Exploring the Montagne Noire part 2

This post is a continuation of my previous post here.

We came down the mountain a little to an altitude of 770m to the lake of Laprade-Basse, where I had read that there was a boardwalk and a peat bog, but I had no idea whereabouts on the 6km around the lake walk it was. We pulled up beside a parking area where I could see an info board, and as luck would have it - we were there - at the right place! This boardwalk and bog are actually beside/around the very small lake at the northern end of a much larger lake, only formed in the 1980s as a reservoir for drinking water, agricultural use and for producing electricity via the barrage. The road forms the barrier between the two lakes.

This was a lovely walk, nearly all flat, a perfect temperature and no more than about 1km!

There were plenty of boards giving info about various flora and fauna seen in this area and explaining all about peat bogs. This is an area classed as an "Espace Naturel Sensible" - the equivalent of a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the UK. Full information about the bog can be found here, a really good 11 page pdf. 

At the end of the pdf I discovered info I didn't know - that our department, Aude, is the richest in France for nesting birds, and amongst the three top departments for flora! It shouldn't surprise me really, given that we are one of the rare departments that has mountainous areas in the Pyrenees and then the mini mountains of the Montagne Noire and the Corbieres, the sea, both chalk and acid soil, and flora reflecting both Mediterranean and Atlantic climatic influences, so a huge range of habitats for fauna and flora. 

We saw a number of these dragonflies which we found out were Keeled Skimmers (Orthetrum coerulescens), another tick off the dragonfly list!

Lysimachia of some sort. It's beautiful.

Looking towards the divide between the two lakes and where the parking area was.

There were plenty of carp:

This area was very interesting and the board explained it all.

In short, it explained that peat bogs need management otherwise they get taken over by forest which dries them out and they disappear. What happens to start with is that certain grasses such as the one shown on the info board (Molinia caerulea) and willow start to appear; these start to dry out the bog which allows for other plants and trees to start to encroach the then less wet areas.

What is shown here in the fenced off area in the middle is a patch of bog that has been cleared (with the help of students) of the grass and willow. I could see water in that patch, but not where the Molinia is growing.

I was too close to get it all in one photo - this picture shows a willow growing in amongst the Molinia grasses. 

The lovely fluffy plant on the right is Meadowsweet, although it was labelled as Spirea ulmaria, not Filipendula ulmaria which seems to be the most common Latin name for it. I guess like so many plants it must have changed its name!

On the walk back along the road towards the parking area there were lots of butterflies around the grass verges so I took my time taking photos, of course!

Male Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni)

Left: a Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus), top right: a Swallowtail (Papilio machaon) and bottom right: a Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas).

After that, we came down the mountain some more in the direction of home, to the village of Brousses at an altitude of about 400m. It couldn't have been more different from the lake! Now we were back in the now familiar garrigue; it was much hotter and very much drier as well. However this was an acid garrigue, as shown by the amount of flowering heathers. Also seen, but past their flowering, was the Sage-leaved Rock Rose, (Cistus salviifolius) and the Butterfly/Papillon Lavender (Lavandula stoechas), both indicators of acid soil.

This was a thankfully short walk too, about 1.5km. The name of the walk was 'Le Sentier du Granite', as the ground was very rocky with big lumps of granite all over the place. Juniper and the low growning Kermes Oak are familiar plants on the garrigue as seen in the following image.

On the path K spotted these two beetles digging in some holes. We spent some time watching and trying to figure out what they were doing (not having any idea what they were). A bit of research lead me to blister beetles, possibly Mylabris variabilis. The life cycles of blister beetles is very interesting as some lay their eggs in the nests of solitary bees so their beetle larvae would eat the food that the bee has left for its own larvae (and maybe the beetle larva would eat the bee larva as well). Some larvae crawl out of their underground chambers and up onto a flower, where they will climb onto a feeding bee and hitch a ride back to the hive, where they will live off bee eggs and pollen! Mylabris lay their eggs in the nest (ootheca) of grasshoppers, and the beetle larvae eat the eggs (and maybe larvae) of the grasshopper. All thoroughly interesting. In the second photo, at the bottom, you can see the beetle coming back out of the hole covered in soil and dust.

Finally, a picture of an old granite quarry. X marks the spot! Actually that is a footpath sign saying don't go this way. 😀

The end of the day was a little disappointing as we intended to visit Montolieu, a little town famous for its 15 book stores. But could we park? You gotta be joking. We tried the two well out of town car parks as well as all through the town, which is quite spread out up a hill. Not a chance - of course it was late July and full on tourist season which we had forgotten about! It looks amazing, a little like Minerve, perched up high with a gorge along one side and a bridge which crossed over the gorge. So we will come back in the autumn when hopefully most of the tourists have gone home! 😀

I'm looking forward to exploring more of the Montagne Noire now - it's not that far from home and as shown in these two blog posts, has a huge wealth of habitats and scenery. We both really enjoyed this day out! 😀