It’s a Hummingbird Hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum)! Hummingbird Hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) The above photo is what flew past me and it really did seem like a hummingbird. I thought I was seeing things. Greyish above but with this blur of orange from the underwings. I was lucky to get a shot […]
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Truxalis nasuta I have spoken before of camouflage in both the insect world here and here, and of the avian world. The other day Mrs HibernoManchego and myself took a detour to a small reservoir near our new village. She had not seen it yet and I had only discovered […]
Swallowtail (Papilio machaon) As I’m on the subject of Swallowtails, I thought I’d do a quick separate entry for another beautiful member of the Papilionidae family, the Swallowtail (Papilio machaon). Again, it’s another big and stunning, eye-catching butterfly, which again, seems to like thistles here. It gets its name from […]
Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius feisthamelii) One of my favourite butterflies here in Spain is the Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius feisthamelii). For one thing, when it flies past you, you can’t miss it. They are a big butterfly, and bright with their tiger-like black stripes on white. The nominate of the […]
Golden Oriole (Oriolus oriolus) There’s a glint of gold in many of the woods these days, but the woods in Picón are absolutely gleaming with it. No you can’t make jewellery with it, but it sure does decorate the area. I’m talking about Golden Orioles (Oriolus oriolus). Despite their bright […]
Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo) Once again the hunting lobby is in the news. And here’s why. In the United Kingdom of Great Britain people like hunting, as do others worldwide. They like hunting pheasants, just like they like hunting partridge here in Spain. For this purpose many pheasants are reared […]
Owlfly (Libelloides baeticus) I’ve been feeling like I am getting lazy about my trips to the country so despite the heat, or because of it, I have been getting out of the car some more recently. I went cycling the other day amongst bee-eaters and stone curlews and then Friday […]
Cetti’s Warbler (Cettia cetti) The reed beds are alive with sounds these days. Reed Warblers (Acrocephalus scirpaceus), Great Reed Warblers (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) and Cettis Warblers (Cettia cetti) are all making themselves heard at the moment. Some are more obvious than others. The Reed Warblers are all making their rausous krakking […]
Iberian Tree Frog (Hyla arborea molleri) Yesterday my friend, Javi, and I went to Piedrabuena with our bikes for a cycle up into the woods to see what we could see. The bird life was a bit slow at that time of the afternoon, but we managed to see Cuckoos […]
Wildlflowers near Porzuna I haven’t been able to get out much this past 10 days due to back pain so I am digging through some old shots of those most colourful wildflowers, or weeds as some people call them, poppies. Found in wasteland, amongst crops, roadsides all around they add […]