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. Bird and flower photos on this page by Dave Watts, a wildlife photographer who lives part of the year in Ariège. You can see more of his work on his web site.

10 March 2002

The weather has in the main been rather wintry, with lots of rain low down and snow high up. However as soon as the sun comes out the temperature climbs rapidly, to around 25° C and the dazzling yellow of Brimstone butterflies flitting amongst trees and bushes at the roadside as you drive along announces that spring is on the way.

BUTTERFLIES
Just one new species to add, the Large White. This is due to the recent weather, which has been mostly cloudy or raining. However, as soon as it is sunny the butterflies come out in good numbers, especially prominent at the moment are Brimstones and Small Tortoiseshells and along one small road today (which is nice and sunny) there were a number of Small Tortoishells, Red Admirals and Peacocks sunning themselves on the road surface. There is plenty of nectar now for these early flying species as the Sallows are fully out now, a very welcome sight with their silver and yellow catkins creating the first splashes of colour amongst the trees. These are also good sources of nectar for several other species of butterfly, notably Peacock, Red Admiral and Camberwell Beauty, so every time I get the chance I stop and survey the Sallows with binoculars, hoping to add Camberwell Beauty to the year list.
On the moth front I have seen my first Humming Bird Hawk moth of the year, just a quick glimpse as he cruised around looking for nectar sources.

FLOWERS:
Despite the weather the flowers advance, though more slowly than if it was sunny. Sallows are in full flower as described above. The Stinking Helebore is now in full flower and is very common where we live, looking very striking from a bit of a distance with the contrasting dark green of the leaves and the pale green of the flower spike and flowers, which themselves have a purple edge to the petals. I have seen the first Hepatica in flower, the flowers were pale blue and vary with this species from pale blue to pale pink to white. The plant gets its name from the three lobed leaves reminding those of us with anatomical knowledge of the liver, hence the common name Hepatica. In the foothills Lesser Celandine is creating great splashes of yellow under woodland edges and here right in the mountains in the last week its leaves are suddenly popping up everywhere in the woods and we should have the flowers in a week or so I think. Also along woodland edges and in fields there are marvelous displays of Violets, sometimes carpeting the ground. On our land which was cropped short by horses last summer there is a fantastic display. They are intermingled with the Cowslips that have just come into flower, giving a marvelous display. Along roadsides the flower spikes of Colts Foot are very much in evidence, their leaves will come later. In the fields Dandelions are coming into flower by the thousand, so for the butterflies there is absoultely no shortage of nectar sources.

BIRDS:
Despite the weather the birdsong in the early morning tells you that spring is coming. I can pick out the songs of the various Tits, especially the noisy Great Tit. Also there is a Song Thrush on my dog walking route. In the woods the drummings of woodpeckers are very frequent and later in the day the laughing call of the Green Woodpecker is occasionally heard. In the last three days I have seen a small flock of Rock Buntings around the gardens, perhaps they are feeding on the swollen buds of the blossom trees. It is a species that I usually see as single birds or pairs in the summer and at slightly higher altitudes. The Golden Eagles nearby have not been seen displaying for a few days and when it was sunny the other day I could see only one bird flying so it is very possible that the other bird is sitting on some eggs already. On a rather sad note, I had a Goshawk brought in to me at work yesterday, it was found by the roadside by a passer by and brought into the practice. It was extremely shocked and xrays showed it had a badly broken wing and a broken leg, so reluctantly I put it to sleep.

17 March 2002

Well spring is really on the way now, the weather has been mostly good this week, the snow is quickly receding on the mountains and the wildlife is taking full advantage.

BUTTERFLIES
Four new species to add this week, on the 13th I saw the first Orange Tip and Holly Blue, what I consider the real heralds of spring. Then on the 15th there were four Queen of Spain Fritillaries flitting about along a field margin, the day was very sunny with a warm southerly wind coming from Spain and I wonder if these butterflies had just crossed the mountains that morning from Spain. Today, I have added De Prunners Ringlet to the list, this hatches out early at lower altitudes and is found in early June at around 200m.

I also found three Brown Hairstreak eggs on Blackthorn twigs at about 900m this afternoon, at that altitude the Blackthorn is not quite out in flower yet and the only butterflies in evidence there were Small Tortoiseshells basking on patches of bare ground and rocks.

Species list to date: Small Tortoishell (29.01.02), Large Tortoishell (10.02.02), Peacock (04.02.02), Comma (13.02.02), Red Admiral (04.02.02), Queen of Spain Fritillary (15.03.02), Brimstone (04.02.02), Small White (13.02.02), Large White (08.03.02), Orange Tip (13.03.02) Clouded Yellow (13.02.02), Holly Blue (13.03.02), De Prunners Ringlet (17.03.02) Speckled Wood (04.02.02).

FLOWERS.
Spring is definitely bursting forth on the flower front, at lower altitudes Blackthorn is suddenly in full flower, in some places there are great tracts of very large old bushes covered in the tiny white flowers giving a stunning display. Wood Anemonies have suddenly appeared in great swathes on some of the woodland floors, and in others Hepatica flowers are carpeting the woodland floor in a similar way. Also of course Violets are flowering all over the place, in woodland and in meadows. Lungwort has just come into flower and the Pyreneen squill which is rather like Bluebells is just starting to send up the flower spikes. In the fields it is Speedwells and Cinquefoils that are most in evidence. I have seen my first Oxlips of the year today, growing in a rather damp area of woodland along with Lungwort.

At the second site I visited today at about 900m I found the leaves and developing flower heads of Pyreneen Snakeshead which will give a marvelous display in a couple of weeks time. During the week I scouted around a limestone site only 5 minutes from work and found the leaf rosettes of six Lady Orchids and two what I think will be Early Spider Orchids, both of which I have seen in previous years at that particular site.

BIRDS
Saw my first Swallow of the year during the week and the Crag Martins are more and more in evidence. Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps are both singing their hearts out on my morning dog walks on which I am still seeing the occasional Rock Bunting. Today I had a great view of a male Bullfinch just sitting in the top of an Ash tree repeating his call frequently for about fifteen minutes, he looked magnificent in the telescope.

The highlights of today were the raptors. Firstly a juvenile Golden Eagle which was for a while perched on top of a pine tree at some considerable distance and it was not until it flew when we saw the characteristic white markings on wings and tail that we were able to identify it. Secondly a pair of Peregrines, the female on the nest and the male flying around nearby. Occasionally the female would pop her head up enabling us to see her in the nest and once she got right up and we had a head-on view of the head and breast. Other birds noted today were Buzzard, Raven, Green Woodpecker, Robin, Song Thrush, Chiffchaff, Crag Martin, Great and Blue Tits.

2 April 2002

The weather continues to be fantastic, everything is very dry and the locals are complaining that we need rain badly for the first mushrooms of the year, the Morells, to make a significant appearance. [By the time this report went online it was raining and snowing. --Ed.] I found one myself yesterday, a very small rather shrivelled up specimen with its characteristic head that always reminds me of the inside of a cow’s stomach. Also with all this dry weather the local tradition of scrub and bramble control by burning has been causing some huge fires, in one area 300 hectares of forest was totally destroyed and there have been many smaller fires covering a few hectares each. The total area destroyed is enormous but of course represents only a very small percentage of the land area here. Also, because so much land has been abandoned and there is a huge amount of secondary woodland, these burns will in fact be creating habitat diversity and canopy gaps which will in the long run be very beneficial to the wildlife.

BUTTERFLIES
Several new species to add this week, I have found both Grizzled and Dingy Skippers, they were both flying on my land on Wednesday 27th March, very fresh looking specimens, just posing there for me to be able to squat down next to them and study them for a few minutes, reminding me of many happy moments on the Sussex Downs looking at and photographing these two tiny butterflies. Along with these two a small Fritillary was flying, or rather quite a few small fritillaries, flying low to the ground, often gliding and making sudden turns to investigate plants and other passing insects. I managed to creep up on one that was settled, it looked rather like a Pearl or Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary on the top side but slightly different, and upon glimpsing the underside I confirmed my suspicion: Violet Fritillary, also known as Weavers Fritillary. On that piece of land that day I also saw Peacock, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Wood White, Small White and Orange Tip and on a Cuckoo Flower plant I found the orange bottle shaped egg of the Orange Tip. Later on the same day whilst driving along I saw my first Scarce Swallowtail of the year, gliding and flitting along a Blackthorn thicket, from where it had perhaps hatched earlier that day.

On Sunday 31st I saw a small dull brown fritillary flitting along, not the Violet Fritillary which is more an orange colour, but rather Glanville or Knapweed. Unfortunately it did not stop for me to get a positive identification. On the same day at the same place I found two Glanville Fritillary and one Knapweed Fritillary caterpillars, sunning themselves. They were all full grown. The other caterpillar I found that day was I think a Cream Spot Tiger moth, with tufts of hair, black and shorter at the front end and brown and longer at the back end. Again this seemed to me to be full grown and was benefiting from the hot rays of the sun for digesting its food and preparing for the next stage in its life. Looking up from this tiger moth caterpillar I noticed a pale yellow butterfly flying along at about 50cm above the ground, not a Brimstone or Clouded Yellow, but a Bergers Clouded Yellow, widespread down here and found wherever its food plant Horseshoe Vetch grows. Also on the 31st I noticed a couple of rather small blue butterflies flying low over the vegetation. On settling I noticed just two orange spots on the outer margin of the hind wing, with on careful close inspection a tiny tail emerging from the level of the larger of these two spots, the Short Tailed Blue. It is a little butterfly that I saw once in great numbers mud puddling on a dry sunny spring day two or three years ago.

FLOWERS
I was fortunate to have a farm call up to a sheep farm at around 900 metres this week, on stepping out of the car I immediately saw the delicate pale purple inflourescenses of Corydalis, dotted around all over the place under the light cover of trees. A lovely spring plant and doubly so for me because it is the food plant for the Clouded Apollo butterfly which I am sure will be found flying in that area in a few weeks. The other plant that I was delighted to see this week was the Star of Bethlehem, which I found growing on Limestone, dotted all along a road side, looking very striking with the clusters of white outstretched petaled flowers welcoming the warm rays of the spring sun. A few hundred metres from these flowers I found my first orchids of the year, the Early Spider Orchid. I counted six flower spikes with flowers already out and several more where the flowers were not yet open. They were up to about 20 cm high with as many as five flowers on a single spike

This evening I drove up the valley above us at Aston-- a very deep, steep-sided tree-lined valley. There were wild Daffodils dotted around sporadically as well as the carpets of Wood Anemonies that are so widespread here. The trees here are not yet in leaf and many of them are just dripping with lichens, I mean really dripping, it is an amazing sight. On other mountain sides with more sunny aspects the Wild Cherry trees are all in flower, covered in white blossom looking as if the trees are dusted in snow.

BIRDS
I have seen my first Black Kite of the year and raptors and other types of birds have been taking advantage of the lovely weather to cross the mountains. Red Kites seem to be more numerous now and I have seen quite a few Swallows dashing about chasing insects and along with them I spotted one House Martin. Dave Watts has found Longtailed Tit, Fire Crest and Chaffinch nests in two spruce trees right by his house, the birds are all sitting on eggs at the moment. Also Dave saw two Short Toed Eagles go over the col near his house and some other friends saw a Short Toed Eagle dive down and come up with a snake in its talons. Whilst going up to the farm where I found the Corydalis I was fortunate enough to disturb a Black Woodpecker who just flew along in front of my car at about 10 metres high, with the typical undulating woodpecker flight. He kept going like that for a good hundred metres before diving off to the side into the trees.

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24 March 2002

What fantastic weather we have had this week, sunny every day and up to 27 C. Spring is advancing very rapidly, there are a lot of butterflies about and woodland floors are now full of flowers.

BUTTERFLIES
Well, I'm pleased to be able to at last add the Camberwell Beauty to the year list, I saw it on the 20th, basking on the road on the way up to Plateau de Beille, a cross country ski station. Since then friends have also had several sightings. There is just no mistaking this butterfly, quite large and when it takes to the air the pale margin to the wings is very obvious indeed. I looked a few times for the caterpillars last year, without success, perhaps I will be luckier this season. I saw my first Wall Brown Today, flying at about 900m.

The other new species this week is the Swallowtail, seen by Tim Nash flying at about 700m above Castet d'Aleu. I have a Swallowtail chrysalis in the shed which I spray religiously every morning with a fine mist from a plant sprayer, so far there is no indication of a change of colour of the wings inside the chrysalis which indicates imminent hatching.

I have not seen any of the early skippers yet. The Grizzled, Obethurs Grizzled and Dingy but I suspect that it is just a question of being in the right place at the right time. The other species which I expect to see any day now is the Green Hairstreak.

In the garden today a Wood White came laizly flippity flopping along with its typical slow drunken flight, this was soon followed by an Orange Tip, a very fresh looking male who didn't stay very long, he was in too much of a hurry, patrolling his patch looking for a mate. Also in the garden were several Bee Flies, most if not all Bombylis major, I never tire of looking at these peculiar looking flies with their hairy bodies and long protruding proboscis that they use for sucking nectar. They hover above flowers like mini Humming Bird Hawk moths of which I saw two today.

Other moths are three day flying species, the Emperor moth, with its four striking eye spots, one on each wing. It was a rather feeble male found by friends, it seems he had probably lived to fulfill his purpose to find a mate and was now dieing. The adult stage of this species does not have a proboscis and relies entirely on body reserves to keep it alive for the few days of its life. The Tau Emperor was seen today. It is a bit bigger than the Emperor moth and the males of the two species both fly very fast, searching out females with their super sensitive feathery antennae with which they can detect the pheromones secreted by waiting females from up to two kilometres away. I will never forget the time I took a female Emperor moth onto some Sussex Downland in a small cage: after about just twenty minuets a male turned up and quickly found his way into the open cage to mate with her--incredible!

I saw another day flying moth today, the Orange Underwing, a small species that often hovers at about tree top level so frustrating efforts to catch it to try to differentiate the Orange Underwing and the Light Orange Underwing. It was at a site with lots of Birch but no sign of Aspen, the food plant for the Light Orange Underwing so it seems it must have been an Orange Underwing.

FLOWERS:
The woodland floors are now one mass of colour, in some places it is carpets of white Wood Anemonies, in others there is a fantastic deep blue haze from the most dense stands of Lungwort that I have ever seen, stunning. In yet other places, generally rather shady and damp, the Hepatica gives great displays. The leaves of the Autumn Crocus are now at least 10cm high, they are great big thick fleshy leaves and in the middle there will be a seed pod. The leaves seem all out or proportion to the size of the flower, and come to that, the seed pod too seems very big for the delicate flowers of this lovely plant. It has the peculiar habit of producing flowers in autumn and leaves and seed pods in the spring, which kept me guessing for a while when I first came across the large leaves and seed pods! Lots of trees are now beginning to break bud, particularly the poplars and Field Maple.

BIRDS
Black Redstarts have suddenly appeared everywhere and the males are uttering their characteristic song in our back garden as well as up at 1400m at a ski station on Wednesday. Migrating raptors are on the move with the good weather, unfortunately I have not had much time to stand around with my telescope. However, I managed to venture out with the family this afternoon for a couple of hours; we met up with some friends and checked out an area known for Golden Eagle, we scanned the cliff face and found the nest easily, it was in a great big hole, the only significant one on the vertical rock. After staring at what looked like an empty nest for a few minutes something moved at the left hand end…. A Golden Eagle was in residence and seemingly incubating eggs. A while later we were rewarded with the sight of the male coming to the nest to leave some food for the female. He did not stay long, perhaps a minute, then he flew off. Rock Buntings were flying about where we were watching the eagles.