Graham Hart has lived in Ariege since May 1998 and has known the area since 1991.He has a life-long interest in natural history, which started with butterflies and birds and now includes other insects (especially moths) and flowers. He leads butterfly watching holidays in the region and is writing a book on the butterflies of Ariège. When not out chasing butterflies Graham works as a vet in Ax-les-Thermes.
16 April 2002
I'm now back after a holiday in England where the weather was amazingly good. In contrast here it has been awful. Cloudy most of the time with lots of rain, good for the plants because it was getting rather dry, as for butterflies not a single one has been sighted by my friends.
BUTTERFLIES
Nothing to add because of the bad weather. The good thing here is that as soon as the sun comes out the temperature rises quickly and the butterflies take full advantage.
FLOWERS
After all the rain everything is looking very green and lush and there is a profusion of spring flowers. Several species of crucifers are now well in flower, not always easy to identify but I believe we have Tall Rockcress, Honesty, Towercress and of course lots of Ladies Smock. Dave Watts and Helen Sargeant have seen the first of the Purple Toothwort coming up in a wood just by their house. This very strange plant grows in wet woodland and it is just the flowers that come up from the ground. They are in clusters and three or four centimetres long, very striking.
I have seen the first Early Purple Orchids, the flowers are just opening out now. Where I live this is a widespread orchid growing in the secondary woodland (abandoned meadows) and also in the remaining meadows of the mountain side behind the house where we walk the dog. There is one fantastic little meadow there, at present yellow with Cowslips and with quite a few leaf rosettes of orchids dotted about. It reminds me very much of some spots I knew on the South Downs in Sussex.
BIRDS.
Not a lot to add because of the weather. However the first Cuckoo was heard by Tim Nash on the 8th of April. There are plenty of Swallows around now, yesterday they were flying very low to the ground in search of something to eat, they were even flying up and down the road (the roads are very quiet here!) just a couple of feet above the ground in search of insects, presumably it was a bit warmer above the road and so had attracted some small flying insects.
23 April 2002
Well we're back to glorious weather at last. All the rain has done wonders for the vegetation which grows at a remarkable rate when it is sunny. With a couple of friends I had an amazing sighting of one of the large green lizards that live in this area. When I say large, it's not like an iguana. The body is about ten or twelve centimetres long with a tail to match. They are bright green tending to a bit yellowish underneath. This one was just sitting immobile in some grass at the side of a track. We spied it from about three metres distance and it just stayed frozen to the spot. It was very shiny and very bright, a remarkable creature.
BUTTERFLIES
The commonest species at present are Orange Tips and Wood Whites. I have seen the female Orange Tips laying their eggs on a variety of Crucifer species of plants, including Ladies Smock and Garlic Mustard, its two favorites in England. On the 17th I saw my first Small Coppers, two of them, apparently a male and female. The male was trying to persuade the female to mate with him, flying all round her and when she settled almost dancing round her. But she was having none of it, indicating that she had already mated.
A Small Heath was also flitting around nearby as well as a few Dingy and Grizzled Skippers. On the 20th I was out doing a house call a long way up a winding track in wonderful countryside when I spied my first Map Butterfly of the year, in the persons garden, attracted by an array of spring flowering plants. This of course is the brown morph of this butterfly with its shades of tan and dark brown, as opposed to the summer morph which looks like a mini White Admiral.
On the 21st I was out with some friends checking out the only know sight in Ariege where Birthwort grows, the food plant of the Festoon which is found not many miles away in the Pyrenees Orientales. This is where we saw the Lizard. We found the Birthwort growing on a bank beside a track, but alas no Festoons….perhaps we are too early….perhaps that's just wishful thinking! However there were a lot of other butterflies flying, among which were some Green Underside Blues with their very characteristic underside washing of greenish blue scales on the hindwing. The commonest butterfly here was the Dingy Skipper, of which we saw at least twenty. In all that day we saw sixteen species of butterfly.
Yesterday, the 22nd I was out with our dog Daisy at lunchtime, I had walked up into the woods behind the house and was sitting on some rocks at the edge of an outcrop with a marvelous view down the Ariège Valley. A Brimstone came flitting through some bushes, but it seemed to be a bit wrong, I kept on staring at it. There was a hint of orange about the wings, as it got closer it became easier to see, yes a definate firey orange hue to the wings, this was a Cleopatra. As I turned round to go back home a small skipper was dancing around by the edge of the path, another Grizzled Skipper I thought, it settled, I crouched down and looked carefully at the markings on the wings which didn’t seem quite right. Especially the discal spot on the hind wing, this was not the characteristic shape for a Grizzled but more a small short line running more upwards that outwards as in the Grizzled. It was a Red Underwing Skipper.
FLOWERS
The Orchids are now coming thick and fast. Last Wednesday I counted 26 Early Purple Orchids on our land, wonderful. Then on Saturday evening I went to a party at some friends' house and met an English couple who moved down here last year. Whilst chatting the subject of natural history inevitably came up. They said they had some pretty purple flowers growing on a part of their land, carpeting the meadow. Their daughter had picked some to bring to the party, so off someone went in search of these flowers……..Lady Orchids do make a nice flower arrangement but I do prefer to see them in the wild!!! Apparently they have hundreds in their meadow, and they will be running gites there from next year for anyone interested.
I saw my first "growing" Lady Orchids on Sunday 21st. They were dotted around all over the place, sometimes in groups of thirty or forty or more, a marvellous sight. Also on Sunday we found Green Winged Orchids, only the purple form, the white ones are quite unusual here, Early Purple Orchids and some very tall Early Spider Orchids. There was one rather early Tongue Orchid just starting to flower, then we found the highlight of the day for me, Ophrys lutea, a member of the bee orchid group, only a few centimetres high, there were two flower spikes coming apparently from the same plant and on each there were three flowers with their bright yellow coloured wide margin to the lip.
Of other types of plants there has been plenty to see: Blue Gromwell with its striking deep blue flowers rather reminiscent of Gentians; the Birthwort that I mentioned above (Aristolochia rotunda) and everywhere on the steep mountain sides near us there is a shrub in flower--the petals are white long and thin, being widest near the end. The flowers are oval and toothed and downy underneath. This goes by two names, Snowy Mespilus or Amelanchier (Amelanchier ovalis).
Whilst driving home from work yesterday something caught my eye by the side of the road, several Pyreneen Snakesheads in full flower, next time I go past I must see if I can stop there and have a good look at these relatives of the Fritillary.
BIRDS
Definitely a good week here, some friends have been watching a pair of Lammergeiers that have paired up this spring start building a nest. So all looks very hopeful that they will lay some eggs next year. The Egyptian Vultures have arrived and are settling down in their chosen nest site just a couple of miles from my work. I was lucky enough to see an Egyptian Vulture whilst walking the dog yesterday morning, it was settled in a field by the side of our walk and took off, circled round a couple of times eyeing us up then set off north down the valley. It is a very striking bird with its yellow head, white body and front half of the wings and black rear half of the wings.
Whilst looking for the Festoons on Sunday we saw a Hobby flying low over the trees and soaring higher up there was a pale phase Booted Eagle, making it easy to identify fortunately for us. Of smaller birds, when I left the party on Saturday night where I had been shown the Lady Orchids, I was greeted by the wonderful song of a Nightingale. I stood and listened for a couple of minutes then went back inside to tell everyone. They all came out, drinks in hand and listened to this wonderful soloist under a clear starlit sky. They were captivated, for most it was their first Nightingale and they were still listening to it when I drove away.
5 May 2002
The weather up to 6 days ago was for the most part been sunny and some days very hot. Since then it has been raining until yesterday and today when we has some sunny spells, all very welcome for my vegetable garden but not for the butterflies. Temperatures have been up to 29C but quite cold at night.
BUTTERFLIES
Lots to add since last time but also of great importance and interest was an outing to Saurat with David Corke on the 25th. Saurat was where Nabakov stayed from April until June 1929. His sightings were all published and on April 28th 1929, after several days of poor weather, it was a marvellous sunny day. He recorded 35 species of butterfly. So off we ventured within walking distance of the village to see how many species we could record. The result was very good indeed, the total being 40 species including all but four recorded in 1929.
David had started in the morning and had been round some damp meadows where he had not found many butterflies flying, nonetheless he had found several species and suspected that there would have been several others if it had been a bit hotter. We met at 1:30 at a bar in Saurat and after a quick beer and a study of a map we set off just to the north, intending to skirt along the bottom of some secondary invading woodland going west to come out in some meadows. The small meadow going up to the secondary woodland was moderately flower-rich with some Trefoils and near the top Horse Shoe Vetch, the height of the vegetation was between ten and thirty centimetres. This meadow had obviously been used for cultivation in the not too distant past judging by the mix of plants present. Here we found Common, Adonis, Short Tailed and Province Short Tailed Blues--interestingly this was the only sighting we had all afternoon of Adonis Blue. This was surprising since later in the afternoon we visited some short limestone turf with loads of Horseshoe Vetch. At the top of the meadow we went into the edge of rapidly invading secondary woodland with some tiny glades, where we found Green Veined and Wood Whites and Orange Tips, also some more Short Tailed Blues and a single Holly Blue flitting round some Hawthorn. This secondary woodland quickly became too thick to penetrate so we turned back and decided to take the side of the road out of the village to the west then head up on a marked track. As we were going back through the little meadow a very fresh Small Copper was sunning itself and we spied a Small Heath flitting low over the vegetation.
So we headed along the road which had a ditch by the side. This turned out to be quite a hot spot for some butterflies, Province Short Tailed Blues and Small Blues: we netted some of these butterflies to check that they were definitely the two species and not just some small female Province Short Tailed Blues. There was no mistaking it, Small Blue, but there was no Kidney Vetch in sight. However, in these hot climes the Small Blue is recorded as feeding on other leguminous plants of which there were plenty in the vicinity. We also found Dingy Skipper mud puddling along this stream.
After a couple of hundred metres we headed right between two houses, across some waste ground where there was a Wall Brown and Small Heath, up to a forest edge track. We had only gone about four metres along this track when a small fast flying brown skipper like butterfly flew past, much to orangy to be a Dingy…. It settled after zooming up and down about four times and being lost from view at least twice-- there was no mistaking the dark and light brown chequered pattern, a Chequered Skipper, of which we were to see four during the afternoon. A species not noted by Nabakov, probably because of habitat changes since 1929 when the area was heavily grazed and there was no such thing as regenerating secondary woodland. Now there are often problems of under grazing and secondary woodland regeneration, exactly the right habitat for the Chequered Skipper.
Up we continued into woodland, at a glade there was another Chequered Skipper and a Green Veined White. As we continued climbing we started to notice Early Purple Orchids from time to time. We came out to a track by a house where there were loads of fully grown Small Tortoishell Caterpillars and a couple of half grown Red Admirals. A little further on there was a bank on one side of the track, it was damp at the bottom of the bank and Dingy Skippers were mud puddling here. The damp patch had also attracted a Comma, a Small Tortoishell and couple of Weavers Fritillaries. Then a bit further on there was a Glanville Fritillary just sitting on the grass sunning itself, easily identifiable by the row of spots in the sub marginal cells round the hind wing. We also found a rather tatty Peacock along here.
Just as we were beginning to think we would see nothing further of interest because the track was getting more and more shady, we turned a corner and found a great big open bank with a stream coming down the middle. The bank was covered in flowers, the most predominant being a close relative of Ladies Smock very similar only larger, Radish Leaved Bittercress. This had attracted a whole host of butterflies: Green Hairstreaks, Small Copper, Sooty Copper, Green Underside Blues, Common Blues, Maps and a Mallow Skipper as well as Green Veined and Small Whites and Orange Tip. A fabulous spot!
We turned around and went back down picking up a Brimstone on the way to add to our day,s total, then going back along the road we added Clouded Yellow and Red Admiral. At this point we cheated a bit as we only had half a day. We took the car a couple of kilometres to some damp looking woodland next to a limestone outcrop. We started in the woodland, where there were Brimstones and Pearl Bordered Fritillaries. Then just at the edge of the woodland we found an extremely fresh De Prunners Ringlet, a male with very dark, almost black wings with the sub marginal row of brick red eyespots, easily confused with the Piedmont Ringlet at higher altitudes a bit later in the year. Once on the limestone the occasional Bergers Clouded Yellow flitted by; this was accompanied by a small fritillary which was very common and which we had to catch to identify: Weavers Fritillary again.
As we were walking along we were steadily climbing towards the top of the hill where there was an old castle ruin. The only other thing we saw as we went up was a Large White, going very fast in the wind but unmistakable by its size and the impression of the black wing edge as it whizzed by. At the hill top the wind whistled, a few Wall Browns flitted around low to the ground but that was all. David decided to go round to the other side of the ruin which was the sunniest side in late afternoon. I heard a delighted David shouting for me to come round. When I got there, well it was fantastic: at least four Scarce Swallowtails, three Swallowtails, two Maps, a Small Tortoishell and a Red Admiral all hilltopping ! The two maps were going up in crazy spirals, the Small Tortoishell and Red Admiral were cavorting around together from time to time and the two types of Swallowtail were chasing around all over the place. We stood there transfixed for a good ten minutes before carrying on. The terrain here was more sheltered and there were some Dingy Skippers darting about again, but try as we might we could not find a Grizzled Skipper at all. Rounding the next bend a small pale yellow butterfly was coming straight towards us, as it got nearer then went right past it was easy to spot the orange hue to the wing tip, a very exotic looking butterfly, the Moroccan Orange Tip.
Well, we reckoned we had ticked all the probable species from this area and it was now nearly five o’clock, so we decided to head back down and recheck the meadows David had visited during the morning to see what might be flying there now. The meadows were certainly lush and damp, there were Green Winged Orchids all over the place and the young shoots of Meadow Sweet were abundant as was also Devils Bit Scabious. Well it was well worth revisiting these meadows, they had become alive with butterflies, Speckled Wood round the edge, Wall, Glanville and Knapweed Fritillaries as well as the fairly ubiquitous Weavers Fritillary. At last some Grizzled Skippers along with Dingy and another Mallow. Of the blues there were quite a few Short Tailed and one or two Common, also one Brown Argus. Then suddenly a large butterfly flew down from the woodland edge and settled on an electricity pole, a very tatty but clearly identifiable Large Tortoishell. So that made a total of forty species in total.
There were some interesting newcomers not seen by Nabakov such as the Chequered Skipper, of which we saw four, all by woodland edges where there was plenty of long grass. Back in 1929 the area would have been much more grazed so seemingly not providing the right habitat. But now there is a lot of abandonment of pastures which have already or are fast reverting to woodland, providing just the right conditions for the Chequered Skipper. The species not seen by us but seen by Nabakov were, Duke of Burgundy, Tufted Marbled Skipper, Camberwell Beauty and Bath White. It is known from recent records that the Duke of Burgundy today flies only over 950m and that Nabakov went up to at least 1100m, which we did not do. So it seems it is very possible that the Duke of Burgundy is still in the area and if we had had a bit more time (or had been a bit fitter !) we would probably have discovered it. The Tufted Marbled Skipper feeds on Betony, which was abundant in a couple of meadows we looked at. There seems to be a lot of suitable habitat left, so I think that we just didn’t spot this species. Particularly because it is an elusive butterfly living at low density and it is difficult to spot, looking rather like several other skippers that fly here (such as Mallow, Dingy and Oberthurs Grizzled Skippers). Also we have recorded the Tufted Marbled Skipper from a number of different and distant sites in past years, leading us to suspect this species is still widespread in the area. The Camberwell Beauty is a species that we know still flies in the area but again it is rather elusive and from Nabakov’s records it seems that the season was a bit later in 1929 (could it be evidence of the greenhouse effect?) We found fully grown Small Tortoiseshell larvae on nettles and only a couple of rather worn adults and we saw just one very tattered Large Tortoiseshell leading me to suspect the Camberwell Beauties have already laid their eggs and died. The Bath White is a migratory species here that I see from time to time and never in great numbers so its absence on our visit is not indicative of habitat change here. The next day David went back to the same area and added Heath Fritillary.
Later in the week other new species seen were Oberthurs Grizzled Skippers and Meadow Fritillary which were flying along with Glanville and Knapweed Fritillaries in a lovely meadow covered in Whorled Clary, where I also saw a Narrow Broad Bordered Bee Hawk moth nectaring on the Clary. Then one day later on the 29th I found a Baton Blue on a large area of limestone grassland a couple of kilometres south of my house.
FLOWERS
New Orchid species are Burnt Tip, Millitary, Man, Pale (Orchis palens) and Ophyris araniola, very similar to the Early Spider Orchid but smaller. Tway Blade and finally Sword Leaved Helleborine, rather like a White Helleborine but with longer leaves. There is a lot of a tiny type of Forget me Not in flower all over the place, the flowers indeed the whole plant is in miniature. Last Sunday we went up a road to about 1700m, the snow had virtually all gone and in its place were carpets of Pyreneen Buttercup with their white petals and yellow centres to the flowers. Also there were a few clumps of Daffodils in flower and on looking at the ground, what often appeared at first sight to be grass often had a white stripe running down the leaf: Crocus leaves, but no evidence of the flowers--this is the type that flowers in Autumn.
Today I visited a limestone site not far from home and as well as several orchids including Orchis palens and Ophyris araniola, there were Trumpet Gentians dotted around all over the place, in amongst swathes of Milkwort and Horseshoe Vetch, a fabulous sight. The first of the Kidney Vetch is in flower, here the flowers are purplish, very pretty but I do miss the yellow variety of he South Downs. My wife Catherine found a Small Blue butterfly egg on one flower head of Kidney Vetch. This afternoon I went on a short exploratory foray up a nearby valley and found a marvellous set of meadows, covered in Bistort, Great Burnet with Wood Cranesbill dotted about and the occasional clump of Asphodels in full flower with their tall flower spikes of white flowers. By a stream side there was Radish Leaved Bittercress, this looks like a larger version of Ladies Smock but with the flowers a bit of a deeper purple colour.
BIRDS
I was lucky enough to have a good sighting of a Lammergeier last Sunday whilst up at 1700m. We were coming down in the car and spotted it circling around. We lost if from view, then a few hundred metres further on it appeared from our left side and flew straight over the road about fifty metres ahead of us! Wow!! I also spotted a Wheatear up here and there were some Meadow Pipets doing display flights.