Monday 24th April 2023

The tour continues.

Each day now has the same structure: Get up at about seven, breakfast at half eight, meet at the vans at half nine for the drive to the first site, stay there two hours, drive to next site, have lunch before another two hours searching, and on the drive back to the hotel, one last stop of an hour or so, go to the square for a beer, debrief at seven fifteen before going for dinner at eight.

Rinse and repeat.

Monday was the same as above. Each day the sites and butterflies are different, of course, and we never know if we will see what we hope to see at each site.

Breakfast is simple: a roll or two, yogurt, coffee, then back to the room to prepare to leave.

Unlike the previous tour, we try to rotate which bus we sit in each day, so not to create cliques, I sit in Dave's bus, though Gillian in the front seat talks all say, all day about nothing really, just to fill the silence, and is certain she is right about everything.

Again through the mountains, poor villages, and bright green lush fields before we turn down a track through a forest to come to a wide grass area, which had a small bog at the bottom, too muddy for much exploring, and anyway these early season butterflies don't frequent the bog. Our target was the de Prunner's ringlet.

We wander off, and despite it being warmer than the day previous, butterflies were slow to wake up, so it was an hour really before we saw any. Two tattered Iberian Scare Swallowtails delighted us all, as they fed on fresh Blackthorn blossom, and the usual suspects of Orange Tips, Provence Orange Tips, Queen of Spains all flew through.

Up on the wooded slope, news came that the Ringlets had been found, so we go off to explore, with only a couple of folks getting shots. We did find the first orchid of the trip, a tiny Early Purple growing in the shelter of a hollow.

Dave did manage to catch one of the Ringlets, and tried to keep to cool so when released, it would stay for a few moments before flying off. I have no idea how he did it, I couldn't get close enough to one with my big macro lens, he got so close he could trap it in a pot!

Butterfly ninja skills.

Back down to the vans for a short drive to the lunch site, near a waterfall.

It was already very warm, so I sat on the tailgate while the others went off, however I would be rewarded with fine views of a newly emerged European Swallowtail, an Iberian Sooty Copper and a Green Underside Blue.

Which was all nice.

On the road again to the final site, a narrow country lane leading to a ravine, where in an abandoned field, we had hoped to see the rarest of the lot, a Sooty Orange Tip.

In fact the site was rich in butterflies, with many Blues, and the other Two Orange Tips, a Provencal Fritillary.

A shout went out, and news that a Sooty Orange Tip had been seen, and indeed it had. The flighty butterfly was speeding round the field with half the group in pursuit, it likes only Hoary Mustard to feed on, and it did pause twice, but I wasn't fast enough to get shots. It flew off and was last seen disappearing into the afternoon haze.

It was a short drive back to the hotel, getting back at six, only to find Jools wasn't back.

I was worried, but not needed to have been, as she came in twenty minutes later having had a full day of exploring herself.

There wasn't time to go to the bar, so we sat and talked before I went to the daily debrief, then met up again for dinner.

THe wine flowed, as did the laughs. Again.