Holiday to Spain 2017 part 1

[Philzoid]

Whenever I go on a family holiday these days the first thing I look for is its potential to satisfy my main leisure interest of looking for butterflies and wildlife in general. Therefore, I wasn’t too optimistic on the outcome of an August holiday to southern Spain in the grip of a heat-wave. For sure I would get to see some butterflies but how would it compare to my August holiday in the midi Pyrenees in France or even the one to the same location in Spain but in late December
My concerns to some extent were founded but with a bit more effort and leg-work it proved to be a very rewarding experience. My finds would be better served on a website entitled “Spanish Insects” (with bits of other flora and fauna thrown in) rather than UK butterflies so I hope you won’t mind that butterflies will only represent about 2/3 of the pictures I will be showing .

My daughters’ interests in butterflies amounts to no more than a casual one these days as hand held devices hold sway . This has its spin-offs on occasion when their increasingly technically challenged and technophobic dad (me) needs help finding his way. My eldest is a valuable co-pilot on uncharted car journeys and in helping me unravel the meanings on websites with their multitude of rules and conditions, basically all the information that accompanies everything (that is deemed necessary for one to function effectively in the modern world) that I’m trying get away from . One example on this holiday was I’d brought along my favourite CD music discs only to find the hire car didn’t have a player . No matter, my daughter downloaded the tracks on her mobile and blue-toothed them in (whatever that is). The only catch was she put in a load of her own stuff into the playlist too .

Anyway, before I stray even further off topic: - …. For this holiday, I took three cameras: - my Canon D600 with a Sigma 70mm macro and 1.4x convertor (for insect close-ups), my Panasonic Lumix FZ/72 with its 20 -1200x zoom for birds (and awkward butterflies) and my Panasonic Lumix G3 (14 – 42mm lens) for the holiday snaps. The latter is the one I tend to hand over to the others when I’m feeling burdened with three cameras around my neck (cos it’s the least liked of the lot). I normally take a Canon D1100 but the EOS 18-55mm IS lens is on the blink and I couldn’t stomach shelling out for another (wished I had in hindsight).

05/08/17 Midday.
The first thing that’s apparent when you arrive at your destination and leave the confines of the car is the sound of the Cicada. It could be described as music to a naturalist’s ears or as an annoying incessant din . Whatever, it didn’t take me long to locate one and get off a snap. Cicada’s featured a lot during my holiday and turned out to be one of the commonest insects (even) seen.

Another insect which caught my attention while we waited to our apartment to be readied, was the little Orange Drop-wing dragonfly (Trithemis kirbyi) by the reception fountain.

I explored the main resort reception area gardens before our transfer to Las Farolas was finalised but didn’t see any butterflies and was hoping it wasn’t a sign of things to come . Our apartment was on the ground floor of a block of 12 and looked out across a well-tended garden and swimming pool. The eye-line was thankfully uninterrupted through a promising looking area of waste ground up to La Cala Mijas on the coast. A smashing view to be fair .

The only problem with Las Farolas was its isolation from the main complex with its reception, shops bars and restaurants, realistically only accessible by driving to it.

I looked forward to exploring the waste ground area (which I will call “My Patch 1” (MP1) in future references), but initially the garden needed checking out. As anticipated (thankfully) the usual suspects turned up: - Cacyreus marshalli; Geranium Bronze; Zizeeria Knysna (African Grass Blue) and Parage aegeria aegeria (Speckled Wood), the latter proving the most difficult to photo. In fact, in the baking heat virtually all the insects were alert, moved fast and the strong light and shadows made it a challenge to photo them. Therefore, some of the photo quality in these postings is not up to scratch .

Geranium Bronze

African Grass Blue

A large part of the garden was down to lawn made from a coarse-leaved grass. On this grass, I often saw small groups of the tiny African Grass Blues flitting around only inches from the surface. It took a few days in before I got a reasonable pic though (plus I hate having to get down to ground level these days).
Another insect(s)/insect group to note were the wasps. There were tonnes of them but mainly of Polistes sp. (paper wasps). Every morning the gardener fished out their drowned corpses from the swimming pool. Never felt threatened from any of the wasps I encountered although there were a few big blighters .

06/08/17.
The next morning, I was up at sunrise while the others slumbered, made a cup of tea, sorted out my cameras and went out to explore MP1. It was still too early and cool for the Cicada’s to be out of their slumbers but it didn’t take long for them to get going. Like an orchestra warming-up the drone increases until they’re all at it. After the holiday, I concluded that there was more than one species but predominantly it was Cicada orni that I was seeing.

The area that I was in was rocky underfoot and covered in an impenetrable amount of weird and wonderful thorny plants (ironically the worst one turned out to be the bramble (is there anywhere where this plant doesn’t grow ))

Blue-banded bee species

After photographing the Amegilla sp. Blue-banded Bee (a species of which I’d seen in Tenerife) (nectaring on Carthamus arborenscens Yellow Woody Thistle (I think) a very common plant which provided a useful nectar source for many insects) I found a better area of MP1 to explore, one which had a track running through it and where the vegetation was less dense . Soon afterwards I discovered my first butterfly away from the apartment, an overgrown ‘Grizzled Skipper’ which I think is Pyrgus cirsii (Cinquefoil Skipper … a lifer) but would welcome confirmation on that one . This was quickly followed by a Pyronia cecelia (Southern Gatekeeper ..a probable lifer (have never been 100% on the one in France)): a lolloping Brown butterfly which preferred to stay close to ground and try and hide rather than fly away.

Pyrgus cirsii (or not?)

Anyone have an i.d for this assassin bug please?

Moving along the path/track on a slight elevation the vegetation thinned out and stony ground became populated by bushes that looked like they were dripping with dew but which turned out to be a clear sticky resin . I then spotted a huge black bee collecting nectar but it proved difficult to photo in focus. The wings at the right angle of light showed up as electric blue … a violet Carpenter Bee

I’ve since read a little about these insects. Apparently, they have started to establish in the UK and are reputed to be gentle giants (which I’m sure they are) but my impression was that if they could speak they’d tell you to “get lost”. They were fully aware of your pursuing presence and if you persisted in getting in close would occasionally face you off or fly towards you (enough to make you back off). I’m not going to mess with a huge bee whatever it reputation .
On my way back to the others, I came across the or another Cinquefoil Skipper and a couple of Southern Gatekeepers. Just before exiting a Scarlet Darter (Crocothemis erythraea) presented itself for its picture.

24 hours in and 5 species so far … not bad. Next port of call for me and the family was the lovely little hill-town of Mijas.

07/08/17 .... was a repeat of the previous morning with me going further along the track in MP1. Throughout all my explorations I was trying to get photos of the birds but the few that I saw were very elusive or in the case of flew too fast to capture. Many were common species seen in the UK such as House Sparrow, Blackbird, Collard Dove and Woodpigeon. There were often little groups of finches comprising of Greenfinch; Goldfinch and Serin (the latter I’d not seen before). Flying around at first light were House Martins; Swifts; Barn Swallows and Red-rumped Swallows (the latter new to me). I went out further along the track which after the elevation, descends pretty sharply towards the main South coast road artery, the “A-7”.
Note: -Coming back from Mijas the evening before, I’d taken a wrong exit and ended up on the parallel toll road the “AP-7” (virtually no cars and seemingly no speed limits) which cost me 4Euros and 68 cents not to mention the extra fuel and lost time . Sussing out all the relevant turn-offs to and from the A-7 took a few days to achieve.
It was then that I spotted my next amazing creature: - Argiope lobata a huge wasp spider sitting in the middle of its large web.

The grasshopper and lacewing below are probably some of the wasp spider’s prey. If anyone can identify them that would be appreciated

I was at a dead end of MP1 so made my way back and encountered the same or another ‘Cinquefoil Skipper’ in the same area as the previous day. The butterfly never moved far and was one of those species you could approach carefully to get in close.

Satisfied I’d taken enough pictures I moved onto a male epaulet Dragonfly which had come into the area.

I didn’t stay long with the dragonfly however as I spotted another butterfly (or was it a cicada or grasshopper? …sometimes it was difficult to tell). It was a butterfly, another skipper a plain-marked and a faster flying one too: Gegenes nostrodamus: - the Mediterranean Skipper .

So another successful foray into the thorny wilderness … 6 species my tally now with more to come later on in the day (part 2)

[Philzoid]

After viewing some more of my images I've had second thoughts about the 'Cinquefoil Skipper'. It may be Muschampa proto or Sage Skipper

Phil

[Chris Jackson]

Hi Phil,
I'll go with Sage Skipper. It looks like those that fly in the South of France. A nice find. A lifer for you ?
Chris

[David M]

Yes, Sage Skipper seems the perfect match, and given that Chris has plenty of experience with this species, I'm sure he's right.

[Philzoid]

Thanks for your comments guys ... always welcome . I was never convinced I had Cinquefoil Skipper hence the question mark and request for i.d assistance. I’d had suspected Sage skipper and when going through one of my later pictures I thought the butterfly was on a sage plant which alerted me to go back and look again.

A lifer for you ?

Yes Chris, both the Mediterranean and Sage skippers are lifers . My only other non-UK skippers are Pygus malvoides (Southern Grizzled Skipper) and Carcharodus alceae (Mallow Skipper).

I have a few more ‘Grizzled Skipper' pics to show including some slightly blurred undersides but I now suspect that they are all Sage Skippers

Phil

[Padfield]

A useful ID point to know for sage skippers, if you have undersides to confirm, is that they lack a pale spot at the base of s.1 on the underside of the hindwing. You can see this in both the underside shots above.

Guy

[Philzoid]

A useful ID point to know for sage skippers, if you have undersides to confirm, is that they lack a pale spot at the base of s.1 on the underside of the hindwing. You can see this in both the underside shots above.

Thanks Guy ! I'll make sure to check the others before I post and make any corrections where necessary.

Some of my blues may the corrective treatment too (hope they do, otherwise they are all icarus)

Phil

[Matsukaze]

I was paddling in the sea at La Cala a few months back, in rather more wintry conditions than you will have had. In winter the rocky parts of the beach are frequented by turnstones. I remember small whites and very fluttery blues which would never settle anywhere that would allow a good look at them.

Zizeeria is a favourite of mine but next to impossible to photograph, as it is too small to find when it goes to ground.

[Philzoid]

In winter the rocky parts of the beach are frequented by turnstones

Hi Matzukaze. Yes, Turnstones were a feature when I went there back in 2015: - 27/12/15 - 02/01/16. (see pic)

I have a few more Zizeeria to follow but I agree they can be hard work to photo

[Wurzel]

What's all this 'I hardly saw anything' you've been giving it - you've already bagged four species that would be lifers for me Great shots of the Skippers in particular but you've also really captured the dragonflies well Mind you I need to give t a little bit before reading part 2 to let the Med and Sage Skipper envy pass

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Philzoid]

Hi Wurzel
It wasn’t France …. but it wasn’t bad and I might’ve underestimated the number of lifers I’d got (It tails-off a bit in part 2). The good thing was I had a bit more time to play with thanks to a nature reserve being beside the beach and our accommodation having a swimming pool to keep the others happy. In France, I did a lot more driving to visit places and so had to do more of my butterflying ‘on the hoof’. Mind you I still had a ‘day off’ to do my own thing so the 40 species in a week that I got in France was a measure of just how good things were out there … even in August .
The “Spanish insects” is a good theme, plenty of other stuff to keep you absorbed when searching for butterflies (and pad out the report). Coping with the heat was the main challenge as you know from when you went to the Czech Republic. I’d, love to swap a few of my lifers (but not the Med Skipper ) for the species you saw out there .

More butterflies and plenty of ‘padding’ still to come .

[aeshna5]

Think the assassin bug is a Rhynocoris sp + the grasshopper a Calliptamus.