Butts and Moths 26 June- 03 July 2024
Casa Sarasa Berdún
Spanish Pyrenees
Wednesday 26 June – Arrival Bilbao – Pitillas Lagoon, Berdún
On a hot sunny June day the group arrived at Bilbao airport where Helena Parga and Peter Rich, both local guides from Spain were waiting with the vans for the start of the 2024 Butterflies and Moths of the Spanish Pyrenees, or “Butts and Moths”, as we end up calling it. Just 40 minutes outside Bilbao we stopped for lunch at an excellent motorway service station before continuing to the Pitillas Lagoon, some 40kms south of the city of Pamplona.
Sitting surrounded by both irrigated and non-watered farmland, the Pitillas Lagoon is an endorrheic body of water that is regulated only by rainfall and evaporation. This spring of 2024 had been fairly cool and wet, so the water level was very high when we arrived, despite the fierce sun and temperatures in the mid 30s. Dozens of Red-veined Darters flitted around, sometimes posing beautifully as the golden fermales contrasted with the red males, while in the reed beds we came across six other species of bluets, damsels and demoiselles. A Zitting Cistícola zitted away until coming to rest on some reeds, giving everyone some fine views, while out on the water, Black-winged stilts, Little Grebe and Black-headed gulls gave the birdwatchers plenty to scope out, while Swifts, Barn swallows and Red-rumped swallows coursed over the nearby fields. And there were plenty of butterflies too, to get the holiday off to a good start. A pair of mating Adonis blues were on clear view, while other butterflies that were to become regulars for the rest of the week made their first apperances, including Cleopatra, Chapman’s blue, Southern Gatekeeper and Spotted Fritillary. A novelty for this holiday was discovering some Mediterranean Skippers lurking near the stone wall of the visitors’ centre.
The Pitillas Lagoon is unusual habitat for this holiday, and something of a boon addition as we now fly to Bilbao and not to Zaragoza. It gives a chance to enjoy some more mediterranean terrain with the added advantage of providing a big reed red and lots of aquatic birds. There is some good flora too, especially spikes of Echium italicum and clumps of the spectacular meditteranean Albardine grass Lygeum spartum. It makes for a very interesting first stop on our way to Berdún.
Satisfied, but hot, we piled back into the vans before heading on to Berdún, our base for the week. At Casa Sarasa, Marta Gonzalez with Javi and Elena, gave us a warm welcome and the first of many delicious dinners.
Thursday 27 June – Berdún and the Fago Gorge
The wild-flower meadow and rows of lavender at Casa Sarasa had plenty of insect activity to keep the early risers entertained just outside the front door as Helena and Peter did some juggling with the vans. It was hot and close as we set off on our first exploratory walk directly from the house. Walking along the pathway immediately behind the hotel, past our old favourite Lizard Orchid, we came across the first Spanish Swallowtail, Spanish Gatekeepers and Southern White Admiral as well as a host of other invertebrates buzzing around the wayside flowers. The last of the year’s nightingales sang for us as we made a stop in the village cemetry. Spanish cemetries anre unlike British ones, so there was an opportunity to learn about local culture as well as enjoying the wildlife. Peter’s explanations were interrupted by a pale-phased Booted Eagle cruising slowly overhead, while the Rock sparrows earned their Spanish common name of “Gorrión chillón” – or whining sparrow with their incessant chirping amongst the tombstones..
We headed down to the Veral river, through the grey, eerily sculpted marl layers known as the Badlands. Swallowtail, Spanish Chalkhill Blue and Pearly Heath were amongst the butterflies spotted, and once we got down to the lusher vegetation in the shade of the poplar trees we quickly started noticing the Hairstreaks , as Blue-Spot, False Ilex and Spanish Purple were found, while on a patch of mud we found a pristine Long-tailed Blue. This short walk of little more than a kilometre and a half had taken the better part of 3 hours, and the day was becoming progressively hotter and more humid, so it was a welcome sight to find one of the vans waiting for us at the walk’s end to save the hot walk uphill back to base.
We drove to the nearby Fago gorge, a limestone chasm with a narrow winding road that runs along the top. First stop was our picnic lunch at a spot with fabulous views of the gorge below and the rocky crags all around. Eating was interrupted by birding, as Griffon Vultures glided over, a Peregrine zoomed by and a Melodious warbler perched in full sight. Then we slowly ambled along the road, upstream, enjoying the flower-rich rocks and verges. Blue-spot and False Ilex hairstreaks were abundant, as were Marbled Whites, Cleopatras, Brimstones, Spanish Gatekeeprs and Essex Skippers. A very obliging Dusky Meadow Brown landed on someone’s forearm, while a Stick Insect and later on a Praying Mantis caused a lot of excitement. There was a general abundance of butterflies here on this 2km stretch of road, with dozens, sometimes more, of individuals of maybe 15 different species, flitting from Scabious to Santolina flowers and into the oak trees overhanging the road. An Osiris blue was spotted but later debate downgraded this to a Mazarine, and a couple of Weaver’s Fritillary were particularly fresh. Botanical highlights included some beautifully flowering Thick-leaved stonecrop and the enigmatic Leuzia conifera pretending to be pine-cone and a ground thistle at the same time. Satisfied and hot, we returned to Casa Sarasa for cool drinks, reference books and the comfortable meeting room before dinner.
