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.
Well, I can’t say the weather has broken, but we have had the odd day of rain, a couple of times very heavy, so everything is now greening up again and the toadstools are appearing in droves in field and wood, along with people out searching for them, a favourite french past time. The mountain tops down to around 2000m are covered in snow and the weather is distinctly colder, however the sun still warms us very well in the day, where temperatures have got up to about 28 °C on one or two days, but 22 to 25 °C has been more typical.
BUTTERFLIES
Some things are flying very late, presumably after their very late start this year coupled with the good weather over the last few weeks. Silver Washed Fritillaries were occasionally being spotted at the beginning of the month, the latest one being seen on the 12th. On the other hand the Camberwell Beauty has hardly been recorded this month in contrast to previous Octobers where it has been quite frequent. It is possible that it went into hibernation early due to the paucity of nectar sources following the very dry summer. No records of Langs Short Tailed Blue and not many sightings of Long Tailed Blues. One Bath White in the middle of the month and that was all for the migrant species.
Despite the paucity of migrants there have been steady if not numerous sightings of other species such as Common and Adonis Blue, Brown Argus, Oberthur’s Grizzled Skipper, Wall and Speckled wood. The Brown Hairstreak continued to be sighted until the 23rd when I spotted it at 750m altitude. The most striking event of the month was the emergence near the end of the month of the Small Copper, in numbers such I have never seen before. For a few days they were all over the place, in the space of a few metres you could sometimes count four or five. This was right at the end of the month and went on into the beginning of November. On The 28th Nick Bowles and I went out for a couple of hours and spotted no less than 17 species: Large White, Small White, Brimstone, Clouded Yellow, Red Admiral, Peacock, Painted Lady, Weaver’s Fritillary, Oberthur’s Grizzled Skipper, Small Copper, Long Tailed, Blue Common Blue, Adonis Blue, Brown Argus, Specked Wood, Wall Brown and Large Wall Brown.
There was an emergence of Deaths Head Hawk moths in the middle of the month, my daughter Bryony spotted a newly emerged individual on a path right near our house, I nearly stepped on it!! It was in absolutely perfect condition, a marvellous beast.
FLOWERS
The Autumn Crocuses were giving a marvelous display for the first three weeks of the month, there were fields purple with their flowers. It is a plant that I find both in meadows and in woods whereas the other Autumn Crocus, the Colchicum I tend to find in or right near woods. There were a few Knapweeds and Hawkbits still flowering providing nectar sources for butterflies, also there was a good smattering of thing trefoils and medics in flower. The trees do not seem to know its autumn, a good many are still green at the end of the month, so either they know something we don’t or they risk to have branches breaking if we have an early snow fall.
BIRDS
Not a lot to report really, too late for the migrants and too early for the large raptors to start doing things. We have had a good many Black Caps and other warblers on the fig tree taking advantage of the very late figs, right to the end of the month and into November..