Sunday 23rd April 2023

St George's Day.

And the first full day of the tour.

There were a number of target species, so, sites were selected so we could see these. First one of these was the Spring Ringlet, a very rare butterfly of higher meadows.

Breakfast is at half eight, and wheels an hour later, this is because it takes a while for the day to warm up and the butterflies start to bask and fly. Meaning it is a lazy start compared with last year's orchid trip.

Breakfast is in the breakfast bar, to go to, we have to go down the stairs to the ground floor, out onto the street, in the next door, down four flights of stairs, across the patio and down two more flights of stairs.

There is fresh coffee, and break, fruit and the rest of what you would expect. Coffee is seen by staff as the most important, and who am I to argue?

We all piled into the two buses at half nine, Dave and Jon drove us on a winding route along the river valley, then up into the wooded hills, stopping in a nature reserve.

I stare out of the window and take shots of desserted farms and villages, there has been a serious exedus to the cities from here, and it shows.

"We have two hours here, be back at the bus at midday".

And we went off with cameras to hunt for the Spring Ringlets and whatever else we could find.

The day was warming up quickly, and soo the first Ringlet was seen, so we all charge over to get at least one shot, then when that flew away, we hunted more.

I found a fine female Long Tailed Blue, several Queen of Spain Fritillaries, lots of Clouded Yellows, Orange Tips, Small Heaths. We were busy.

By 12, not many Ringlets were seen, but there is another site we will visit in the forthcoming days. So we drove onto the second site, a dry river bed that had formed a gorge, and was now fed by a small stream creating small meadows.

We had lunch first, then had four hours to go and explore. Almost straight away we saw several Green Hairstreaks, and another target species, Iberial Firey Copper, as well as more Queen of Spains and a Provencal Fritillary. Further afied, Wall Brown, regular Small Coppers, Small Blue, Large Tortoiseshells, Painted Ladies, plue the beautiful Provene Orange Tip, whose wings are a yolky yellow rather than white, but the male has the same orange wing tips.

I followed the two guides up a track to try to get shots of Large Tortoiseshells, but after a while my back told me to stop. I stopped where Jon had seen a Large Tortoiseshell earier, so I waited. And sure enough in about five minutes, one came gliding down and landed on a tree, where I could get a distant shot.

It then swooped down and landed on a rock near my feet, allowing me to get some head on shots, before flying off when I tried to change a setting on the camera.

But I had shots.

And then on the way down to the main track, a single Iberian Scarce Swallowtail was drinking from a puddle, and kept circling round me to drink more. I got some fine shots.

And as an encore, I got shots of a Chequered Blue in a boggy area, my muddy socks worth it to see such a fine butterfly.

At half four we drive back, a half hour run up and over a mountain, then back down into the river valley once again. And then back to Albarracín.

Where, after a ten minute breather, we walked to the bar on the square for a couple of beers and a decompress chat over the beers and some pickles on a stick while watching the beautiful people out for a stroll in the evening sunshine.

Dinner was back at the pizza place, where the wine flowed once again, so then did the laughter.