Spain - Day 4

Last night one of the group leaders noticed there was an egyptian grasshopper sitting on the fence outside the hotel.

Having turned down another early hours search for Dupont's Lark in even colder conditions, I took a look this morning and it hadn't moved, very large and looking like something out of a nightmare.

Egyptian Grasshopper

Today we were on the move to our second hotel in Huesca. En route we stopped at a wee lake, where a large numbers of chiffchaffs were indulging in flycatching activities from the reed beds.  You can just about see them in this video:

Chiffchaffs

I must say I've not seen them in numbers in such a location or behaving like this.  Maybe it's a European thing?

At another brief stop I got a brief spot I got a shot of a calandra lark, which would have been great if it had been polite enough to face in the right direction.

Calandra Lark

We were heading for the reserve at El Planeron by which time we could see the changed scenery looming up like a moon landscape ahead.

The Sierra

We were now 1000 metres lower than Gallocanta and the change in temperature was noticeable, also bringing large numbers of butterflies - all of them whites.

  

Once we stopped, I got a nice view of an early season small white as well as the predominant flower common stork's bill according to Google Lens..

Small White

Common Stork's Bill

On going up a hill on the other side of the road I noticed a butterfly that I thought might be a blue.  In fact what I was seeing was the greenish underwing of the bath white, which were present in good numbers though extremely mobile.  I also spotted large white at distance as did another group member.

I was wondering about the possibility of southern small white, which are definitely possible in Northern Spain but saw none.  It makes me think how lucky my sighting north of Tübingen was a couple of years back although they have now been reported in the Southern UK. 

Further along the reserve we stopped again and someone spotted an Iberian Grey Shrike far off on the other side of the road.  I didn't see it until it moved.  

The group then concentrated on a Dupont's Lark audible to the South East of us but I reckoned it was moving more to the South and headed that way along a rough track. 

Noticing a marshy area and having heard some frogs to my right I took a look and saw the (or another) Iberian Grey Shrike perched in the branches, looking like an elongated version of the great grey shrike we sometimes see at home. I carefully got the camera ready and... the only other car we saw there that session rumbled down the dirt track and flushed the shrike!

It flew around a bit and returned briefly to its obvious favourite perching area a couple of times but was obviously spooked and didn't settle.

Huesca Emblem

Meanwhile some of the group who had followed down the track caught sight of the Dupont's lark
hovering at height near some raptors and eventually diving back down.  I took two or three looks through the binocs but couldn't see a _______ thing.

Further on again there was a short-toed lark near Belchite and I was quite concerned to see this huge aggressive-looking horned creature on the horizon entering the Huesca region.

Apparently it's quite common as we saw images of several others.

Nearing the hotel, a flying raptor was identified as red rather than a black kite and I at last got an image of a raptor in flight as well as a shot of a cerin in a tree with some others.

Griffon Vulture

Cerin

Frankly I doubt if I would have identified the cerin from the photo but the photo needed tweaking as the light was pretty dodgy and it was the first one I'd seen since visiting Austria several years ago.

More of vultures later... 

Spain Day 1

As mentioned briefly last time, I spent last week in holiday in Northern Spain. It was a birdwatching trip, Wallcreepers and Cranes in Northern Spain with Naturetrek.  The overall verdict would have to be that, while the cranes were available in massive numbers, the wallcreepers proved distinctly elusive and I only got one distant view.  Inevitably though, I saw a lot of birds that were new to me.  I was also attracted by the fact that previous trip reports indicated that there could be a few butterflies...

Day 1 - 11th February

Painted Lady

It became quickly clear after landing at Zaragoza that Spring weather was in the air and we we quickly saw the first griffon vultures, red kites and others from the vans.  After stopping at Daroca, we took our first walk up to the Torre de San Valero, and evidence of butterflies was soon apparent as we saw small white, large white and bath white flying around early on.  As we got near the tower a good number of painted ladies and red admirals.  My suspicion has been for a while that painted ladies can overwinter in the UK and you'd think these must have done so in Spain.

An even better surprise was the appearance of a scarce copper butterfly within the tower wall. I also found a beefly and a bee the apps have identified as Gwynne's Mining Bee, which seems credible enough to me and one I've never seen before.

Gwynne's Mining Bee

This is by no means to say there were no birds around and the ones I saw (others saw more) were crossbill, crag martin, short-toed treecreeper and some singing woodlarks singing above the power lines.

However, the biscuit was duly taken by another butterfly when we saw a queen of spain fritillary sunning itself on a boulder.  This again surprised me but it appears it can be on the wing throughout the winter months.

Queen of Spain Fritillary

We then set off for our first hotel at Allucant on the Laguna di Gallocanta, which is a massive, shallow salt lake and the key winter destination for cranes.  At 1,500 metres above sea level, winter temperatures still applied but during daytime were still well above those being experienced in the UK.

Having not managed to get any decent bird photos, I was well pleased when we came across some corn buntings in the fields near the hotel and in fact they were all over the trees on the way to the laguna.

Corn Buntings in field

Corn Bunting in tree

I reckoned I could see several blackbirds in the trees but in fact they turned out to be spotless starlings (never heard of!) and indeed you can just about make out the iridescence in the snap I got of this one:

Spotless Starling

And what of the cranes?  Well, we could just about make out a few obscured in haze at considerable distance towards the South end of the lake, which was to be our next destination 

Canal du Midi Part 1

A good deal of time has elapsed since the last post, the reason being that I have spent a long time trying to verify the butterfly sightings on my latest trip abroad, a cycle tour along the canal du midi from Carcassonne to Beziers. I've actually been back just over a week.

Overall, the most surprising thing about the trip was the extent to which butterflies dominated the nature sightings. Apart from the hirondelles, there were remarkably few birds around and other cyclists said the same.  There were scarcely any ducks until nearing the Mediterranean and the only land animals I saw were a couple of goats playing on a woodpile in a timber yard.  I wondered whether the hot, dry weather was at least partly responsible.

The first day was a circle to the Lac de la Cavayere.  All the streams leading into the lake had totally dried out and I gradually worked out that the best place to look was the point where the streams flowed (or didn't flow) into the lake as there was here at least enough moisture to sustain some flowers.

This is where identification problems begun and it's possible I have made the odd error. I was quickly able to identify wood grayling*, clouded yellow, silver-washed fritillary, wood white, white admiral, bath white, spotted fritillary and brown argus. However I encountered some very bright blues that were larger than common blues (also present) and didn't open their wings on settling.  My thinking is that they may have been adonis blues although they lacked the white markings on the underside of the bottom wing.  One I photographed I suspected was more likely to be a chalkhill blue.

Apart from a heron, I did get a quick sighting of a firecrest at the far side of the lake.

Bath White	Black Tailed Skimmer	Adonis Blue?
Chalkhill Blue?	Brown Argus	Clouded yellow**
Meadow Brown***	Wood Grayling*	Silver-washed Fritillary
White Admiral

Spotted fritillary

Wood White

Notes:

* Apparently it is however impossible to distinguish wood grayling from rock grayling without detailed examination

**  The pale form opens up the possibility of Berger's Clouded Yellow or Paled Clouded Yellow, both of which are present at this time of year.

*** Not quite the same as our own version - probably the hispula form

The second day was a trip to Homps along the Canal du Midi and started in light rain - hopefully a bit of relief for the forest fire that could be seen burning in the hills behind Carcassonne.  On the way out of the town there was a chap setting up to fish for carp with some large boilies and heavy tackle, unsurprisingly suggesting that there are large carp in the canal.  But I never at any stage saw them feeding or topping.

Apart from a few finches in a tree on the other side and butterflies already noted yesterday, the only sign of wildlife today was the large number of snails that were clinging to plant stalks along the bankside.

Bulgaria Day 1

I signed up for thje "Flowers and Butterflies of Bulgaria" with Greenwings, looking to relive some of the excitement of last year's holiday in Sri Lanka with less strain and travel.  I knew that I would keep up with the flowers even less than in the UK but that interesting bird and insect sightings would also follow.

Short-tailed blue

After arriving at Sofia airport we stopped off at a nearby river and meadow in sunny weather and the sightings began immediately as clouded yellow and marbled white were quickly seen and were to remain a feature at virtually every location.  Lesser fiery copper and scarce swallowtail soon followed as did short-tailed blue and pearly heath.  These were all first sightings for me but somehow I was most pleased with the blue, which does occur rarely in the UK - irrational, I know.

Nearer the river we heard a nightingale and a green woodpecker, got a good view of an essex skipper (the one I didn't find at Birkdale Forest last year) and our guide Simeon captured a banded demoiselle damselfly in his butterfly net.  Unlike Sri Lanka, it is allowed in Bulgaria to net butterflies. We also had much more freedom to stray from the established paths.

Amongst other butterfly species to turn up at this location were comma, ringlet, meadow brown and common blue.

Banded Demoiselle

Large Skipper

Pearly Heath

Our next stop was at an area of upland heath meadow surrounding a quarry and the commonest species was the rosy starlings that whizzed around all over the place.  They didn't seem quite as pink as the one I saw in Sri Lanka last year but this may have been explained by seasonal differences in colouration and the bright sunlight.

Adonis blue at rest

This was the only time we saw a bee hawk moth, an impressive imitation indeed and I was very pleased to see the adonis blue in flight, as I had heard how beautiful it is.

Other butterflies I saw were the nyobe and spotted fritillaries, great banded grayling, bath white, small heath and small skipper.  More adventurous members of the party got some good bird sightings but easier was the bee eater on the telegraph wires directly next to the road.

We also had some dragonfly sightings including common darter and broad bodied chaser as well as a huge unidentified wasp.

After that we headed off on a rather long and windy journey to our first base at Tehsel in the Western Rhodopes.

Arles Holiday - 20th June

Arles is mainly known for its Roman history and architecure, but what attracted me there were the few van Gogh landmarks and the nature, under which label the main declared targets were bee eater, wallcreeper and white admiral and Bath white butterflies.

Principally with birdlife in mind I rented a bike from the hotel and made for the Marais Du Vigueirat via the cycle track along the navigation channel and Mas Thibert.  The waters of the former looked distinctly carpy and sure enough a couple of anglers were out using notably heavy float tackle that looked more appropriate for pike or catfish - or perhaps to deal with a strong current.

White Admiral

Shortly after stumbling by complete accident on Van Gogh's famous bridge, which in fact appears to be a reconstruction as the original was further upstream, a white admiral flew straight in front of the bike and settled to pose for a photo as a Bath white fluttered nearby. So that, to my surprise and delight, was the key butterfly targets sewn up within an hour or two!  In spite of the name, the Bath white is not present in the UK.

Further down the path something similar happened when a black kite lumbered over in one direction while a purple heron glided along in the other - both first sightings, although both were pretty much expected.  By this time I had already spotted an egret plodging in the paddy fields (rice is grown in the Camargue) that I thought was a little egret, which proved correct as I was soon in a position to compare the three egret varieties.

The experience at the reserve was mixed as, in spite of much research, local guidance and looking around, I did not see the bee eater.  However I did see:

• a beaver in close-up
• a fox running along the wooden path with a vole in uts mouth (twice)
• cleopatra butterfly
• a dragonfly clutching a white butterfly (didn't know they attacked butterflies!)
• an unidentified fritillary (not pearl-bordered)
• great white egrets and little egrets, allowing closer comparison
• cattle egrets, though they were showing more interest in the Camargue ponies than the bulls
• many carp swimming around on the surface of the lake (as below but there were far more than you can see)
• more herons including squacco heron
• marsh harriers
• turtle
• several lizards
• white stork
• magpies all over the place, more kites of both kinds, several wall butterflies, tree creeper, long-tailed tits.

I wondered if there was a reason why the cattle egrets preferred the horses to the bulls.

On the way back, I also noticed what I thought at first was a black bee, but was probably a flying beetle (leatherjacket). I reckon I saw in total eight new species today, the most in one day since I went to Minsmere in 2011.