last month i went to the costa del sol for the week april 11th-18th. not a birding holiday but i managed to pick up a few bits inc 5 lifers - bonellis, orphean and olivaceous warblers, flamingo and white-headed duck. this is my third visit to this area cos its such an easy holiday, unfortunately that corner of spain is comparatively bird poor - eg the straits of gib are in view but the only migrating bop i saw all week was a short-toed eagle! i also gen'd up on what herps/butts/dragons to look out for and saw a few new ones. starting with the butterflies:

monarch was easy in paloma park, benalmadena but i didnt see them elsewhere. awesome things to watch, butterfly highlight of the trip.

lorquin's blue (i think)

lang's short-tailed blue, but the buggers wouldn't come down from the tops

green hairstreak

brown argus

spanish festoon

black-eyed blue

geranium bronze

mallow skipper

queen of spain

clouded yellow

painted lady

swallowtail

there were a few other sp that i couldn't get a photo of inc cleopatra, moroccan orange-tip, some sort of bath/dappled white that wouldnt land

my contribution to spring migration so far

Adela reamurella

year tick RED

Finally the first glanville on the wing at my local site, just the one, six days after the first report in west wight.

dragonflies (downies and bbc's) were conspicuous on my walk today for the first time. my local glanvilles are still yet to emerge even tho they've been on the wing for nearly a week in west wight. only bird of note was my first island white wag in four years on culver.

they're rare enough as it is without getting their heads caved in. i saw a live female too, but she was camera shy. also my first slow worms of the year.

grimey

a couple of tiny beauties from culver - small copper and brown argus