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.
At the begining of the month the weather was rather mild with a lot of sunshine, then by the middle of the month we had more seasonal weather with snow arriving down at our altitude. For January the weather was warmer than average and a lot of wildlife took advantage of this.
BUTTERFLIES
The first one was seen on the 5th, a Small Tortoishell spotted by Tim Nash, who continued to spot Small Tortoishells all month, also on the 15th he spotted the only other butterfly of the month, a Red Admiral. As for me my score was zero butterflies the whole month, which rather suprised me since I was out walking on some lovely days and was convinced I would see something on more than one occasion.
FLOWERS
The Stinking Helebores slowly opened their flowers during the month, it is a very common plant here. The prettiest sight for me was myriads of Snowdrops growing wild along road sides and river banks, truly wonderful, the first herald of the new year. By the middle of the month the Snowdrops were to be seen all over the place. The other herald of the new year was the Hazel catkins which started releasing their pollen around the 15th. Both the Snowdrops and Hazel catkins are rather early, two to three weeks by my reckoning, so this bodes for an early spring, (I will be hanging up my skis early this year!)
BIRDS
Not a lot to add. The Lammergeieres are still very active, things are looking very hopeful there. The tits continue to come to the feeders giving the whole family a lot of pleasure.