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Wildlife Update Mammal report Agricultural change and its implications for butterflies in the eastern French Pyrenees |
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Ariège forests |
Seduced by the Pyrenees:
walking in June
Niklas Wahlberg is a research scientist working at Stockholm University on the relationships of butterflies belonging to the family Nymphalidae. He has had a life-long interest in nature and has been an avid birdwatcher and butterfly collector since his early teens.
Hanna Wahlberg has a degree in botany from the University of Helsinki and her main interests are in flowering plants and mosses.
After a sweltering 3 hour car ride from Carcassonne, we arrived our destination, the gitê d’etape of Escolan in the Ustou Valley of Ariege on June 17, 2002. Here we would spend the next five days exploring the mountain environment of the Pyrenees, just the two of us, our first real holiday without the kids in 4 years! Our expectations were high and our very first impression was not disappointment. The little valley in which L’Escolan is situated was full of traditionally kept hay meadows that had a huge diversity of flowers on them. Looking up, we could see the local peaks still with patches of snow on them. It promised to be an exciting five days!
Our hosts, Yann and France Cornic, advised us of a short hike we could take during the afternoon, and after filling our water bottles, we set off for the village of Ossèse. It was a hot day and we soon discovered just how necessary drinking water is when walking under the sun. Since we were interested in the flowers and butterflies around us, we walked slowly and stopped frequently. The diversity of flowers on the hay meadows was amazing. We were surprised by how many familiar species from northern Europe there were [e.g. Rhinanthus minor (Yellow-rattle), Ranunculus repens (Creeping buttercup), Plantago lanceolata (Ribwort Plantain), Digitalis purpurea (Foxglove) and Veronica chamaedrys], though there was an equal number of strange and wonderful Mediterranean/alpine species (many of which we could not identify since we only had a French book with us, and neither of us knew enough French to understand it! One identified species was Arnica montana (Arnica)).
The butterflies also showed an interesting mix of northern and southern species. The most common species were Pieris napi (Green-veined White) and Aglais urticae (Small Tortoiseshell). Other common familiar species were Anthocharis cardamines (Orangetip), Gonepteryx rhamni (Brimstone), Pararge aegeria (Speckled Wood), Vanessa cardui (Painted Lady) and Lasiommata maera (Large Wall Brown). Some of the more exciting species collected were Carterocephalus palaemon (Chequered Skipper), Melanargia galathea (Marbled White), the immaculate male Lysandra bellargus (Adonis Blue) and most likely Melitaea deione (Provençal Fritillary). We returned from Ossèse using a small path that went through a beech (Fagus sylvaticus) forest along a stream. The stream had formed a small gorge through the forest making the walk quite exciting on occasions (little did we know this would seem extremely tame after walking in the mountains). Our afternoon’s walk spanned a very modest range of altitude: 750 m to 990 m.
The next morning dawned sunny and fine. We had decided to do the walk to Cirque de Cagateille and from there to Etang de la Hillette, a lake that is at about 1800 m in altitude. We started off by "biking" to the departure point of the hiking paths. The road up was quite steep so we more or less walked the bikes up. Once at the departure point, we set off towards Cirque de Cagateille just as the sun began shining on the opposite side of the valley. The path went first through some very impressive beech forest. The beech trees looked to be very old and the forest itself seem untouched, giving an almost holy feeling to it. We reached the meadows below the Cirque just as the sun began to shine on them. The first butterflies to be on the wing were Aglais urticae and Clossiana euphrosyne (Pearl-bordered Fritillary). The Cirque is a sheer granite wall going up some 300 m, with waterfalls cascading down its face. It was a grand sight to behold in the morning sun.
It was then time to climb up above the Cirque and we were introduced to our first steep mountainside. We plunged into the Abies alba (European Silver Fir) forest and began our ascent. It was 300 m to the tree line from the bottom of the Cirque and the path simply wound its way up. For a couple of flatlanders, it was tough going! The Abies forest was also quite impressive, though the multitude of paths going through it had eroded some of the undergrowth. This erosion could be avoided by clearly marking a path and advising people to stick to the path. As we climbed up we were aware of clouds forming in the valley below us. We had been warned about sudden clouding in in the mountains and were a little worried. As the clouds were not coming towards us at any great speed, we decided to continue our climb. The undergrowth had many interesting plants for us. We were excited to see a species of Pinguicula (grandiflora-Large-flowered Butterwort or vulgaris-Common Butterwort) near seepages (we are used to Pinguicula being a tundra plant!). Other plants we were able to identify were Ranunculus aconitifolius, Adenostyles alliariae (Common Adenostyles), Aruncus dioicus (Buck’s-beard), Saxifraga stellaris (Starry Saxifrage), Saxifraga umbrosa and Valeriana pyraneica.
We broke through the tree line at about 11 AM and were starting to feel very hungry. We still had another 200 m to ascend before reaching Etang de la Hillette, where we had decided to eat lunch. We climbed slowly up the granite slope towards the lake inspecting the alpine vegetation as we went. There were bushes of Rhododendron ferrugineum (Alpenrose) and a tiny Pedicularis pyrenaica in flower. Butterflies were fairly scarce with Lasiommata petropolitana (Northern Wall Brown) and Colias crocea (Clouded Yellow) being the most common. Suddenly an Erebia flew by that caused a stir (there are several endemic Erebias in the Pyrenees). It turned out to be Erebia meolans (Piedmont Ringlet), a nonendemic species, collected at about 1700 m.
The lake was quite spectacular, with a very steep granite slope rising above it full of snow and streams. We enjoyed lunch in sunny weather, though we noticed that the clouds in the valley had not gone away, on the contrary they seemed to be building up. After lunch we explored the lake surroundings a bit, admiring the flowering Gentiana (which we could not identify to species) and listening to the calls of Anthus spinoletta (Rock Pipit). Suddenly the clouds began forming in the valley below us at an alarming rate and they began rising towards us. We did not know what to expect and were rather worried for some minutes. We headed quickly back the way we had come and while climbing some of the steeper rock faces, the clouds reached us. It was like being in a very thick fog (visibility about 5 m), but we were relieved to notice that we could see the path down. We made it down to the bikes without any further excitement, though the fog turned into a drizzling rain as we descended. The drizzle turned into more persistent rain as we got to the bikes and after we had coasted down to the gitê, it turned into a furious thunderstorm.
The next day dawned cloudy and we decided to bike up to Ossèse and walk from there to the waterfalls. This we did in very leisurely fashion as the weather did not look like it was going to get better. As we neared the falls, the sun warmed up the air through the clouds enough to set the butterflies flying. There were lots of Pieris napi flying and two species of Erebia, E. meolans and E. oeme (Bright-eyed Ringlet). We ate lunch by the falls and decided to continue forward along the path towards Plat de la Fonta. Just as we got to the meadow below the first steep rise to the Plat (at about 1200 m), the sun broke through the clouds giving us majestic views of Pic de Peyrenère. As the clouds drifted away, two very large raptors took flight from the high crags. They turned out to be Gyps fulvus (Griffon Vulture) and we were able to watch them soaring above the crags of Pic de Peyrenère.
The meadow we had reached turned out to be spectacular in the sun and we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon there, enjoying the plants and butterflies. Butterflies were truly numerous with Erebia meolans, E. oeme, E. epiphron (Mountain Ringlet), Lysandra bellargus and Pieris napi being the most common. Other interesting species were Lycaena hippothoe (Purple-edged Copper), Polygonia c-album (Comma), Coenonympha pamphilus (Small Heath) and Melitaea sp. Finally, one individual of Parnassius mnemosyne (Clouded Apollo) came flopping by. The vultures had disappeared after their first appearance, though we kept an eye out for them constantly. During a break, while we sat in the shade of a hazelnut bush, a lone large raptor appeared against the steep slope of Pic de Peyrenère. Hanna looked at it first as Niklas described what to look for to identify Gyps fulvus. Hanna was slightly puzzled as this bird did not fit the characteristics, prompting Niklas to take the binoculars. It was a vulture, but not a Griffon Vulture. In the far distance, soaring against a spectacular back drop, was a Gypaetus barbatus (Bearded Vulture)!! What a fine birthday present for Niklas!! Such a sight was a grand end to a rather slow day in the Pyrenees.
The third and last whole day dawned rather cloudy, though it did not look like it would rain. We had decided to climb up to Etang de l’Alet, possibly walking to Etang de la Hillette once up there (depending on the weather). The climb up to Etang de l’Alet was very steep and went through a rather poor beech forest. It was clear that this forest had been under the influence of humans over the last hundred years or more, unlike the forest on the other side of the same valley. In fact the hike up to the tree line was rather boring, especially when the clouds came in obscuring the view of the valley below. We were rather disappointed by the way the weather was shaping up, but decided to press on up as it did not seem like it would rain. The clouds came up rather slowly and we were able to keep ahead of them. We reached the treeline at about 1500 m at around 11.00 AM just as the clouds caught up with us. Niklas saw two tawny goat-like creatures scutter off behind a ridge before the clouds obscured everything. They were almost certainly a pair of isard (the local species of chamoix)!
We sat down for a break to think about how to proceed since we did not have a good idea as to how the weather would develop. As we sat we could hear a strange birdcall making Niklas curse the clouds all the more. Suddenly the clouds started clearing and we noticed we were sitting at the base of fine high crag. The bird turned out to be Pyrrhocorax graculus (Alpine Chough), which gave us nice views before flying off. Since the weather seemed to be clearing up, we decided to continue up. Indeed as we climbed up, the sun came out and the sky turned blue. Looking behind us, we could see the valley below was entirely clouded in. On occasion the clouds would move up the mountainside, but then they would subside. We had climbed above the cloud layer and could see many mountaintops sticking out of the sea of cloud, like islands!
The bright sunshine made us feel more positive and we started looking around us. There were many flowers to be seen. The Rhododendron were in full flower. We found a clump of Dryas octopetala (Mountain Avens), a flower that in Finland only occurs in northernmost Lapland. There were a large number of butterflies flying in the alpine meadow between 1500 m and 2000 m, though there were only a few species. The most common species were Pieris napi and Anthocharis cardamines, both of which were really abundant. Other common species were Erynnis tages (Dingy Skipper), Cupido minimus (Little Blue) and Lasiommata petropolitana. We decided to stop for lunch by a patch of snow at about 2000 m. As we took our picnic out of our rucksacks, an Erebia came flying by. It turned out to be Erebia sthennyo (False Dewy Ringlet), an endemic species in the Pyrenees! Only one other was seen later. After lunch we explored the immediate region while our socks and boots dried out in the sun. We found that places where the snow melted last had some rather strange plants such as Soldanella alpina (Alpine Snowbell) and Ranunculus pyrenaeus (Pyrenean Buttercup). Other identified plants were Euphorbia myrsinites, Cardamine pratensis (Cuckooflower), Geum montanum, Viola biflora, Primula integufolia and Vaccinium myrtillus (Blueberry).
We continued on towards Etang de l’Alet all the while keeping an eye on the clouds in the valley. Sometimes it seemed that the clouds were rushing up to cover everything including us, while at other times they clearly were receding. We reached the lake after some spectacular scenery and had to make the final decision: whether to cross the 1 km rock field to Etang de la Hillette or whether to turn back. We almost decided to turn back as we had been expressly warned not to go into the rock field if the clouds were coming in. One could lose the way amongst the rocks and fall off a cliff… But the clouds seemed to stay at about 1500 m, so we ventured off across the rock field. It was only one kilometer to Etang de la Hillette, but it took us an hour to get across. There were quite a few patches of snow left and the terrain was rugged. We didn’t see many butterflies, birds or plants during the crossing.
We let out a sigh of relief once we got over to Etang de la Hillette, we were now on familiar ground after all. It was interesting to note how the vegetation and butterfly fauna changed radically on this side of the rock field. Flowers such as Gentiana and Jasione (Sheep’s-bit) were common and the most common butterfly was Aglais urticae. There were also several Colias crocea and Vanessa cardui (Painted Lady) flying around as we started descending towards Cirque de Cagateille, one lone Lasiommata megera (Wall Brown) was netted at 1800 m. The rest of the walk to the gîte was largely numb trudging as we had reached our limits for one day, 8 km on a flat map translates into a really long walk in the mountains!
Our last day in Ustou dawned quite grey and wet. We decided to walk away from the high mountains towards the village of St. Lizier. The route went along the side of the forested ridge next to our gîte. We climbed up into the beech forest and set off at about 1000 m. The first bit was quite boring but it gradually turned more interesting. The undergrowth had bushes of Buxus (Boxwood) and the occasional Castanea tree was seen. We also found Vaccinium myrtillus (blueberry) with a few berries on them, giving us a taste of the boreal forest. As we neared the village of St. Lizier, the clouds broke up and the sun heated up the forest quite a bit. We came upon a small clearing which had lots of Dianthus monspessulanus in flower and a view towards the snow-splashed peaks that was simply breathtaking. It was a fitting end to our glorious trip to the Pyrenees. We had been seduced by the Pyrenees and vowed to come back next year. Lowlands will now forever be flatlands in our minds.