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.
After an initial mild start to the year really seasonal weather intervened with two massive snow falls at the beginning of February which closed the road to Andorra for several days. The cold weather has mostly stayed right to the end of February but on the odd warmer day butterflies have been seen.
BUTTERFLIES
The first butterflies of the year were seen on the second of January by Tim Nash, no less than five Red Admirals, a Clouded Yellow and believe it or not a Speckled Wood, my first every record of that species for January.
The next sightings were on the 21st of February with Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral and Peacock, then on the 23rd a Brimstone and a Speckled Wood were sighted.
FLOWERS
The Stinking Hellebores mostly weathered the whole two months in flower, seeming none the worse for being covered in snow. Even the Cowslip that I talked about last time was not badly affected and still had one flower on it at the end of February with several developing seed pods, I was quite amazed. The first Lesser Celandine flower was seen on the 21st of February and about the same time a smattering of Violets could be found. The leaves of these two plants had weathered the snow with no problems. The Snow Drops that were out around Christmas instead of the end of January, like all the other plants persisted. They enjoyed a very long and productive flowering period, right until the last week of February when I saw my first Wild Daffodils in flower along with Violets on our piece of land.
BIRDS
During the cold and snowy weather there were Rock Buntings in the gardens of the village and our fat balls and peanut holder had to be replaced and filled up respectively very often, due to the large number of Blue Tits, Great Tits, and Siskins around. We also had the occasional Marsh Tit and Nuthatch. There was also a Robin and Sparrows and Chaffinches that were picking up all the fallen bits of fat balls and peanuts.
A bit further afield the pair of Lammergeiers were advancing well with their nest building. They were doing marvellous display flights and were seen to be mating on a number of occasions, but to date there appear to be no eggs because the two birds are always to be seen flying around. The latest recorded egg laying in the Pyrenees is the 15th of March so we are all very much keeping our fingers crossed that this new pair will breed this year.