Spain Trip May 2025 - Part 1 Castilla y Leon region, the Douro River between Spain and Portugal

Going back to our most recent holiday in Spain, we started off beside the Portuguese border in the region north of Extremadura, in the north west of Spain. In this part of the region, they have these amazing large Rockroses, Cistus ladanifer, which mostly have crimson spots on the white petals, but as you can see below, not all of them do! The only place I got a chance to take photos was at a layby just after a shower, so the flowers were a bit droopy. They did look amazing en masse through the countryside as we drove along.

We spent the night at a campsite on the Portuguese side of the border (a new country for me!) then the next morning boarded a boat at Miranda do Douro in Portugal for a cruise up the river. This part of the river has high sided cliffs and there is a Natural Park on each side of the river. The cruise was labelled as an eco cruise and we were hoping to see Spanish Imperial Eagles, but yet again, no such luck! We did see a few Griffon Vultures flying overhead.

In this part of Spain and Portugal the broom was flowering in abundance - possibly Spanish Broom but I don't really know as there are many kinds of broom.

At this point I was taking photos from inside the boat. Our cruise was all in Portuguese (and probably Spanish as well) but we had an idea of what they were talking about as we had read the leaflets in English.

Halfway through the cruise we were allowed out on the viewing decks.

The cliffsides were covered in moss, ferns and lichen.

We spent the afternoon exploring in the Arribes del Duero* Natural Park on the Spanish side and stopped at a reservoir for our lunch. It was a fabulous place to while away some time.

* That's the Spanish spelling of the river, the other is the Portuguese!

There was nobody else here and it would have made a great spot to wild camp, though with my brother's tent and a husband who doesn't fit inside the shower of the Moho, we went to a campsite.

There were wildflowers galore, including this small Spotted Rockrose (Tuberaria guttata).

Standing out the most with the yellow Broom was the French Lavender (Lavandula stoechas), which was growing wild everywhere, all the way down to about halfway through Extremadura region to the south. We have some in the mountains around where we live but only in patches with acid soil - the chalk soil has normal lavender.

Later on we took a walk to a waterfall on a tributary of the Douro which I had read about, which had a platform hanging out over the cliff to view the falls. On the way my brother spotted this butterfly, which is a Spanish Festoon (Zerynthia rumina). It's sadly very worn as there should be red spots amongst the black and cream markings! I've seen one flying away before but never really seen one properly, so this is sort of a lifer.

After a little while walking downhill on a very rough rocky path, I caught a glimpse of the river down below. I mean, really down below. I had no idea it would be that far down!

Then looking through my binocs I could see that this was the place we were aiming for, with the viewing platform. I knew that there was no way I could get down that far on the rough path, never mind getting back up again! I have been suffering from a dodgy hip whenever doing stairs or uphill slopes, not to mention my weak knees. I know now when to call it a day. I don't think the guys were too sorry either to give this hike a miss! 😁

(mostly) Buzzy things around the garden

It's been so hot these last four weeks that we haven't been anywhere interesting, not even for a walk. It's a bit sad to not be able to enjoy summer to the full, although we did have a few cooler days recently so I got a chance to do some jobs in the garden. We still have the works going on in the basement so perhaps it's as well that it is hot as we need to be around most of the time to answer queries, make coffee and generally keep an eye on things! I'll post some pictures about that later on when it's all finished.

This first pic was taken on 28 June when the broom was flowering in the grassland across from our house. The tree line behind the broom towards the top is someone's garden, however the trees are spreading/selfseeding into the meadow from their garden too.

I had a wander up the road, pleased to see that there were more wild fennel plants than a few years ago. And then I discovered three Swallowtail (Papilio machaon) caterpillars on one small plant! I often search for them but it's the first time I have ever seen any on wild fennel.

Back in the garden I thought I would have a bash at shooting butterflies in flight. Well I failed miserably at that. Butterflies are way too erratic with their movements! I was using my Lumix bridge camera and maybe I need to try again with my Canon dslr and on an even faster speed. I think I need to set it on the tracking setting, although I never had much luck with that when I tried it before.

Anyway, for the buzzy things which hover or pause, even for a very short time, I did much better with the Lumix than I had imagined. I was really pleased with the camera.  

Hummingbird Hawkmoth (Macroglossum stellatarum). As usual, the insect photos are worth clicking on to view larger as there is far more detail in the larger photos.

Beefly - I don't know which species but it could be of the Bombylius genus. I don't think it is Bombylius major which I see in the spring. It would help if I had captured the markings on the wings! I currently see two sizes of beefly at home and this is the larger one.

A Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina) being photobombed by a tiny bee or wasp!

These large bees have been around in the garden for about the last two weeks. They are the Giant Resin Bee (Megachile sculpturalis) and they are only interested in the Russian Sage (Perovskia) which is a bit odd! These solitary bees use holes in wood to make their nest chambers, but have not discovered my bee hotel - yet.

They have really cool wings which are clear near the body of the bee and dark brown further away.

And this is the largest bee we see, the Violet Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa violacea). This one seems to like my ornamental Sage 'Hot Lips' better than any other plant in the garden.

I managed a shot of this unknown tiny bee on a Cat Mint flower. It has pretty eyes (you'll probably need to click on the photo to view.)

This is a medium sized bee that I was lucky to capture. It must be a leafcutter bee as the following day that hole it was in was filled in, and covered over by small bits of cut leaf, like the other two holes. I have seen a bee in and out of those holes before but it was too fast for me to see it properly, so I am pleased I got this picture! The next day there was a fourth hole filled in so I’m guessing it’s just one egg chamber per hole.

What I originally thought were tiny bees making nests in the tiny holes I am now thinking are parasitic wasps. This is because there are lots of them and they just spend their time going in and out of all the holes - presumably looking for newly made nest chambers to parasitise. If they were making nests themselves they wouldn't be going in and out of different holes all the time, they would be spending time inside the chambers. You can see that some of the previously used holes are open, but there are so many of these small holes I can't tell which have been newly covered over or opened up! I haven't seen any other kind of tiny bee around these holes though.

I'm really happy to have captured this bee, which is a Wool Carder Bee (Anthidium Florentinum). Last year one of them filled in nine nest holes all close to each other in the bee hotel! This year the nest chambers are dotted about and I have seen five different bees all inside the holes at the same time! They collect fluffy plant material to line the nest chambers and spend ages spreading it all out inside each chamber. 

Although this bee looks like it is feeding on the Perovskia in the pictures, I am pretty sure this is the plant from which they are collecting the fluffy fibres. That's a honey bee in the background.

I have seen these bees patrolling around in my herb bed and they make strange darting movements continuously, rarely stopping on a flower. I read that the males are aggressive bees and will see off or even fight and kill other males in their territories. I have also seen a female stealing the nesting material of another one whilst I was watching the bee hotel, the cheeky bee!

Here's that same species in the bee hotel. On the right are the same five holes and top left was used by a different species as it's filled in with a greeny mix. In the lower pic you can see the white fibres used in the middle hole. These are the largest holes in the bee hotel so you can see it's quite a chunky bee.

Last but not least, not buzzy but still on the yellow and black theme, a Wasp Spider! I have started noticing them around in the last three weeks - starting off so small I could only ID them by the zigzag stabilimentum on the web. Now they are getting larger so I can ID by eye. What always amazes me is how they go back to the same places to make their webs. Given that I moved the egg sacs from the Valerian and put them under the hedge during the winter, how come they know to go back to the same places? There are more in the ditch and the wild patch behind the shed, just like the two previous years. Just like House Martins coming back to the same nests/buildings year after year.... so interesting. I am besottted by them! 😀

L

Oh, and Mrs Black Redstart is still sitting on eggs in the same nest on our terrace! The cats still completely ignore them which is totally bizarre but a very good thing. 👍

Provence Trip Sept 2024 - Part 10 Saintes Maries de la Mer, Camargue

Time to finish off last year's trip around Provence. On our last full day we decided to revisit Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer for the third time. It's beside the sea in the Camargue wetlands and is somewhere that is famous for its gypsy pilgrimage held in May each year.

Many Romany and traveller people from around Europe are drawn to this festival as Sarah is the patron saint of all Romany people and her statue resides in the church in the town.

The celebrations include a big procession through the town, taking the statue of Saint Sarah down to the seashore, renacting her arrival in France. Another procession carries statues of the two saints both called Marie down to the sea, the saints after whom the town is named. There are a number of legends around how Sarah and the Maries arrived in France - they may have arrived together from Palestine and Sarah was the servant of the two Maries. Or Sarah could have already been settled in Provence and was the first person to welcome the two exiled Maries from the Holy Lands. Who knows?

It would be fun to see this but also would be difficult with a motorhome to find campsites nearby and parking anywhere near the town, so I think we will have to give it a miss!

Below are Camargue horses and one of their 'cowboys', or gardians as they are called, the guy in the hat.

The town was still bustling in September but it is a lovely place so well worth a visit. There is a marina and plenty of touristy shops and restaurants.

The town also has a number of original dwellings called 'cabanes', which were the houses where the gardiens lived, and also fishermen, shepherds and others who worked in these parts. The buildings all have a cross at the top which helps protect them from lightning and to help anchor the building (with a rope attached) in case of high winds. They are thatched and originally were made of materials available in the area, mostly reeds and clay. To protect them from the strong north wind (the Mistral) they were shaped with a rounded end facing north, and a normal rectangular shape on the sea facing south end, like below. Here we were walking along the seafront.

Looks like a dog kennel built like a cabane in front, with the ubiquitous flamingo, of which there are many in the Camargue, real or otherwise!

All the cabanes are whitewashed and many have blue shutters.

As we turned around and walked up the street behind the cabanes we could see the rounded end of one of them (many of the houses have high hedges and are not so easy to see).

Back in the town there are many alleyways full of boutiques. I adored this driftwood horse statue!

The church here, Notre-Dame-de-la-Mer, is very interesting too - it's an unusual shape and very tall, but it is hard to get a photo as you can't get far enough away from it and there are buildings in the way most of the time.

And a zoom in on the ubiquitous flamingos for sale! 😀

This photo was taken the next day, on our way home. This is at Etang de Thau in the Occitanie region. Behind are little jetties for the boats going to the oyster beds which you can just about make out in the distance in the water.

And that's it, the end of our Provencal trip last year! Next up, I'll make a start on our recent holiday in Spain.