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 was mostly good with hardly any rain (just the occasional thunder storm) and now everything is very dry indeed and people are starting to talk about another drought. However there are plenty of flowers still in flower even if all the grass has turned brown and there are loads of butterflies and other insects about.
BUTTERFLIES
This month will go down as a very memorable one, not only because I managed to cycle up to the Plateau de Beille (a stage finish in the Tour de France) - even if it did take me nearly 6 hours!!! - but mainly because of the butterflies.
With the very late spring, summer butterflies were mostly very late to emerge and the spring ones hung on exceptionally late. I was very surprised to find a Baton Blue up at Plateau de Beille at about 1800m, on the second, flying along one of the very open tracks. Its food plant, Wild Thyme, was growing in little tufts on bare soil at the edge of the track. An ideal situation for this species, but the thing that surprised me was the altitude. The Marbled Fritillary was seen by Tim Nash on the seventh and the first Silver Washed Fritillary was not reported until the 13th, again spotted by Tim. I found Great Banded Graylings in good numbers on the 10th, flying on a fabulous scrubby hillside with all sorts of ecological niches available. Then on the same site on the 18th, I went for a quick walk with Lydia at lunchtime and we saw 6 very fresh Large Blues, Eschers Blue, Idas Blue, Lulworth Skipper and much more besides.
My personal highlights of the month:
In mid July I went up to just over 2000m in the Réserve Nationale de Chasse et de Faune Sauvage d'Orlu (a national hunting and wildlife reserve) and saw three Alpine Grizzled Skippers, the first recorded in the Ariège since the 1940’s and a life species for me. It is easy to tell apart from the other Grizzled skippers by features both on the top and undersides. On the top side forewing it has three very distinct small discal white marks starting from the inner margin and going up towards the discal spot. On the underside hindwing the inner margin has two white spots rather like an exclamation mark. Both these features were present and easily recognisable on the one butterfly I netted, in the other two the three topside discal marks were very clearly present making capture for confirmation of identification in a pot unnecessary. Also on this trip, I saw my first Mountain Dappled White for at least 8 years. It turned out to be the first of several sightings of this high altitude butterfly during the month.
Normally one or two life species a year is pretty good going for me here. However this year, with the aid of a group of ten people from the Upper Thames branch of Butterfly Conservation, I managed to see seven! During their one week trip (from the 21st to 28th of July), we saw 131 species of butterfly - smashing my standing record of 105 species in a week by a long way. Maybe we cheated a bit by going into Spain one day, but we already had 118 species in 5 days from going to my normal sites!! The maximum number of species seen in one day was 77, again beating my previous best of 64 by a long way. This was partly due to the skill and expertise within the group but also to the very late spring this year. Species such as Marsh Fritillary and De Prunners Ringlet were still flying at 2500m. An Orange Tip and Pearl Bordered Fritillaries were at 2000m and we found either a very late or one of the very limited and occasional second brood adults of the Violet Copper; we also found a not too battered Green Hairstreak.
During this time as well as new species we discovered rarities, at sites that I know pretty well, such as the Woodland Brown. I had noticed a butterfly with a different jiz about 30m away on a woodland edge and went to investigate. I was right, a Woodland Brown. I turned round and yelled out for people to come and have a look and, at the same instant, discovered that Woodland Brown’s are very particular about noise. Up it flew straight away. I tried to catch it with my net but the ground was very uneven and I missed … all everyone else saw was a brown blur that could have been anything. Blast!! At the end of the afternoon we went back to the same glade. After a few minutes a largish pale brown looking butterfly flitted through the trees and settled at about 3 metres high in a Hazel. This time I had two of the group on hand, each with binoculars. We all saw it clearly but, as soon as the others started arriving, it did its disappearing act again. The rest of the group were very disappointed, having missed what would have been for all of them a lifetime first. So the next morning we set off to a site specifically for the Woodland Brown. As we arrived the sun was just getting to the valley bottom of this very steeply sided valley. We walked along the road at the bottom and I deviated off into a little glade where I had found them before… nothing. The rest of the group bar one were walking along slowly checking out the blues and whites and a Scarce Swallowtail that was flitting around. The other person had gone on about 200m. I could see him coming back a bit and waving to me, I could have sworn he said “there’s two here”, so I yelled back “two what”? “Woodland Brown’s” came an emphatic and triumphant reply. There, on the edge of the road only a couple of metres up in some Hazel branches, were two Woodland Browns basking and occasionally flitting a couple of metres, showing off for everyone to see. Then I wandered into a small field on the left where I knew they had also been seen and, after walking three quarters of the way round, something with that unmistakable jiz flew up from the grass. Swish went my net and I had captured a near perfect specimen. I popped him into a pot for everyone to look at and went back to find people trying to get photos of the two butterflies by the road side. They were having a very frustrating time because even the noise of the cameras shutter was enough to send the butterflies into flight. I wandered back into the field with Nick Bowles and we quickly found another Woodland Brown. Nick followed it half way round the field, having a very frustrating time trying to get near enough to photo, and with each shot the butterfly took off again. On regrouping there were a lot of smiling photographers who told us that the butterfly I had potted, on being released, just sat on the side of the pill box whilst everyone snapped away to their hearts content. We spent another half hour there and in all had twelve very good sightings of Woodland Brown, another personal record!!
Then on getting back to the cars we were treated to a fantastic fly past, one after the other with about ten metres between each one - Large Tortoiseshell, Purple Emperor and Lesser Purple Emperor, which at this site always has a characteristic orangey tinge and is very obviously smaller than the Purple Emperor.
Up at 2500m in Andorra we were lucky enough to come across a very good emergence of Glandon Blue. They were mostly roosting when we arrived - the temperature was just 12°C and the wind was decidedly chilly. However the clouds dispersed after about 30 minutes and we started to find butterflies flying, including Mountain and Shepherds Fritillaries. It was great to be able to see the two at the same time to be able to highlight the differences between them. Also, we had a Dewy Ringlet up there.
The day in Spain was very memorable. The scenery was absolutely fantastic, with vertical peaks seemingly only a stones throw away and some superb meadows in between stretches of Oak and Pine woodland. At one place there was Ground Elder in flower, with four species of Hairstreak nectaring, Ilex, Blue spot, Sloe and White Letter. Then a few metres further on were a couple of Purple Hairstreaks on bramble blossom. Life time firsts for me that day were Damon Blue, Riparts Anomalous Blue, Agenjo’s Anomalous Blue, Nettle tree Butterfly and Dusky Heath. We were also treated to fly bys by a Purple Emperor and lots of Large Fritillaries; mostly Silver Washed but with a few High Brown, Dark Green and Niobe Fritillaries thrown in for good measure.
So much was seen during the week that it is impossible to tell it all in this summary, but I hope I have been able to convey a little of the excitement and wonder that I experienced with this group.
List of species seen with the Upper Thames Branch of Butterfly Conservation:
Apollo, Clouded Apollo, Swallowtail, Scarce Swallowtail, Large White, Small White, Southern Small White, Green Veined White, Black Veined White, Orange Tip, Moroccan Orange Tip, Mountain Dappled White, Bath White, Wood White, Brimstone, Cleopatra, Clouded Yellow, Berger’s Clouded Yellow, Mountain Clouded Yellow, Green hairstreak, Purple Hairstreak, Ilex Hairstreak, Sloe Hairstreak, Blue Spot Hairstreak, White Letter Hairstreak, Small Copper, Violet Copper, Scarce Copper, Purple Shot Copper, Purple Edged Copper, Geranium Bronze, Small Blue, Provinçal Short Tailed Blue, Short Tailed Blue, Holly Blue, Silver Studded Blue, Idas Blue, Baton Blue, Escher’s Blue, Chapman’s Blue, Amanda’s Blue, Damon Blue, Riparts Anomalous Blue, Agenjo’s Anomalous Blue, Large Blue, Mountain Alcon (or Rebeli’s Large) Blue, Turquoise Blue, Mazarine Blue, Glandon Blue Adonis Blue, Chalkhill Blue, Common Blue, Brown Argus, Mountain Argus (Northern Brown Argus), Nettle Tree Butterfly, Small Tortoiseshell, Large Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Comma, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Map, White Admiral, Southern White Admiral, Purple Emperor, Lesser Purple Emperor, Silver Washed Fritillary, Dark Green Fritillary, High Brown Fritillary, Niobe Fritillary, Marbled Fritillary, Lesser Marbled Fritillary, Queen of Spain Fritillary, Bog Fritillary, Shepherd’s Fritillary, Mountain Fritillary, Pearl Bordered Fritillary, Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary, Weaver’s Fritillary, Knapweed Fritillary, Spotted Fritillary, False Heath Fritillary, Provencal Fritillary, Heath Fritillary, Meadow Fritillary, Marsh Fritillary, Marbled White, Espers Marbled White, Iberian Marbled White, Rock Grayling, Woodland Grayling, Grayling, Hermit, Black Satyr, Great Sooty Satyr, Dryad, Great Banded Grayling, Large Ringlet, Yellow Spotted Ringlet, (Small) Mountain Ringlet, De Prunner’s Ringlet, Silky Ringlet, Common Brassy Ringlet, Spanish Brassy Ringlet, Piedmont Ringlet, Dewy Ringlet, Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Gatekeeper, Spanish Gatekeeper, Small Heath, Dusky Heath, Pearly Heath, Chestnut Heath, Speckled Wood, Wall Brown, Large Wall Brown, Woodland Brown, Large Grizzled Skipper, Oberthur’s Grizzled Skipper, Olive Skipper, Carline Skipper (cirsii), Red Underwing Skipper, Mallow Skipper, Tufted Marbled Skipper, Large Chequered Skipper, Lulworth Skipper, Small Skipper, Essex Skipper, Large Skipper, Silver Spotted Skipper.
FLOWERS
The flowers seem mostly to be standing up to the dry weather pretty well, in contrast to the grasses that are totally brown and dry in a lot of places. There are a lot of Scabiouses and Marjoram around, both of which butterflies love. Broad Leaved and Dark Red Helleborines also put on a good display. The Dark Red Helleborine looks very similar to the Broad Leaved only it is often (but not always by any means) smaller and it has as its name suggests, dark red flowers. The other plant of particular note for me was the Cross Gentian, the larval foodplant for the Mountain Alcon or Rebeli’s Large Blue, which we saw at three sites with its lovely mid blue flowers and often pepperings of the characteristic little white eggs of this extremely rare butterfly.
BIRDS
Behind the hotel, where the group from the Upper Thames Branch of Butterfly Conservation were staying, is a high limestone cliff with a large cave entrance half way up. This cave was being used by Alpine Swifts as a nesting site. Three years ago there were five pairs here. One morning as my group was assembling, I counted 16 individuals (that is 8 pairs) all flying around as if really enjoying themselves.
During the trip we saw a large group of Griffon Vultures lazily soaring, a single Egyptian Vulture, lots of Buzzards and several Short Toed Eagles.