Sunday 15
March – hills above Pego
It was a day of
various stops for pottering or particular wildlife highlights, with sites for
particular orchid species often prompting the locations. The first of these, in
an open area having driven up through woods, was for conical orchid Orchis
conica. The orchids were rather underwhelming, though the general area was
so nice it hardly mattered. The supporting cast of flowers, outshining the
orchid, included the silver-leafed pea argyrolobium, star-of-Bethlehem and a
red-flowered houndstongue. A broomrape didn't seem to fit any in the book and
Pau checked with a friend who confirmed it as Orobanche lastiquama, parasitic
on rosemary, and not in the book. A trilling sound revealed at least two
crested tits that fed for a while in an open tree. Beyond them, Christina
picked up on two distant raptors which, as they neared us, proved to be
short-toed eagles.
Cynoglossum cheirifolium
We moved onto Vall
de Gallinera where orchards of cherries in blossom were a delight and prompted
many photos.
Moving on, we
stopped at the Mirador del Xap (pronounced 'chap'). We looked down onto manna
ash and a bright blue-grey male blue rock thrush. A prostrate tiny white
labiate – I called it Teuchrium alpestre at the time, but later study
showed it was Sideritis romana – and white rock-rose
were new flowers. The seriousness of the Spanish government's state of
emergency in response to coronavirus was brought home by a Guardia Civil
vehicle questioning what we were doing out and about rather than being confined
indoors.
Provence hairstreak (Pau Lucio).
Our next stop included
our picnic lunch in the countryside somewhere in the Vall d’Ebo. Pau caught a
Provence hairstreak which after release then settled on the ground and there
were many flowers of Centaurea pullata. We'd paused here as there's a
pond tucked out of sight, well off-road. The pond was alive with frogs and the
buzz of many bees landing alongside white-flowered water crowfoot. We couldn't
find the hoped-for winter damselfly, though recently-emerged red-veined darters
perched helpfully still in the warm sunshine.
Red-veined darter (Pau Lucio).
Moving on, next
stop was a roadside where Pau knew there would be Italian man orchids, more
typical than the single undersized specimen at Xap, and large numbers of the
yellow-edged Ophrys lucentina. Grass-leaved buttercup Ranunculus gramineus
was a nice find here. Then there was a brief photo-stop for a large, deep pink
pea: Lathyrus pulcher (= L. tremolsianus).
At the next roadside stop unusual seed pods were on
noted, twisted on Scorpiurus and a spiral on large disc medick. A pristine
swallowtail fed on a bloom of pitch trefoil. A very large pink snapdragon was later
identified as Antirrinum controversum (also
called A. barrelieri) and a tiny yellow one as Linaria oblongifolia
subsp. aragonensis – the photos on florasilvestre.es/ for the latter were
taken here at Vall de Gallinera. Under some dense rosemary, we looked at the
scarce and local Ophrys dyris[1]
Our final stop was
by a hillside that looked like any other, where Pau knew we could find Orchis
olbiensis, the Iberian version of early purple orchid. They were in a range
of shades of pink plus one that was almost pure white.
Monday 16
March – at Hotel Casa Babel
The curfew for
everyone to stay inside really kicked in today. Dawn and I fetched belongings
left in the minibus in the hotel's secure car park a couple of small streets
away, and even for that Gemma on reception was cautious, though the remote
control for the car park at least established a good reason to be out. We heard
a loudspeaker announcement in Spanish, and I could make out enough to hear that
it was stressing the need to stay inside. So that's what we did all day, though
I did walk to the nearby supermarket for essential supplies, namely chocolate.
Some did a little birdwatching from the hotel's roof or took the air in the
hotel's courtyard, until blue sky turned to clouds and it started to rain. At
least we'd missed the worst day, weather-wise. Pau joined us for dinner -
essential work for him, of course.
Tuesday 17 March
– return
We had an early
breakfast at 7:15 to allow a departure at 8:15. Traffic was light as we
returned to the airport, having first topped up the minibus with fuel. The
airport was relatively quiet, with many people wearing face masks despite the widespread
advice that they are ineffective. Karin & Brennan safely returned to
Germany. The rest of us were on the same flight as we expected to be on, though
now called an easyJet ‘rescue’ flight with a new flight number and new boarding
passes. We returned to Gatwick and to self-isolation and social distancing as measures
to tackle coronavirus were tightened back in the UK.
[1] Dyris is the name given
by Roman naturalist Pliny to the mountains of the Moroccan Atlas.
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