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.

Well, the Indian Summer has only materialised in the last week, and has been absolutely glorious--clear blue skies every day but rather cold at night with one or two light frosts. This weather pattern is set to continue for a while now, so fingers crossed!

BUTTERFLIES
There have been a lot about especially in just the last few days with the good weather. Two new species to report, the Tree Grayling, always a late summer species and Langs Short Tailed Blue, a migrant from Spain which turns up here most years. I saw two in five minutes, plus a couple of very fresh Queen of Spain Fritillaries making me wonder if there has been a fresh wave of migration from Spain rather than an emergence here of eggs that were laid here a few weeks ago. Whatever, they were a very nice sight.

Great Banded Graylings have been very abundant , all looking a bit worn suggesting they have been on the wing for sometime.

Interesting sightings have been Purple Emperor on the fourteenth and Southern White Admiral as late as the thirtieth . Of the Blues, on the thirtieth I saw Common, Adonis, Chalkhill, Silver Studded, Short Tailed and Long Tailed Blues on a lovely area of limestone grassland. Also Bergers Clouded Yellow and Cleopatra were in good numbers there, flitting about feeding on Knapweeds. Also at the end of the month there were a lot of Meadow and Heath Fritillaries about.

On the moth front at the moment the most noticeable thing is the abundance of Silver Y's which can be seen flying around in the day visiting flowers. When they settle they tend to do so well down in the vegetation, presumably to avoid avian predators.

At the beginning of September I went to Butterfly Conservations fourth International Butterfly Symposium. I think the best one so far. There seems to be an increasing momentum in the conservation movement everywhere, more people are recognising there is a problem in the countryside and hopefully this should translate into more and more action on the ground. I gave a paper on the situation here in the Ariège where of course the present situation is fantastic but where things are rapidly changing.

FLOWERS
Hardly any Autumn Ladies Tresses seen so presumably a bad year. Other that that there are loads of flowers about for autumn insects. The real autumn specialists are just appearing now, there are loads of Autumn Crocus mostly in the woods as well as the extremely similar looking Autumn Flowering Crocus, a real crocus which is found mainly in fields. To differentiate them you need to look inside the plant at the stamens etc then it becomes very easy. They make a marvelous sight.

BIRDS
The Swifts have gone and there are large flocks of House Martins and Swallows darting around making the most of the insect feast available here before setting off on migration south. Also there are flocks of finches around, most noticeable being the Goldfinch with its characteristic wing bar and call. On the thirtieth we watched a flock of about twelve Alpine Choughs flying around the valley we were in, all you can say is they seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves with their ariel acrobatics and sudden descents onto the ground.