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 again was generally good - hardly any rain again - just a few good thunderstorms to stop everything from drying up completely. However there were a number of welcome cloudy days to break up the rather intense heat. By the end of the month every thing was very, very dry and some fires broke out in various places, woodland, scrub and grassland. Perhaps some were natural but the feeling is, at least some were deliberate. Fortunately none have been too large. In a way, with lack of grazing and the invasion of the forest in many places, these fires will probably be seen in time as a good thing - helping keep the countryside more open and creating early successional habitat patches within areas of forest.
BUTTERFLIES
It has been a good year for Chalk Hill Blues - the best I have seen in the thirteen years that I have known the Ariège. On a visit near the foot of Mont Valier in the middle of the month, they were to be seen in groups of up to around 100 mud puddling by the side of the river. Sometimes the dogs went running ahead sending clouds of them flying up in the air. Among these groups of Chalk Hill Blues were a few skippers - Large Grizzled and, a new tick for this year, the Marbled Skipper.
I also had this type of experience of clouds of blues with another species in August - the Silver Studded Blue - near home, along a forest type track by the river Ariège. There are tall trees by the river casting occasional shade over the track between nice sunny stretches. On the other side of the track are some beautiful meadows, with flowers such as Dusky Crane’s-bill in their margins. Along the track are often some damp patches, as on this day. At these patches the butterflies were assembled, going up in fantastic clouds of blue flashes as we walked through them. Amongst the Silver Studded Blues were a few Common, Chalk Hill and Adonis Blues, and the occasional skipper - probably Oberthurs Grizzled Skipper at that height (around 450m).
The Brown Hairstreak put in appearance near the beginning of the month while I was walking a hospitalised dog from my vet practice at Tarascon. There is a little grassy ornamental garden not far from the practice, with an artificial waterfall and two tiny ponds. A medium sized brown butterfly that I could not immediately identify in flight came flitting down. It settled on the edge of the ornamental waterfall trickling down across the garden area and extended its proboscis onto the damp surface. Its wings were closed making identification very obvious - that lovely tawny orangey underside bisected by two white lines. A very good start to the day!
On a trip out with Tim Nash to the Saurat valley, I caught the first confirmed Rosy Grizzled skipper (Pyrgus onopordi) since Nabakov first recorded it in the spring of 1929!
At the end of the month there was a good hatch of the second generation of several small fritillaries, Meadow, Heath, Knapweed and Glanville. Looking across flower rich meadows, these medium sized orange butterflies could be seen flitting around all over the place, hopping between nectar sources or cruising around looking for a mate.
Moths: in mid August, in my garden at Alas, were two Broad Bordered Bee Hawk moths nectaring on one of the buddleas. Along side were several Humming Bird Hawk Moths (always much more plentiful) and of course, loads of butterflies.
FLOWERS
Despite the dry weather the flowers appeared plentiful in many meadows - lots of Knapweeds and wild umbelifers (mostly Wild Carrot). In one place, ravaged by fire two years ago, there was lots of Red Bartsia growing to about double the height that I was used to seeing it on the downs in Sussex. Low growing flowers, such as Bird’s Foot Trefoil, appeared also to be doing well - perhaps partly due to reduced competition from the dried up grasses. By the end of the month the Devils Bit Scabious was starting to flower in a few places, giving a foretaste of things to look forward to in autumn.
BIRDS
The Black Kites left as always around mid august and the Swifts soon followed, so I will have to wait for next year now before I again hear the joyous screaming cries of the Swifts racing one another along the rooftops of my street. Our Black Redstarts have reared a second brood of young. They fledged at the end of the month and were to be seen for a couple of days in the neighbours’ garden on a large Birch tree, where their parents were bringing them food. The large raptors young have mostly left their nests now. Only one very late and very large Golden Eagle chick is reported to still be in the nest in the last week of the month. All the young Lammergeiers are flying and doing well. There is to be a census of the Lammergeiers in Ariège at the end of the month, so we will know more of their breeding success then.