Introduction
It had been raining on a fairly continual, daily basis since the 21st of February. I spotted two good days in the weather report, the Monday and Tuesday and so decided to go the second day to give the butterflies a chance to warm up. I’d been out walking during some overcast, and quite fresh, days previously and had spotted around 5 species of bumbelbee. I was quietly hoping for an eventful early afternoon …

Recorrido A – 15.03.16 – 30TVN09, Casar de Periedo
When I headed out at around 13:00, the thermometer read 14C and the sun was out without a cloud in the sky, though it was slightly hazy and there was a little breeze (from east to west) that made it fairly chilly in the shade. By the time I got home 2 and a half hours later it was at 15C with the rest still the same. I got home with a very light sunburn actually, hadn’t expected it to be so sunny throughout.

The fields were quite wet, there was a lot of squelching every time I stepped off the track. My first butterfly was again a Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) in the same area where I saw one the month before, this time it was flying around actively and chased another butterfly (uncertain the species). A little later, as I was looking intently into some shrubs as I through I saw a snake or large lizard a Small White (Pieris rapae) bobbed by (took care to ID it by looking at the hindwing underside – more on this later).

I still had a lot of ground to cover so off I went. However, as I went on it started to dawn on me that my hopes for an eventful (in the positive sense) afternoon would not come to fruition. The first was that I hardly saw any Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria). This does not happen often, as they are usually everywhere. The road along the edge of the woods had the usual butterflies on offer, but I couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed. I’d been hoping for a first blue or something special, but alas.

What I did see a lot of was Pieris napi (Green-veined White) … last year they had been so plentiful throughout that I grew a bit tired of seeing so many. And here they were, out in great numbers already! But every butterfly counts and this is my 10th species of the year. Although, from now on IDing will be a task between Pieris rapae and P. napi, as they are fairly similar and you have to spot the underside to make sure. P. napi have an extensive range of uppersides here, with regards to black markings so IDing them in flight is difficult. The two species also have a different style of flying, but I’m not yet there to distinguish them in that manner, will probably get the by the end of this year though as both are really common here!

The frustration came in not being able to positively ID a Cleopatra and also in seeing one butterfly that flew very distinctly to those I see here and which I could not follow (maybe a Small Tortoiseshell?) well enough with my binoculars and I tried to spot it landing in the distance.
Oh and not one photo ended up being usable.

The day ended me one neat ID, a Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera) that I just spotted as I came out of some scrub and climbed up a bank onto the gravel road. Not the most common of butterflies around here.

The denouement came at home, when I took of my sweater in the kitchen and off fell two ticks! That’s what you get for trouncing around the scrub. Luckily none had found a way into a nice spot to bore into my skin, but I’ll have to be more careful the next time around.
Hopefully, with a few free days ahead I’ll be able to catch up on some species entries. Up next a bumblebee of the spring season …

Summary
– Vanessa atalanta — between 3 to 5.
– Pieris rapae — 2.
– Gonepteryx rhamni — around 15 in total.
– Pieris napi — stopped counting after 20 (first of the year on this transect).
– Colias croceus — 2.
– Pararge aegeria — 5, a lot less than normal.
– Aglais io — 1.
– Lasiommata megera — 1.

Species year total — 10 (2015 – 45).

Further Reading
– My sightings for the day on Observation.org.