A morning search for Spanish Festoon 1st April 2024

[Stevieb]

Amid a gloomy mid-winter Claire, my wife found a decently priced cruise sailing out of Southampton visiting a half dozen ports around the Iberian Peninsular departing 25th March this year. (We are currently still on the cruise, but a sea day allows me some time to write this up.)

My usual prerequisite is I can spend time at a given port looking for butterflies. This cruise would, hopefully, give me a chance of a few hours’ self-exploration in either Gibraltar or failing that, Cartagena in search of that fabulous early spring specialty Spanish Festoon. I have never seen any species of Festoon but have always yearned to see one as I think they are one of the most beautiful and intricate of European butterflies.

The first week of the cruise was a wash out weather wise. A stop at Lisbon enabled us to have a morning touring this delightful city in cold and overcast conditions. We did have the opportunity though to sample the delights of the famously delicious Pastel de Nata’s fresh and hot from the oven.

Our second port of call Cadiz was cancelled due to strong winds and a heavy sea swell preventing the port pilot to board and navigate us in. We therefore continued to Gibraltar where we would spend an extra day, staying overnight in port.

The weather in Gibraltar for both days was torrential rain!

A glimmer of hope, and with regular checks on the BBC weather app, showed that Cartagena, our next stop, was forecast to be sunny with a moderate breeze. I certainly hoped so as this was going to be my one and only chance of getting off ship and heading for the hills in search of the Festoon.
Arriving at the port of Cartagena at 09:00am the weather gods were smiling and with sunrise at around 7:45 the day was looking bright and sunny though a little chilly.

I had done a little bit of research before our departure and taken some snapshots of various potential areas to explore on foot not too far out of the port area. Google maps had estimated a 40-minute walk to some likely looking hills, and this would be my destination. Plenty of time to get there, a few hours searching, then back on board for a late lunch.

[Stevieb]

Outside of the cruise ship terminal were the usual taxis so I decided to chance my luck and see if I could explain where I wanted to go using google maps. After a bit of discussion between drivers one was pretty sure he knew where I wanted to be dropped off so away we went.

10 minutes later he was dropping me off in the middle of nowhere but exactly where I wanted to be. That was a good 30 minutes saved on my allotted time.

Hillside habitat

A gentle meander around the hills brought nothing butterfly wise but lots of singing Sardinian Warblers, a common bird I always associate with my Mediterranean jaunts.

Sardinian Warbler

Sardinian Warbler

Sardinian Warbler

[Stevieb]

As the temperature began to rise I suddenly caught a glimpse of a small butterfly skimming the ground ahead of me. Although not settling I could make out that it was a Spanish Festoon.

I had my quarry in my sights but the loose scree on the slopes made it very difficult to keep a grip whilst trying to keep up with the butterfly. It eventually paused briefly to allow a quick, panicked photo before it was off again. Once again after a bit of slipping and sliding it decided to settle once again. This time for a little longer but again the photo opportunity it afforded me wasn’t the best. I was after the classic spread winged shot in all it’s glory not a hunkered down variation with barely opened wings. Once again it was up and away but this time too far for me to follow.

After awhile I thought I’d change tactics. I had noticed an overgrown abandoned building site adjacent to the hills that was bathed in sunshine. Now to my mind it didn’t look too unsimilar to the habitat found on the hills so maybe a Festoon might think the same.

On arriving at the site, the first thing to fly past me was a Spanish Festoon. This one however was seemingly content to fly around in a small circuit and best of all settling in the classic pose that I so wanted. This one was a real show off and performed admirably affording me ample opportunities for some half decent photographs with both upper and under wing shots.

Spanish Festoon

Spanish Festoon

Spanish Festoon

Spanish Festoon

Spanish Festoon

[Stevieb]

Mission accomplished I headed back on the 40-minute walk to the cruise terminal.

Strangely enough the only other butterfly I saw during my search was a Mallow Skipper, nothing else was on the wing at all.

Mallow Skipper

My next spring trip needs to be Cyprus so I can add Eastern Festoon to my list.

[essexbuzzard]

Well done on your quest for Spanish Festoon. We had dozens of them on Gibraltar a couple of weeks ago, but we now know how lucky we were with the weather!

A great species, I’m glad caught up with them in the end. Your patience paid off!

[selbypaul]

Well done on your search. It's definitely the most beautiful of the Festoon species in Europe, in my opinion.

Sounds like the weather on your trip has been shocking! The Atlantic surface temperatures are so high at the moment, they are generating all sorts of weird weather patterns.

[David M]

Mission accomplished I headed back on the 40-minute walk to the cruise terminal...

Well done, Steve. Definitely worth the effort for such a stunning butterfly.

[Stevieb]

We had dozens of them on Gibraltar a couple of weeks ago, but we now know how lucky we were with the weather!

That's what I was hoping for too plus maybe a Provence Orange-tip but alas no

Well done on your search. It's definitely the most beautiful of the Festoon species in Europe, in my opinion.

Sounds like the weather on your trip has been shocking! The Atlantic surface temperatures are so high at the moment, they are generating all sorts of weird weather patterns.

Thanks Paul. The weather was definitely hit and miss but all's well that ends well.

Well done, Steve. Definitely worth the effort for such a stunning butterfly.

Thank you David.