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.
The weather has been somewhat changeable: in general there has been quite a lot of sunshine, but inbetween times we have had some awful weather. Around the 24th we had three days of continual rain, it was very cold and as the mists cleared from the mountains around us there was snow down to 1000m!! Up to about 60cm of snow had fallen where just the week before I had been walking looking at all the spring flowers! Fortunately since then the weather has been blistering and the snow all melted in two or three days.
BUTTERFLIES
There are lots about, several species of Blue overfly the garden from time to time and during one lunchtime picnic with my family I found a fresh emergence of Silver Studded or I think more likely Idas Blues due to the large size of the metallic blue markings in the marginal lunules of the hind wings, the relatively large size of the butterflies and the pale ground colour of the undersides (I did not try to separate the species by looking carefully at the front leg with a hand lens to look for the hair pencil on the tibia which is the only reliable way to differentiate them). As we looked carefully in the foot high open grass sward we picked out more and more males just sitting there basking or with wings closed. It was easy to spot half a dozen at a time, reminding me of mornings on Mill Hill in Shoreham where I used to see the same density of Chalkhill Blues basking on sunny mornings.
In the garden we have two Bronze Fennel and one ordinary Fennel plants; as we were sitting out there drinking a cup of tea in early May a female Swallowtail came down and hovered around the plants, settling but always with its wings vibrating, testing the leaves carefully with its legs and the tip of its abdomen, then sometimes laying an egg. We watched it for about 20 minutes as it came and went and came again--in all it laid six eggs. Interestingly it only laid on the Bronze Fennel though it tested the ordinary Fennel (a rather smaller plant) several times. There were three eggs on each of the Bronze Fennels. We kept an eye on them and from the six eggs we have seen two caterpillars (one on each plant) grow up to full size before disappearing to turn into chrysalides. Over this period we have noticed two new eggs, which have now hatched and are tiny caterpillars, black with a small white saddle mark making them look like tiny birds droppings.
The most interesting sighting this month has been a Duke of Burgundy Fritillary, it was very interesting because normally we only see them flying at over 950m altitude. This one was a female and was………..in my garden!!!!!! My wife called me over saying there was a Skipper in the garden, well you can imagine my surprise when it settled. We live at 450m, there are large areas of limestone around us and cowslips are widespread here. I presume it was a wandering female who had flown down from high up in search of egg laying sites, possibly in the end crossing the valley before going up the other side to a more normal altitude for this species, a good question to ponder over.
There is currently a good number of Painted Lady on migration. It is easy to find their eggs and caterpillars on thistles, so it looks as if it will be one of those "Painted Lady years".
FLOWERS
The spring flowers are now well advanced in the valleys, cowslips have gone to seed, the early spring orchids are over and Common Spotted Orchids are beginning to flower. There are a lot of Greater Butterfly Orchids around this year, in fact it is a superb orchid year for all sorts of species. In some areas the Sword Leaved Helleborine can be seen dotted all along the roadside, superb!
One very memorable trip out was up to a plateau at around 1400m, on the tiny road up to here (next to woodland mostly) there were large numbers of Early Purple Orchids, Sword Leaved Helleborines and as we went higher, Pale Orchids. Then when we started on the forest track for the plateau, it was an explosion of colour. Mostly yellow with carpets of Horseshoe Vetch, Birdsfoot Trefoil and some low growing crucifers, in between were little stands of Tufted Vetch, Sword Leaved Helleborines and Trumpet Gentians, we carefully examined these gentians and came to the conclusion that they were indeed the Pyrenean Trumpet Gentians. As we carried along and gently up this track we came to a large plateau. Because of the heavy grazing it is not particularly interesting for small herbs, but dotted all over the place were Orchids, mostly Elderflower with its red and pale yellow forms, and Early Purple, with Pale Orchids from time to time. Then we came to a more interesting bit with very shallow soils, where there were mostly low growing Juniper bushes dotted around. These were flat rather then pointed as we are more used to seeing lower down (a different species I think). On these thin soils again there was a mass of colour. Yellows and pale blues to deeper blues and pale mauve (different forms of Milkwort growing in dense patches), the same species of orchids but more dense, Trumpet Gentians, sometimes in clusters of a metre across and Spring Gentians along with possibly another similar species I think. Also there was loads of a deep pink form of Kidney vetch and the Mountain Kidney vetch also, whose petals on close inspection are white with many fine purple lines. Thyme Leaved Speedwell was also abundant; this also has white petals, this time with blue lines giving them a pale blue colour from a short distance. We also found a few Pyrenean Snakes Heads by the side of the track. Finally, right next to where we had parked the car we suddenly noticed three white Trumpet Gentians, an amazing sight, white flowers with green marking clearly visible in their interiors.
On the way back down (well down) there was a lovely stand of Dusky Cranesbill with its dark purple, almost black flowers making a dramatic display.
BIRDS
The House Martins are back in the village, so I have been keeping an eye out to see if they are using any of the four artificial nests we have put up. We had the house re roofed last year and so the two old nests were not used last year. We decided to put up some artificial nests to try to encourage them back after reading about the catastrophic decline in the species in France (as far as I can remember 87% over the last 13 years!!!). Well after just five minutes of looking I saw a House Martin come from under the eaves. Delighted, I sat and continued to watch. Five minutes later it came back, but it did not go into one of the artificial nests, it went to the old nest in between and then I noticed that the upper part of this nest was a slightly darker colour--it was being rebuilt! So we have House Martins, but they seem to prefer to use a traditional nest to our modern pre-fabs!! I will continue to keep an eye out from time to time, especially when there are young in the nest because at that time with the droppings falling to the ground it will be easy to say how many nests are being used.