Spanish (butter)fly

This is a differently coloured speckled wood to the one we have in the UK. Ours is chocolatey brown and cream, and is a subspecies of the one in the photograph, which I took in Bilbao, Spain.

What a great picture! Was this during your dormouse studies?

I went on a 4 day whale watching trip on the Portsmouth to Bilbao ferry, Stacey. When we got to Bilbao we went ashore for a 3 hour walk through the town and up into the countryside. We saw a number of birds we don't get in the UK and the plants were interesting too.

I didn't get any digital photos of the whales/dolphins. But if any of the slides come out well enough i'll try and post some. We saw Fin, pilot and minke whales and bottle nosed, common and striped dolphin. Most of these were new to me - i'd only seen minke and bottle nosed before. We also saw ocean sunfish, which are quite strange, and 2m tuna leaping out of the water after little fish.

Ah yes, I read elsewhere about your whale watching trip. How lucky for you to do the things you do! That's one of the things on my someday list! Waiting patiently for pictures :)

LOL :)

Unless my fieldguide is mistaken: Speckled wood - Pararge aegeria
;)

http://www.butterfly-guide.co.uk/species/satyrids/andal16.htm

Yes, that's right Loph, the one in the UK is P. aegeria ssp tircis, while the one in the photo is P. aegeria