As there is no LBC sub-site for Overseas Butterfly reports I have posted some notes here as they could be of interest to members;further, there’s not much news re Lincs butterflies at the moment.
As mentioned in the LBC sub-site “Non-Lincs Birding Overseas†above, I stayed for a week (9 - 16 October) in the peaceful and charming Andalusian mountain village of Albanchez (465m :c 1500 ft ASL) some 3 hours’ drive from Alicante Airport and where Peter Cawdell, Chairman of the Lincs Butterfly Branch of Butterfly Conservation, has a family villa. The weather remained fine all week (eg 32°C on 15 October).
We concentrated on 3 mountain chains:
Sierra de los Filabres (highest point - 2168m c. 7900ft ASL which we actually reached (minus a few metres or so) to see the impressive Observatorio del Calar Alto Sierra Cabrera - highest point 960m c. 3500ft ASL Sierra Maria - highest point 2045m c. 7500ft ASL plus some coastal areas.
We were surprised but pleased to identify as many as 30+ species and forms with highlights including:
Plain Tiger - the Andalusian version of the Monarch Bath White - common Southern Small White Mountain Small White Swallowtail Long-tailed Blue Lang’s short-tailed Blue Black-eyed Blue Mallow Skipper Marbled Skipper Southern Marbled Skipper Red-underwing Skipper Striped Grayling Tree Grayling Pale Clouded Yellow/Berger’s Clouded Yellow Clouded Yellow (incl Helice) - common Geranium Bronze Desert Orange Tip - we discovered a colony of 100+ African Grass Blue - we discovered a colony of 50+
Regards
Freddy
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