Sunday, July 15, 2007

Fritillary Fest

A trip out to the very western border of the picos de europa yesterday to a little known spot along the Rio Dobra around the 1000m mark was very productive for wildlfowers and butterflies, along with a few of the usual birds; griffon vultures, rock bunting, chough etc.

We had an awesome 6 species of fritillary at the site, Queen of Spain, High Brown and Meadow which were all new for me, along with Silver-washed, Provencal and Spotted.
Also 3 species of orchid; Man, Bee and Heath Spotted, along with plenty of other good flowers.


Heath-spotted Orchid




















Spanish Rusty Foxglove





















Yellow Snapdragon




















Purple Shot Copper














Queen of Spain Fritillary

















Spotted Fritillary

















High Brown Fritillary































Martagon Lilly

















Provencal Fritillary













Bee Orchid














Biting Stonecrop















Western Grreen Lizard?














Heath Spotted Orchid close up, a very variable species!

3 comments:

Shirley said...

Hi Joe,

I came across your blog at the beginning of the year. I’m Shirl of shirls gardenwatch ( http://blog.shirlsgardenwatch.co.uk/. )

On March 3rd, this year, you posted photos on a lunar eclipse. I was out with my video camera and didn’t get very good shots but hey, we enjoyed watching it. Today (sorry yesterday by 13 mins) I have posted on the annual Perseid meteor shower (http://blog.shirlsgardenwatch.co.uk/2007/08/meteors-tonight.html ) and I have linked back to your post.

I will take a guess that you are away travelling but I thought I would say Hi!

Anonymous said...

Hi Joe,

Sure your High Brown isnt a Dark Green. I cannot see any 'eye' spotting on the underwing typical of High Brown.. Cheers Gareth

Joe Cockram said...

Hi Gareth,
thanks, just looked it up and it is indeed a Dark Green Fritillary. I'll stick to birds from now on!!!

cheers