PICOS DE EUROPE 5th -12th June 2010
Click to enlarge photo; "back"
to return. A
much fuller account and Latin names
of plants are on Helen's website:
| SATURDAY 5th June. We met the rest of our group waiting for us at Asturias Airport together with our guide and mentor, Teresa Farino. She drove us to a coffee and plant-search stop at Alto de las Estazadas, where the famous view was clouded over but there were flowers to see, then on to watch a game of the very complicated Spanish skittles at Panes and finally to our base at Pesaguera. |
 Bar at Alto de las Estazadas |
 Bridge beside the road near Canales |
 Spanish Skittles (Bolla?) at Panes |
 Setting the aiming line? |
 Rio Casanu |
 Crusty Saxifrage |
 Posada El Hoya, our Hotel |
 Duke of Burgundy |
 Serapias cordigera. Serapia, heart flowered orchid |
 Ophrys apifera, Bee Orchid |
Geranium sylvaticum |
 Brimstone Moth |
 Broomrape |
 View from our bedroom |
 Slender Scotch Burnet Moth |
 Pesaguera Town Office |
 Wild Garlic |
| SUNDAY 6th
June. Before breakfast every morning we examined Teresa's moth trap
which worked well. After breakfast It was wet and
foggy and so we headed south to Puerto de Piedrasluegas beyond the
mountains where it was sunny.
We saw Storks, various Marsh Flowers, Frogs and drowned trees. Lunch was in
a limestone quarry surrounded by a totally different flora. Later on
we went to a
marsh and then visited an old church under restoration on the way home..
|
 Elephant Hawk Moth |
 Iberian water frog |
 River meadows |
 Shield Bug |
 Altar Box |
 9th Century Church being restored |
 Midwife Toad |
 Clouded Yellow butterfly |
 A nest of caterpillars |
 Iberian Wall Lizard |
|
 Young Storks |
 Mum stork |
 Sooty Copper |
 Stream edge Early Purple Orchids |
 Polygala |
 Natural Limestone rock Garden |
 |
 Wild Spanish Daffodil |
 Globeflowers |
| MONDAY 7th June. We had a short visit to Potes market and old town and then on up the Cable Car, El Cable, at Fuente De. We saw Alpine Plants, Choughs, Raven, Isard, Newts etc. Our lunch time was surrounded by begging choughs. Some people eventually saw the wallcreeper! I couldn't quite get the whistle right! It was hot and sunny on the mountain all day. |
 |
 Discussion Group |
 The Passenger |
 |
 |
 Shopping Arcade |
 |
 Holding Court |
 River Deva, Potes |
 Scotch Argus |
 Potes Museum |
 Potes Old Town |
 Washing Line |
 Potes Old Town |
 Fancy Street Lights. |
 Note the bread delivery. |
|
|
What's he snapping? |
Field Cricket |
Butter maker? |
|
Shopping Street, Potes |
Building work |
Market Negotiations |
|
Longhorn beetle on Wild rose |
Helen, Ketil and Irene waiting for the cable car. |
Looking up the cable car. |
|
Alpine Newt |
Puertos de Aliva Mountains |
Alpine Chough begging |
|
Red Kneed Beetle |
Choughs Playing in the air currents |
Hide Beetles on dead toad |
|
Spanish Gorse |
Mountain Lakes |
|
|
Saxifrage |
Orchid |
Petrocoptis pyrenaica ssp. glaucifolia |
|
Richard, Annette and Teresa |
Top of the cable car |
Raven |
|
Isard Southern Chamois |
Isard in snow |
Cream-Spot Tiger Moth |
|
Spring Gentian, Gentiana verna ssp verna |
Irene in Alpine Meadow |
Getiana angusifolia ssp. corbariensis |
|
Lithodora diffusa |
Spring Squill Scilla verna |
Ranunculus amplexicaulis |
|
Saxifrage |
Silene acaulis |
Alpine Toadflax Arenaria Alpina |
|
Narcissus Asturiensis |
Owl Fly Libelloides coccajus |
Oedemera Nobilis |
| TUESDAY 8th June. It was another damp day, we walked up to the ridge above Beges and saw Black Pasque Flowers, Yellow Birdsnest (Ghost Flower) etc before the clouds descended on our lunch spot. Coffee in small local town and then a walk along the old road above the Desfiladero de la Hermida gorge. |
Teresa's Kitchen first thing |
Lesser Puss Moth's Face |
|
Orobanche |
Black Pasque Flower |
Wall Lizard |
 Euranthis |
Fritilleries |
The Group botanising |
 Butterfly Orchid |
Road above Beges |
Man Orchid |
 Spurge and Nigritella gabasiana |
Barn in the mist |
Burnt Orchid |
 Great Green Bush Cricket |
Cleopatra |
Across valley from Beges |
 Soldier Beetle |
|
Window boxes in Beges |
| WEDNESDAY 9th June. A damp day followed by reasonable weather later on. We visited a high meadow by Puerto San Glorio, then on to have lunch beside a drinking trough full of toadpoles and I spotted a crab spider. We then drove up to the village of Tudes and a walked down to the valley and thankfully Teresa took a taxi to go and collect the minibus for the ride home. |
High meadow of Asphodels and Orchids |
Pub sign, typical Englishman. |
 Orchid |
Mylabris Polymorpha |
Orchid |
 Large Blue |
Tudes |
Corn as winter feed |
 Tudes |
Large Blue |
Marbled Newt under water |
 Helen photographs flowers, not barn |
Iberian Lizard Podarcis hispanica |
|
 Violet Carpenter Bee |
Teresa looking deeply for newts |
Beetle |
 Beetles mating |
Fire Bug |
End of the walk |
| THURSDAY 10th June. Very cold and wet, we visited an old church and then a warm up for coffee in Aguila de Campoo and a short visit to the area around the Fishermans Refuge. Then a Picnic lunch in the ex monastery turned hotel nearby with its ultra modern decor. |
Spanish Fly! |
Wet landscape |
 Adam and Eve on church capital Santa Eulalia in Barrio de Santa Maria |
Stork Colony |
Monastery Church Door |
 Lavender on rock near Rio Pisuerga, Mave |
The Santa Maria de Mave monastery now a Hotel |
Lichen |
 Smokey Bar in Aguilar de Campoo |
|
Spectator in the bar |
 |
Orchid |
Some serious eating at the Monastery! |
| FRIDAY 11th June. A very wet morning and so we visited the National Park visitors centre followed, afterwards, by a walk in the wet up the Urdon Gorge, past the power station across a bridge with its deck flooded, passed by a really sodden school party. Lunch was in the dry of a closed cafe in nearby town.. We took an afternoon walk up to the high meadows and woods above Espinama and then on to a quick final look in the woods beyond the Mirador Cable station. |
Desmond (Photo in the Exhibition) |
Farm Implements |
 Privet Hawk Moth |
Rio Urdon |
Helen tightrope walking above the flooded bridge. |
 Urdon Gorge |
Hawkweed on Rock face |
Pyramid Orchid |
 Which spider is the predator? |
Pinguicular grandiflora |
Cream Spot Tiger Moth |
 Orchid |
Rainproof |
Fritillary on Spanish Spurge |
 |
High woodland |
Eyebright |
 Orchid |
Spanish Tiger Moth Hyphoraia dejeani |
|
 Wet Stonechat |
Crab Spider |
Herb-Paris |
 Teresa's Dog |
Through a wet windscreen! |
White Orchid |
| SATURDAY 12th June. An early breakfast, 0700hrs and then the long drive to Asturias Airport with a brief look at the beach flora nearby in heavy rain and wind. |
The enemy! |
Speckled Yellow Moth |
 Sea Bindweed |
Sea Holly |
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