering in the shade of one small bush.

Another butterfly that behaved in the same way was the Wall Brown. They would also shelter in the shade and fly up when disturbed, only to land in another shady spot. It was afternoon when I visited and I think that the butterflies would have been less active earlier in the morning.

The smaller butterflies were so active it was difficult to see what many of them where. Most of the smaller ones turned out to be Southern Blues.

There were also quite a few Southern Brown Argus there.

I saw this one Small Copper. It was interesting how big it seemed. I think it was the same size as those that I see back home, but it just seemed large in comparison to the smaller Southern Brown Argus and Southern Blues.

There were also some Lang's Short-tailed Blues to add to the confusion.

There were a few Sage Skippers in the mix, too.

It was a bit frustrating that on the few occasions that a butterfly would settle, it was soon disturbed by another one flying past! I tried to check out all of the white butterflies I saw. Most of them were Small Whites, but I saw about ten Bath Whites and a couple of what could have been Green-veined Whites. They seemed slightly smaller, very active and their upper wing markings looked correct. However, they didn't stop long enough for a photo, so I will never be sure what they were!

I think I saw about four Clouded Yellows on my walk. Maybe there were more, but I just assumed that I was seeing the same ones regularly as they patrolled up and down the track. One in particular caught my eye. It appeared to have no black markings on its wings. I spent ages trying to get a good picture of it, but it was as active as all the other butterflies. The pictures below give a bit of an idea of how beautiful it was.

I had said to the family that I would only be a couple of hours and I had already used up my allotted time on the first section of the track. I thought that while I was there I should quickly walk through the two stubble fields to a different section of the path, but these sections were really exposed and windy and there were no butterflies at all. I therefore quickly walked back along the track to the car.

On the way back it was difficult not to be distracted by the butterflies and one of the blue butterflies seemed particularly fresh and colourful. It kindly stopped on a grass stem in the middle of the track for some time and I managed to get a picture. It was then I realised that this was an Adonis Blue. My first definite sighting and my fist picture of an Adonis Blue!! It hung around for a while and allowed me to take several pictures. Sadly, never with its wings open, but it was a real thrill.

Eventually I had to tear myself away, but I was very happy to have seen it, the unusual Clouded Yellow and so many striped Graylings.

Malaga Butterflies June 2024

We have just returned from a lovely holiday to the Malaga region of Spain. We were based in Alora, which is about 45 miles north west of Malaga. This was our sixth visit to the area. For our first four visits we were there in the first two weeks in July, two years ago we were there for the first two weeks in June and this year it was the last two weeks in June. It was interesting to compare what butterflies I saw this time with previous visits.

I normally only see Wall Browns high on the hills, but this year they were also along the track close to the villa.

Of course the weather can make a tremendous difference. This year the locals were concerned that there had been virtually no rain for about a year. Lemons and Oranges that should have been harvested last October/November were still hanging on the trees, because they were not good enough to harvest and the landscape looked very dry with hedges and trees dying because of the lack of water. There had been really heavy downpours in other areas of Spain causing flooding, but this area was particularly dry.

Interestingly, the dry weather didn’t appear to have had an impact on butterfly numbers. There were far more Small Whites flying everywhere than I have previously seen. I was really impressed with the flower beds in the centre of Malaga, which were all planted with either native plants, or plants that attracted bees and butterflies, particularly Small Whites.

Small Whites were by far the most common butterflies on this visit.

Unfortunately my usual walk from the villa we rent has been blocked by a new fence. It was a well-used path up the hill and living in Scotland where we have quite liberal access rights it seemed odd that a landowner could block a path like this.

However, I walked along the local tracks and found some new spots where there were plenty of butterflies.

The top of this unassuming hill proved to be a real hot spot for Swallowtails, Long-tailed Blues and Wall Browns. 

I also visited a few great places for butterflies that I have found on previous visits, including the Sierra Nevada mountains, a track near Antequera and a lovely village called Casarabonela, which always seems much greener and more lush than anywhere else around here. In total I managed to identify 51 species of butterflies this holiday and missed several other fly-by species which didn’t stop to let me see what they were.

It seems amazing that so far the dry weather doesn’t appear to have impacted on butterfly numbers. I am not sure if this will continue to be the case, if they don’t have rain soon, as surely the food plants for many species will be drying up.

The one species that I noticed wasn’t present was the African Grass Blue. They like damp grassy areas and I often see them down by the river. However, this year the grass there was dried up. They also like irrigated grass in parks and towns, but water restrictions mean that such areas are not being watered.

We visited the reservoirs at Guadalhorce, which supply much of the water for Malaga. They are currently at 20% of their capacity and are dramatically lower than they were two years ago when we last visited. This was another place where I have seen African Grass Blues in the past, but despite searching I didn’t find any. This year, though, there were a lot of Southern Blues in the same locations.

A nice surprise was to see Monarch butterflies drifting in and out of the lovely big park in the centre of Benalmadena. I wish I had had more time to go into the park to see what other butterflies there were there.

Having erienced a very wet few months in Scotland I don’t often wish it would rain, but I really hope that southern Spain gets some rain this coming winter to replenish the area. Here are a few of the butterflies I saw in the area.

Bath White.

Several Clouded Yellows were attracted to a clump of thistle-like flowers down by the river.

I used to find Dusky Heaths up the path that has been blocked off. Luckily this year there were some along the edge of the track by the villa.

There were two or three Geranium Bronzes flying around the villa garden and laying eggs on the Geraniums. In Alora each planter
down the main street had three or four Geranium Bronzes on the Aptenia cordifolia - a succulent plant with red flowers.

Long-tailed Blues could be found anywhere where Thyme was growing.

 A small patch of Thyme at the side of the track had Small Whites, Long-tailed Blues and this Lulworth Skipper on it. This was
the only one I saw this holiday.

Meadow Browns tended to hide away from the sun, preferring shade under the scrub.

Mediterranean Skippers were very plentiful. In the past I have only seen one or two in the area.

I only saw one Painted Lady close to the villa.

Sage Skippers were all along the tracks. They tended to fly up when disturbed and whiz around, returning to close to where they
had taken off.

I think I only saw this one Small Copper near the villa.

I love these beautiful Southern Brown Argus.

The Southern Gatekeeper is another butterfly that prefers to stay in the shade. Some years they can be really numerous.
This year there weren't so many.

I was delighted to see a Striped Grayling on the track near the villa. They can be quite common, but I have never seen them there before.

There were a couple of Swallowtails hill-topping on the small hill pictured earlier on in the post.