As Mike Tyson once said "Everyone has a plan til they get knocked out". Well we got knocked out in our first week. The plan was to look at sites in Toledo (the most under recorded province in Spain for dragonflies) and Extremadura but the weather knocked us out. Continuous rain for a whole week; it didn't let up until Pedro got his plane back to UK.
Even then when the rain stopped everywhere was so cold. last year the tanks in Almeria were buzzing with Othetrums, Selysiothemis. This year virtually nothing. Even down on the dune ponds it was a struggle to see anything. My final week up in Teruel was equally dissappointing. Last year Sympecma was everywhere laying on any emergent object; this year so few. I came home early ; no point in staying on.
I did get lots of exuviae including Zygonyx from an Almerian river (first for the province). When I sort out all the material I suspect that the trip will prove to have been useful but right now I'm still licking my wounds.
To sum it up I was driving over the Sierra de Cuenca on my last day. Admittedly I was at 5,000 feet but the thermometer was on 6 deg C. at midday!!
Even then when the rain stopped everywhere was so cold. last year the tanks in Almeria were buzzing with Othetrums, Selysiothemis. This year virtually nothing. Even down on the dune ponds it was a struggle to see anything. My final week up in Teruel was equally dissappointing. Last year Sympecma was everywhere laying on any emergent object; this year so few. I came home early ; no point in staying on.
I did get lots of exuviae including Zygonyx from an Almerian river (first for the province). When I sort out all the material I suspect that the trip will prove to have been useful but right now I'm still licking my wounds.
To sum it up I was driving over the Sierra de Cuenca on my last day. Admittedly I was at 5,000 feet but the thermometer was on 6 deg C. at midday!!
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