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.
Another interesting month weather wise. The month started with very cold weather with little butterfly activity, then things warmed up pretty well and there were a lot of butterflies about only to have several days more snow (22nd to 24th) and a dramatic drop in butterfly numbers. Then on the last three days of the month the weather turned warm again, the snow rapidly melted from mid altitudes and thebutterfly numbers started to increase again.
BUTTERFLIES
The first sightings of the month were on the third, with a Brimstone, a Small Copper, five Small Tortoiseshells and one Red Admiral being seen. Then on the tenth the weather was again good and I saw a Small White, a Holly Blue that flew across the garden and two Orange Tips, unmistakable as they flitted along by the roadside as I was descending after a visit to a village at about 900 metres altitude. Things really started to get going on the 16th, with numbers of Orange Tips and Brimstones rocketing,. The first Painted Lady of the year was spotted by Tim Nash on the 16th, he also saw about 10 Orange Tips, 10 Brimstones, 2 Small Coppers, a Peacock, 10 Small Tortoiseshells and three Speckled Woods. On the 17th Tim counted about 20 Orange Tips, including one female and about 20 Brimstones as well. I spotted a Large Tortoiseshell flying around the trunk of a tree and settling on it to sun itself on the 16th. This was the peak numbers for the month; then weather started to deteriorate somewhat. However, butterflies continued to be seen in low numbers including new species, the Swallowtail was added to the year list on the 20th and Small Coppers and Holly Blues were being spotted in ones and twos.
With the snow falls there was an interlude of four days without a butterfly being seen. Then on the 25th a single butterfly, a Small Copper, was reported and by the 29th the butterflies were starting to recover. Sightings of Orange Tip and Brimstone were down from the high of 20 on an outing to just 2, but Tim spotted 5 Small Coppers. Then the next day the 30th saw Orange Tip numbers jump to 10 and my wife spotted the first Scarce Swallowtail of the year in the supermarket car park!
FLOWERS
For me the flower of the month, as always at this time of the year, was Hepatica, sometimes carpeting the woodland edges with lovely pale blue, white and pale pinky purple flowers. The dominant colour type is usually the blue. By the end of the month they were at their prime. Wood Anemones were putting on a good display by the end of the month though I had the impression that they did not seem to like the cold wet spells very much and that they were not putting on as good a display as last year. In contrast the Pulmonaria was looking very good at the end of the month. I spotted my first wild Daffodils on the 10th at the same time that I spotted the Orange Tips. In fact, one of the Orange Tips was flitting lazily just over the Daffodils when I spotted him, making a wonderful complement to the yellow flowers. They are about half the height of cultivated Daffodils with rather narrow petals and are a paler rather washed out yellow colour, but lovely all the same.
BIRDS
I have to start with a very sad bit of news: the Lammergeieres have abandoned their nest––catastrophe! Ironically it was not due to human activity, which is what had always been the worry, but due to the presence of another Lammergeier, a lone youngster who started buzzing the couple and managed to frighten them away. They are themselves young and it is believed this would have been their first young. So we are all rather sad here about this.
The song birds are starting to sing. The most abundant at the moment is the Robin; there are a few Black Caps about and I expect we should have a lot more before long.