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.
What a fabulous butterfly year! The weather in 2006 was very sunny and dry which was great for adult butterflies. However there was a long drought, so food plants suffered badly and we may see a crash in butterfly numbers in 2007.
In May, clouds of Silver Studded Blues on a track after a thunderstorm - there must have been 100 or so butterflies every 5 metres. Then the discovery of a very large colony of Duke of Burgundy right near where I live. As always in Ariège with a mysterious altitude limit, which here was a minimum of 850m. This is less than the more usual limit of 950m, but the colony is on a north facing slope. I have often pondered over why the huge areas of apparently suitable Duke habitat at lower levels are never occupied whereas the Chequered Skipper flies from around 400m to right up over 2000m. This being the case then why was the Chequered Skipper so restricted in southern England before it became extinct there. I would have thought the wet woodlands of the South West would have been very good areas, perhaps ancient farming methods in the South West were not suitable for this species.
At the beginning of June I identified two new valley systems with the Black Hairstreak! These bring the known sites in the Ariege to three. As they are across the department it suggests that this very elusive butterfly is really quite widespread here, even though it is a species which has never been recorded in any of the surrounding departments.
July and August brought an influx of Cardinals (an indication of global warming perhaps?). I even saw one on a wild buddlea just a few hundred metres from my house!
I am working with the Ariège Naturalists Association to set up nature reserves for the Alcon Blue and Mountain Alcon Blue, both very rare and localised species of butterflies. The Alcon Blue is known from just one site in the Ariège where there are three known groups of Marsh Gentians at a distance of a few hundred metres. Two are on land with an extremely sympathetic owner and the other is on an adjacent farm which will very likely come up for sale soon. So if there is anyone out there who would like to buy a farm in the foothills of the Pyrenees and at the same time help save a very rare butterfly, please email!!! pappyren@aol.com
I now have a list of three other sites for Marsh Gentians provided by the botanists of the naturalists association and hope to be able to visit these sites in August 2007.
The Mountain Alcon Blue site we hope to turn into a nature reserve is a couple of rough meadows surrounded by woodland which is rapidly invading. This land has no less than 13 different land owners and contacting them all is proving quite a challenge. It is a marvellous site with many other interesting butterflies and plants, so fingers crossed that all will come together.