Tuesday 5th July an Old Flames v

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We saw many more butterflies, birds etc than I was a able to photograph well, but I have included some poor photos just to remind me of some of the things we saw.

It had been a long dry summer, rivers and lakes had dried up and so butterflies and Dragonflies were scarce. Helen's account is at

We reached Malaga Airport, after a 03:30am start and a free breakfast at "Pret a Manger" Gatwick, by about 12;30	Our route from Malaga to Benalup	Reflection in Airport windows	The "Gambrinus" bar, where we waited for some time for Teresa, is on the right. There we met Bill and Neil from our group of 5 plus 2 helpers..
Satellite picture of our lunch stop, a "recreational area", ....	.....and the dry river bed there	Our Minibus at the lunch site on our journey to Benalup	Our Group snaps a butterfly
White poplars in line	Long Tailed Blue	A Green Pine Cone	Helen trying the fitness equipment
A glimpse of Gibraltar from the road	A large Grasshopper	An Osbourn Wine trademark bull looms on the sky line	We stopped at Venta Correro, specialising in "the meat of game," for a drinks break
Inside Venta Correro	Our "Rural Restaurant" motel. "Cortyo de los Monteros" near Benalup in Medina-Sidonia	Bougainvillea on our wall	Our room in the Bullfight themed motel with Bullfight videos rerunning in the bar each evening.
DAY TWO
Route Day 2	Two spot Field Cricket Nymph like the dozens in our room	Moths were gathered daily by Teresa for examination and identification from the Hotel lights left on at night and suitable lit walls, as the group appreciates	Female red veined Darter
	A Cymbalophora pudica - Mediterranean Tiger from the first day's haul	Flame shoulder	Mediterranean Brocade
Olive tree pearl	Mediterranea Corn Borer	Jersey Emerald	Male Grass Processionary
Spurge Hawkmoth, Hyles euphorbiae	Scalloped Barred	Green Shield Bug Carpocoris species	Spurge Hawkmoth
The Toreador portrait that marked our room	Geranium Bronze - Cacyreus marshalli	Helen outside our room	A stone water trough in the courtyard
Squirting cucumber flowers and..	..the fruit	The first stop where the Zellers Skippers were	Female Geranium Bronze…
Prickly Pear dead from......	......cochineal bug infestation. I checked what they were by squashing some (like blood)!	Delphinium gracile	Bryony Ladybird
Snake road kill. We saw no live snakes	Southern Marbled Skipper	Southern Marbled Skipper	Southern Marbled Skipper
Unripe Prickly Pears (they go red)	Jewel bug	Zeller's Skipper	Zeller's Skipper
Benalup	Cowman	To Benalup to buy bread for our daily picnic lunch	Resting in the shade
A Minimart	The Barbate Dunes, our next stop	On the dunes	Neil consults his book in the car park
Mediterranean Chameleon	Spiny-footed Lizard	Sea Daffodils, Pancratium maritinum seeds and...	.. .flowering Sea Daffodils
		Another colour to suit background
	This one was on yellow algae	Street Art? at the picnic spot where we had lunch.	Spanish families picnicking. A two tailed Pasha visited our picnic but I could not photo it. It had ignored the banana bait!
Male red-veined darter	Female red-veined darter	Windmills were everywhere	Large Conehead cricket
Our Rooms	Lamp on our Motel	Decorated gate at the hotel	Egyptian Grasshopper
Internal Courtyard	The Motel Reception	Owners House	Walkway to the Restaurant
Agrotis catalaunensis	Zeller's Skipper	Mantis	Spiny Hooktip
	male Mediterranean Mantis	The eyes have it	Moorish Gecko watched us eat every night
A fighting bull	A picture of Lola Flores (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lola_Flores) NB the old brand mark to the right	A sketch of a Matador	In the bar
Outside at night. We dined on the restaurant patio with our wine, and an sparrow and gecko for company. Breakfast was always in the bar.	A Moorish Gecko in a light	Tiles In our bathroom!	Our Courtyard
DAY THREE
Route Day 3	An Ant lion...	.......face on, waving antennae	Underside of a Crimson Speckled in a net
A rose plus Nut Weevil (out of Focus)	Enlarged Nut Weevil	Mediterranean Brocade	Oak Hook Tip
Tawny Wave	Flame shoulder	Bordered Ermel, Ethmia bipunctella	Wave/Scopula
Australian Tortoise Beetle	Southern Sickle Bush-cricket	Eucalyptus Longhorn Borer, Phoracantha recurva
Bridge over the Barbate where we found the Zeller's Skipper the day before	Grass Processionary	Mint	Iberian Bluetail
Striped Bee	female Violet Dropwing	female Violet Dropwing	female Red-veined Darter
Cotton plant	Bryony Ladybird and Nymph	Cotton Field
Obliging Violet Drop Wing		Violet Drop Wing	Violet Drop Wing
The Group photographing the Violet Drop Wing, photo by Teresa
Small Copper	Crimson Speckled's caterpillar on Squirting Cucumber	Small Whites mating	and a spare male attacks
Cotton plant Flower	Crimson Speckled	Lang’s Short-tailed Blue	Lang’s Short-tailed Blue
Small White	female Red-veined Darter	Small Copper	Moving on. The road on top of the dyke
Long Horn Cows are suspicious	Grazing cattle	Ken contemplates a squirting cucumber, the sign is an understatement	A Kestrel
Sluice Gate	Dried out lake, everywhere was too dry	Thistles	A long dyke
A Crayfish dives down its hole beside the dyke	Limestone Outcrop, Los Canos de Meca from the minibus	Red Wasp scrabbles away	Cueva del Moro lunch stop
Our lunch spot on a limestone outcrop Cueva del Moro with fantastic views all round and, as always, relaxing wine for lunch	Griffon Vultures on the peak	Our lunch stop car park	The Cueva del Moro, Moor's Cave
A Griffon Vulture, most of my pictures of birds were just specks!	The View of the coast. After lunch we went in search of Monarchs	Monarch Caterpillar on a Swan Milkweed	A dell that Monarchs like before we reached their field
Bug Nymph or Red Palm Weevil?	More windmills but no Don Quixote	Longtailed Blue	Migratory bird locust
Longtailed Blue	Mantis religiosa?	The field where the Monarchs flew belongs to an English couple, friends of Teresa	Monarch Caterpillar
Taking off	Monarch	Some of the upper side is visible	Monarch
A very old bull, why not culled?	Monarch again	Flag Iris	Our charming host and her son
DAY FOUR
Helens Location log for Day 4 (Mine failed, pilot error)	Grass Eggar	African Green Mantis	Dumeril’s Rustic
Eggplant Fruit Borer, Sceliodes laisalis		Assassin Bug, Oncocephalus squalidus	A wasp kills a moth
African Green Mantis	Cricket, Modicogryllus (Eumodicogryllus) bordigalensis	Two-spotted footman. Eilema bipuncta	Condica viscosa
Today we tried the Pond first, the satellite view is here	Long Skimmer	Toad at the pond edge	Millipede
Otter footprints and "spraint"	The pond	Long Skimmer	Toad Grasshopper
Violet Dropwing	Neil & Bill leave the Botanical Gardens that we visited next	An Iberian Water Frog looking out from pond in the Botanical Gardens	Iberian Water frog
Alan & Amanda view the Botanical Gardens	Teresa snaps a dwarf fan palm....	Plenty of dates!	Our lunch spot, a grove of gum trees
Bath White	Red Swamp Crayfish that had been in the mud beside the river	Weir on the Barbate nearby	A inexpensive bridge
Vestal	Duck billed weevil (joke) probably Iixus angustatus	The afternoon along the river was productive	Bath White
Female White Featherleg Damsel fly	Two Vestals	Lamenting Grasshopper	Spider
Clouded Yellow	Purple Carpenter Bee	Lang’s Short tailed blue	Migratory bird locust
Longtailed Blue	Clouded Yellow takes off	View of the Weir site on the Barbate River	Toad Grasshopper
DAY FIVE
Route Day 5	We stopped on our way to admire the view of Arcos de la Frontera while Teresa filled up the Minibus	Small White	Long tailed Blue in the "Jardin Botanico El Castillejo", our destination
Ornamental Bush	Bumble Bee	Turpentine Tree fruit	Strawberry Tree fruit
A two tailed Pasha appeared eventually	Two tailed Pasha, they like the strawberry tree	Wall	Sage Skipper
Cleopatra	Sycamore moth caterpillar	Narrow Calle de Las Piedras in Grazalema with our new hotel on it,	Grazalema style house
Grazalema	Grazalema. All houses are white with black ironwork, all of a similar style. What a powerful Town Planning Dept!	Grazalema	The Lounge in our Hotel, Casa de Las Piedras
	Aerial view of Grazalema	One of many informative tile plaques dotted around the town	From the town rampart
A valley farm below	From the town rampart	Through to Hotel Reception	The upstairs terrace, our room opened off it
		A lone Spanish Ibex keeps evening watch	Grazalema at night as we walked home from the restaurant each night after wining and dining
Grazalema alley at night	Grazalema at night	Admiring the "Toro de Cuerda" Monument	The Town Hall, Police station etc
DAY SIX
A small, old, kittenish cat belonging to Sue	Route Day6	View from Sue's house our first stop, she is Teresa's friend and explained about cork production etc	The Cork Oak Forest from Sue's House
Wall	Lacework, Pseudenargia ulicis		Tiny Conehead mantis nymphs in Sue's garden
Cork Oaks in their 12 year cycle	Wainscot moth, Mythimna favicolor is also Pseudenargia ulicis	Walnuts	Walking towards the Reservoir, Arroyo del Fresnillo, this morning's location
Precarious tree	Male Cleopatra	Neil looking for rarities	Small Copper
The group stops to peers down at the latest find, a wingless mantis	Satellite view of the Reservoir	Looking down the path	Ken concentrates on his photo
Yellow Flax	Looking away from the Reservoir	Cardinal Fritillary	Grasshopper, Pseudosphingonotus savignyi
Andalusian Bush-cricket	Large Conehead	Bath White	Looking down on the town from the dam
The Dam	A local feature, a conical hill	Holly Blue	Lang’s Short-tailed Blue on its nectar source
Scarce Swallowtail	Silvery Bee Fly (too fast)	Scarce Swallowtail	The Mirador at Puerto de los Palomas, Pigeon Roost? on our route
View from the Mirador at Puerto de los Palomas and.. ..	....another view	Catch up! But no sign of large spiders here	Oleander by the bridge our next stop
Meadow Brown	Praying Mantis	Under the Bridge	A large herd of milking goats nearby rushed off to be milked as we watched
There is a Copper Demoiselle on that reed down there.. .	... but too far away to snap in focus	I coloured Allan's white hat green, he caught the frog	Praying Mantis
Local landmark hill	We visited the Main square in Grazalema to draw cash from the ATM	Discussion Group	A Memorial to "Toro de Cuerda", a sort of rodeo. Click
DAY SEVEN
Route Home Day 7. I failed to register the outward trip	Paintings in the Hotel Lounge..	...by local artists	Natural colour
	Andalusian Bush Cricket	Andalusian Bush Cricket in another Recreation area where we stopped to search	Agave Americano
Decayed Agave Americano leaves. Do you see the face?		Brown Tree frog	Spiny Toad
Vaucher’s Wall Lizard	A roofless shelter	A Street Light miles from anywhere	Both the same species, spiny toad
Conical Hill again	female Andalusian Bush-cricket	Rocky Ground	A spring at the lunch spot
Petrophora convergata	Beautiful Gothic	Osyris lanceolata
Western Willow Spreadwing	Dried river bed	Bloody nosed beetle or Acinopus Gegantieus?	Smoky Scalloped Oak
Nerium oleander	Stripeless Tree Frog	Praying Mantis	Praying Mantis
DAY EIGHT
An outline of our route	Hidden fish market opposite the hotel open as we set off	Coffee break, mine host in Espera	A frustrated performer and singer!
Spanish ladies at coffee	Off he goes	Cloud pruned Olive Tree, Espera	Lakes: Laguna Salade and Dulce de la Zorilla much reduced by the drought
Rain coming towards us	Grasshopper	Rolling plain landscape	The road "Canada de Jerez a Utera" that we followed
Female Rhinoceros Beetle		Where has the lake gone?	Drinking Trough next to a well
Deep, soft, very sticky mud, cleaning boots took ages! Much like the Somme!	Grumpy looking. Southern Darter	A friendly stray bitch who wanted to come home with us	Liquid Mud
Spanish Terrapin. We saw several empty shells	Sheep with...	......Cattle Egrets
DAY NINE
Route back to Malaga Airport	The Centre of El Burgo	Next door to the coffee shop	Our Coffee Stop
	Bridges over the river Guadalhorce near Pizarra		Pomegranates
Limes	Snail, Otala punctata, quite rare	A tapas bar for our last, varied, tasty lunch but they only served outside under the trees!	Inside the bar. Then on to the airport and the scramble to get on to the plane. Which took off and arrived on time followed by an easy journey home.