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.
2 Sept 2002
The weather throughout August remained mixed, with 6 days of continuous sunshine from the 13th then back to the mixed weather again. Apparently it is the worst summer here since 1931 (according to official records)! Everyone is hoping for an Indian summer during September, but the forecast isn't good.
BUTTERFLIES
When the sun shines there are plenty about, with second generations of Adonis Blues Glanville and Knapweed Fritillaries reasonably abundant. Tufted Marbled Skippers have also had a good second generation and I am turning them up all over the place. Funny because previously I thought they were very localised here, perhaps they are just having a good year, or perhaps I have started to be able to easily separate them from the similar looking but commoner and more widespread Mallow Skipper (which has also been abundant in August).
There is one new species to add, the Alcon Blue, which was first seen in the last week of August, it flies very late down here, but this is because of the very late flowering of its food plant Marsh Gentian in this part of the world.
Swallowtails and Scarce Swallowtails have been putting in a good appearance in the last few days, I never tire of watching them hilltop. If you have a good vantage point and can see them flying along from above, you will notice that the Scarce Swallowtails in fact look as if they are flying backwards, David Corke's children even christened it very appropriately, "the backwards flying Swallowtail" some years ago.
One species that seems to be having a bad year with all the bad weather is the Lesser Purple Emperor, they are around but not in the numbers usually seen.
In these warm climes the Peacock which is single brooded in the UK is double brooded (or at least partially so), on a family walk three days ago we found a load of well grown larvae on stinging nettles, a marvelous sight. On the same walk we found a corner of a field full of very fresh second generation Short Tailed Blues with a Long Tailed Blue flitting around as well. The Short Tailed Blues have a slow slightly jerky flight, the males looking a bright blue, in contrast the Long Tailed Blue zooms about at great speed in long zig zags also it is a much darker bluish brown colour and of course it is rather larger.
So far I have not seen a Silver Spotted Skipper, a species which is widespread here and I am sure it is just a question of not being in the right place at the right time.
Of the moths the Humming Bird Hawk moth has been and remains very abundant, always a pleasure to see, sometimes there are three or four hovering around the buddlea flowers at the same time. We had a Red Underwing fly into the kitchen last week, a magnificent beast, my girls were very impressed the next morning when I showed it to them.
FLOWERS
There are plenty of flowers about at this time of year. In the hay meadows, things that were cut earlier in the year are now flowering, such as Knapweeds and Yarrow and of course there are the things that normally flower at this time such as Devils Bit Scabious which is a very widespread plant here. I have found one Autumn Ladies Tress orchid so far, perhaps it will not be a good year for them, perhaps it is just a bit early, I'll just have to wait and see in September.
BIRDS
I spotted about thirty Black Kites all circling in a thermal, gradually gaining hight before heading off south down the valley towards the frontier with Spain. A wonderful sight which made me cast my mind back two years, when I was working at Tarbes in the Haute Pyrenees. There were about two hundred Black Kites all circling round, a very spectacular sight indeed.
This month has seen the publication of the results of the decline of the House Martin in France by the LPO, the French equivalent of the RSPB. An eighty four percent decline in 13 years, catastrophic! They are still abundant here but you often see where people have knocked down their nests because they make a mess on the ground below!! We had two nests last year which have not been used this year due to having the house reroofed throughout the spring. I will be sending off for several artificial House Martin nests to fix up this winter with the hope of encouraging the birds back next spring. Fortunately there are other nests in the village, however, it has been found that if village loses all its nests it is very hard to attract new birds to nest there even if there are good artificial nests just waiting for occupants.
(See Dave Watts' report on Birds and Wildlife of Summer for more detailed information on birds.)