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.

22 May 2002

The weather has been rather mixed, mostly not very good but with some fabulous days in between. We had ten days without any sunshine at one point! Everything is growing here at a great rate of knots, especially the weeds in the garden!!

BUTTERFLIES
Not many species to add, but some new generation Small Tortoiseshells, in fact loads of them last Sunday at around 1000m, along with migrating Painted Ladies, flying over a hill top at the end of a valley coming from Spain. I saw about a dozen, all flying fast and flying dead north. I wonder how long it will take them to reach England. I remember in 1996, a fabulous Painted Lady year, I was here in the mountains doing the field work for my MSc and spent one lunchtime counting the Painted Ladies going over…..80 per minute across a width of just 10 metres!! There were literally millions of them, they carried on like that for three or four days, from nine or ten in the morning until at least six at night. They arrived in England just three days after I started seeing them in the Pyrenees.

Also on this hill top there were Green Hairstreaks, Adonis and Small Blues, Grizzled Oberthurs, Grizzled and Dingy Skippers, Cleopatra, Swallowtail and Scarse Swallowtail, Small Heath, Small Copper and one rather tatty Map. On descending there were Moroccan Orange Tips, in total about ten, flying along the road side in a very limestone area and at the bottom gliding about ten metres from the car, a very fresh Camberwell Beauty--fabulous!

Last week, on the 15th whilst out dog walking (as usual!) I netted a Heath Fritillary. I say netted because David Corke and I always net them to check the genitalia, which we do on the living butterfly without killing it and then let it go. Like this we can differentiate Heath, Meadow, Provencal and False Heath Fritillaries, all of which fly in the Ariege.

Today we went out dog walking into some damp meadows, and in the sunny spells were delighted to see Clouded Apollos flitting about, nectaring on the first Betony flowers. Then I followed a smallish Fritillary some way until it settled; my patience had paid off: Marsh Fritillary, of which we saw several more by the end of the walk. The Marsh Fritillary, considered an endangered species at the European level, flies all over the place down here reinforcing my opinion that this is a very special region which MUST be conserved at all costs.

Ten days ago we went at the request of a land owner to check out her ten hectares because she thinks she has Marsh Fritillary and ……….Alcon Blue!!! Devils Bit Scabious was growing all over the place and we were finding parasitised Marsh Fritillary Larvae all over the place, surrounded by the cocoons of the tiny parasitic wasps. We also found a several healthy looking caterpillars and my wife Catherine discovered a chrysalis on a leaf of Devils Bit Scabious. How often do you see caterpillars like that in the UK? And finding a chrysalis is very unusual, suggesting a very dense population. I hope to pop back there in a week or two to see the adults flying. As for the Alcon Blue, the foodplant Marsh Gentian is known to grow there and last year two people looking in August found what looks like Lycenid eggs on the plants……so I will be checking out the site myself later in the summer. It seems very likely that I will find the butterfly which is recorded in the Ariège already, along with Rebeli's Large Blue (its very close relative) and the Large Blue (which turns up all over the place here).

Other butterflies seen on the walk today were Sooty and Small Coppers, Red Admiral, Green Veined White, Orange Tip, Oberthurs Grizzled Skipper, Mallow Skipper and Meadow Fritillary.

FLOWERS
Lots has been going on on the flower front, several orchid species to add. When we went to look at the Marsh Fritillary and Alcon Blue site, we were shown a fantastic meadow full of orchids: Burnt Tip, Early Purple, Lax Flowered, Green Winged, Lesser Butterfly, Tway Blade, Frog, Common Spotted and a small Ophyris, of the Ophyris fusca group, I think Ophyris sulcata from studying the latest book published on French Orchids. A really fabulous site, and it's just another meadow here--no special status, nothing to protect it, but then there are quite a few meadows like this dotted around. How long they will all stay like this? I don't know and I worry about it, because modern farming methods are rapidly invading large swathes of countryside here. This ten hectares is safe because of a sympathetic owner passionate about wildlife. But will this ten hectares be an island surrounded by modern agriculture on every side within the next ten years? I fear so looking at the surrounding farms, unless there is a change in agricultural policy that really encourages the farmers not to intensify and NOT to use chemicals!!

Last week we paid a brief visit to a limestone area at about 900m where we found a meadow full of Pheasant's Eye Narcissi and a bank covered in Pyrenean Snakeshead. We also found Early Spider Orchids and Elder Flower Orchids, which come in two colour forms, red and pale yellow. Both forms were there, even growing right next to one another--very convenient for photographic purposes. Just near where we left the car was a marshy area with a type of Marsh Orchid growing--as to the exact one, we couldn't decide.

Yesterday I was taken by some friends to see a very unusual orchid, a first for me: Limodorum abortivum, an incredible, very strange orchid which can grow up to about 80cms. The biggest of the nine I saw was about 60 cms. No leaves, just vestigial scales; the whole plant purple with exotic looking purple and white flowers making it look very exotic, which is suppose it is. They are believed to be saprophytic on the roots of trees but their biology is not very well known. As we were going up through some woods to get to these orchids we found a Birds Nest Orchid, Narrow-leaved Helleborines, and the leaves of Broad leaved and Violet Helleborines. Then in the car on the way back home we stopped by the side of the road where in a ditch we had spied a large red flowered orchid: it was a Lax Flowered Orchid, the largest and most perfect I have ever seen, and of course I had left my camera at home!!

BIRDS
Spotted nine Griffon Vultures last Monday, all headed off in the same direction, presumably something had been spotted and they were heading in on a carcass. Today I saw another six from the garden, high up. They circled around for a bit to gain height before heading off. On the 15th I saw a Short Toed Eagle circling about; when they are quite close they are easily identified by the wing outline and pale underside with dark chin and underside to the head. One is sometimes lucky enough to see one hovering, looking like a giant shaggy Kestral-- I say shaggy because as they beat their wings up and down the feathers bend and ruffle giving them a shaggy appearance. It is ony Kestrals and Short Toed Eagles that hover; this fact can be very useful when trying to decide on something quite a way off which is definitely not a Kestral: the moment is starts hovering you can be sure it’s a Short Toed Eagle.

A Red Backed Shrike was sitting on some Blackthorn by the side of a lane on the way to see the strange orchid Limodorum abortivum last night. He just sat there whilst we looked at him from about ten metres. He is unmistakeable with his chestnut back, grey top to the head and thick black eye stripe.

I always keep an eye out when Swifts are circling around high up above, just incase there are any Alpine Swifts amongst them, and today, yes there was--my first one of the year.