As we all know, butterflies like warmth and sunshine, so I didn’t expect to find many during my recent visit to Mallorca. I did manage to see nine species, which is nine more than I would have seen at home in England during the same period. Eight of these were butterflies I anticipated, such as Painted Lady, Red Admiral and Speckled Wood, but there was one big surprise: Monarch. 

The Monarch is a North American species and strongly migratory. Trans-Atlantic crossings are quite within their capabilities, and the first British record was as long ago as 1876. It’s now usual for there to be several records every autumn, while some years see exceptional influxes: in 1999 there were over 300 sightings. 

Interestingly, the first British record beats that in the Canary Islands, which was in 1880. They became well established in the Canaries during the 20th century, spreading east into Portugal and Southern Spain nearly 40 years ago. They are now quite common in coastal Andalucia, though I was disappointed to see only one during my last autumn visit there, in 2022.

Despite my best efforts, I have failed to discover when they first arrived in Mallorca. I saw them at one place only, along a sheltered wooded stream not far from the town of Pollença, and close to the Tramuntana mountains. Here they were quite numerous, and I saw several during my time there. They might well occur at many other sites on the island, but this was the only location where I saw them. 

As the biggest butterfly to occur naturally in Europe, seeing a Monarch is always exciting. I had good sport trying to photograph them: I failed to get the perfect picture I was after, but it was fun trying. 

Written by David T
David Tomlinson has been interested in birds for as long as he can remember, and has been writing about them for almost as long. An annual highlight is hearing his first cuckoo of the year at home in Suffolk, England, which he rates as almost as exciting as watching White-necked Rockfowls in Ghana or Steller’s Eiders in North Norway. A former tour leader, he has seen an awful lot of birds around the world, and wishes he could remember more of them.As for the name of David's beat, here is an explanation in his own words: "Brecks (Breckland) does need an explanation - it’s the name for the region on the Suffolk/Norfolk borders, renowned for its free-draining sandy soils. It has the closest to a Continental climate of anywhere in the UK. At its heart is Thetford Forest, which has the biggest population of nightjars of anywhere in the UK. The stone curlew is the other special bird of the region, again with the biggest population in the UK (over 250 pairs)."