Pico Pienzu

A nice walk up to the Pico Pienzu this morning, although the top was shrouded in fog there was still plenty of the usual stuff in the woods on the way up:

Crested Tit
















Firecrest














And back to butterflies again

Long-tailed Blue
















And a Sooty Copper at the hotel from a few days back

Spanish Dross

A few bits ands bobs from around the farm over the last few days, oh and hours of sunshine and temperatures around 30 degrees for the last 2 weeks too.

Cirl Bunting (female)















Cirl Bunting (male)














Queen of Spain Fritillary















Red-backed Shrike (female)















Red-backed Shrike (juvenile), the pair thats been on the farm all summer have hatched 2 young this year

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!

Yet more Butterflies

A bit quiet on the birding front here at the moment, but still plenty of Butterflies about. A few new species today took the hotel list up to 38 (recorded by me since May) which I reckon is pretty good for an 18 acre farm!

Blue-spot Hairstreak, a rather worn individual unfortunately















Cleopatra
















Rock Grayling. What a gay butterfly ,first seen in flight, it looked like a White Admiral with its black upperwings and pale bar, then it lands and "aww what, its only a pissing Grayling", naff!















Goldie-lookin-finch















Large Skipper, loads of these out now













Pearly Heath