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 this month has been a lot kinder, lots of sunny days and no long spells of grey. Consequently the butterflies have caught up a lot. The farmers whose animals graze the high mountain pastures tell me that the flowers up there are three weeks behind normal.
BUTTERFLIES
A great month which has seen large numbers of butterflies emerging and large numbers migrating. The most obvious migrant has been the Painted Lady with butterflies often flying over in a determined fashion, all heading north, with two or three a minute going past as I was standing on my building site in mid June. Eighteen new species were added for the year: Violet Copper, Idas Blue, Amanda’s Blue, Sloe Hairstreak, Ilex Hairstreak and very excitingly a second record ever for Black Hairstreak seen by someone who was staying in my Gite and following one of my itineraries. The first record was made by Nick Bowles two years ago when he was staying in my Gite; he managed to photograph that individual on my land!
Well, to get back to the new sightings for June: Black Veined White, Southern Small White, Bath White, White Admiral, Dark Green Fritillary, High Brown Fritillary, Piedemont Ringlet, Large Chequered Skipper, Small Skipper, Lulworth Skipper, Large Skipper. Purple Emperor / Lesser Purple Emperor, again from my Gite. Knowing the area well I think it must have been a Purple Emperor because the person reported the individual to be purple with no hint of orange and all the Lesser Purple Emperors that I see there have a definite orangish hue. Also, second broods of Sooty Copper and Small Copper have been reported and a fresh Large Tortoiseshell (ie this year's generation) has been seen as well.
My highlight of the month was the day I took Denis, Lydia and my father-in-law Ron to see my baby the Violet Copper. We went to my main study site, which I am delighted to be able to say has hardly changed in the seven years since I completed my studies. The butterflies were there right on cue, the males in their typical territory areas and the females either nectaring or egg laying. The males were plentiful with up to half a dozen being spotted at a time in certain areas, all disputing territories and darting up to intercept anything that came within about 1 metre of their perches. Some of them were very fresh and posed very well for Lydia with her digital camera. We managed to find eggs without difficulty exactly where I predicted (phew!) and also found a young caterpillar. We were too early for the Bog Fritillaries who normally emerge in the first week of June. However, we also found Green Underside Blue, Green Hairstreak, Chequered Skipper, Pearl Bordered Fritillary and Marsh Fritillary. Then on our way back we stopped at a fabulous limestone scrub/grassland area where, despite the now windy and somewhat cloudy conditions, we saw Adonis and Small Blues (including eggs of the latter on Kidney Vetch), Bergers Clouded Yellow and Moroccan Orange Tip.
As for moths I have to report that the two Convolvulus hawk moth chrysalises that I over wintered both turned out to be parasitized with remarkably ordinary looking flies emerging from within.
FLOWERS
There was a good display of Sword-leaved Helleborines in the scrubby area where we stopped the day we saw the Violet Coppers. They were just emerging. It has been a fantastic year for orchids: the Bug orchids were very abundant indeed and were flowering right to the end of the month. Pyreneen Turks Cap Lillies have been putting on a great display, towards the end of the month they were over at low altitudes but still fully in bloom higher up. The Trumpet Gentians were rather late as expected with all the late snow, so in early June at 2000m they were not yet in flower and we had to wait three weeks more to see the first of the Vanilla orchids in flower at the same locality.
BIRDS
The Black Redstarts in the garden have fledged and we have had young Spotted Fly Catchers perching in the Fig tree, waiting for their parents to bring tasty morsels. On a trip up to Plateau de Beille (one of the finishes of the Tour de France this year) I was lucky enough to see a Tree Pipit doing all that it is supposed to do: great singing and great pirouetting, parachuting descents back to the chosen tree top--marvellous. Then that same evening we spotted a Golden Eagle and a Hobby when we were sitting out in the back garden. The same week we also were treated to the sight of a Short Toed Eagle doing its characteristic hovering whilst looking for snakes. There is no mistaking this bird when it hovers--the only other raptor to truly hover is the Kestrel, which of course is much smaller.