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On the afternoon of day 2 we visited Lac de Balcere. Unfortunately we didn't see the dozens of dragonflies that had been seen here the previous year (a few weeks later) but the wild flowers made up for it.
Looking up on the rocks we spotted some interesting lilies and a few of our group climbed up to explore, but rock climbing isn't my forte! I relied on my zoom.
They are yellow Turk's Cap or Martagon Lilies (Lilium pyrenaicum), native to mountain areas, mostly in the Pyrenees.
We found a few more orchids near the lake edge - this is the Broad-leaved Marsh Orchid (Dactylorhiza majalis) that we had seen in the damp meadows of the Vallée du Galbe..
This was a lovely find, shining brightly all on its own near the lake edge. It's Pyrenean Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla alpina subsp. apiifolia).
We found another orchid after doing the loop of the lake - this one is either the Heath Spotted (Dactylorhiza maculata) or the Common Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii), probably the latter.
This is the gite that we stayed at, Maison Sarda in the tiny village of Espousouille. The rooms were basic but comfy and most had en suite bathrooms, although some were with compost toilets. The price was incredibly cheap - 66 Euros for half board, with a delicious three course evening meal!
On our last morning we went for a short walk along the road as we'd been told that a group of Marmots (Marmota marmota) were living in the dry stone walls. Luck was with us and we saw a few of them - a first for K and me! Alpine Marmots are large ground-dwelling squirrels which were reintroduced to the Pyrenees in 1948 as they disappeared after the Pleistocene epoch (according to Wikipedia). They live up in the mountains where they sleep in burrows, and hibernate during the winter.
The rest of the day will be in a final post as there would be too many photos otherwise!
If you are receiving this via email, please accept my apologies for the lack of posts in recent months. Please read the end of this blog where I explain.
Our first summer here I found three Wasp Spiders (Argiope bruennichi) in the garden, but since then, nothing. Imagine my surprise when deadheading in the Nectar Bar to realise I was disturbing a huge Wasp Spider! I then discovered one in the herb garden that same day, and in the last few days have been finding more.
In all I have counted 14 in our garden! Most are in the ditch between our property and the gardens on the hillside next to us. The ditch is for run off during heavy rainfall, but is a godsend for wildlife as it's full of wildflowers and is just a wild jungle really, so a good place for creatures to hide from predators. Unless you are a pollinating insect, and the whole ditch has become one big Wasp Spider hang out!
This spider above has a stabilimentum (the zigzag decoration) on its web, but I noticed that most of them don't. It could be that the stabilimentum has been disturbed by the amount of wind we get. The first spider that I found had its stabilimentum disturbed by me and whilst the spider eventually respun a great new web, it didn't bother with this part of it. A bit puzzling! However it's not known what purpose the stabilimentum actually serves though there are several hypotheses.
Below is the one I first found in my Valerian in the Nectar Bar. It's one of the biggest, though they really range in size even in a small area like my garden.
The following two are taken showing the underside of the spider.
This one has a juicy fly or bee wrapped up in silk, or, quite possibly, her mate! I have noticed in one photo I took of this spider, three males hanging around the outside of her web. What's wrapped up is stripy though, and the males are rather brown looking and much less decorative, not to mention a lot smaller. You can see a picture of a male and a female together here.
I'm now going to look for their egg sacs, as I have yet to see one. They are supposed to be hung in the vegetation near the web and resemble an upturned Greek urn. Fingers crossed!
Email Subscribers
I only noticed a month or so back that I wasn't receiving my own copy of my blog via Feedio. I have no idea what happened but they have disappeared off the face of the internet, so I have had to find another provider to send emails out to you. I have gone with follow.it and let's hope they stick around for longer!
You have missed quite a few posts - I don't know from when exactly but it was early on this year I think.
Here are links to the posts I've made (most recent first) that you may be interested in reading:
After a delicious breakfast we set off further up the valley where we had been walking the day before. Here it turns narrower with the stream running beside us most of the way.
It took an hour or so before the butterflies really warmed up and started flying around, but I saw these two Fritillaries early on. I wasn't sure if they were Pearl Bordered or Small Pearl Bordered Fritillaries, as I don't have photos of the underwings, but I've been told by someone who also took photos of them that they are Pearl Bordered.
A refuge along the way, which states that we were at 1,645m altitude.
This is a male Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus). Shortly after I took these shots it alighted upon some dog poo where I continued to take photos, but I will spare you any of them!!!
Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) on wild Thyme (Thymus serpyllum) and I'm pleased to see the House Leeks in this photo, as they are the larval foodplant of the Apollo butterfly!
Once it started warming up a little there were literally dozens of Chimney Sweeper moths (Odezia atrata) flying around - no photos as they never stopped!
By this time we were higher above the stream and across the valley was a small stream waterfalling its way down the slopes. The yellow in the photo is Broom of some sort and the pink, which can just be seen (better if you click and open up the image) is Europe's Rhododendron, the Alpenrose (either Rhododendron ferrugineum or Rhododendron hirsutum).
Common Blues mating on Common Rockrose (Helianthemum nummularium)
It was too early for the Apollo to be flying, but we were graced by many beautiful Clouded Apollos (Parnassius mnemosyne). These butterflies like open flowery places in both lowlands and mountains where their larval foodplant, Corydalis, grows (although I didn't see any, but maybe it wasn't flowering at that time). You can see that the tips of their wings are clear; it shows especially well on the image with the dandelion.
This is Euphorbia cyparissias, the first time I have seen one with orange flowers rather than the more usual yellow.
And then ..... some kind horse had given us a wonderful opportunity to watch and photograph all these gorgeous butterflies taking minerals from the dung! I counted about 20 in this image - mostly Small Blues.
Three lifers in one image! Top left, Mazarine Blue (Cyaniris semiargus) with wings closed, bottom left unknown moth, top right Small Blue (Cupido minimus), and bottom right, Red Underwing Skipper (Spialia sertorius). Wow! I have longed to see a Small Blue and here were dozens! 💕
Mazarine Blue, above and below, is a beautiful deep blue but quite plainly patterned on the underside. The Red Underwing Skipper was a nice surprise too. It is found on lower mountain slopes and feeds on Salad Burnet (Sanguisorba minor) of which there was plenty. Sadly I didn't get any decent photos of their underwings.
I think this was on the way back when we were close to the stream on boggy ground. This pretty plant is Common Butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris), a parasitic plant. Insects get stuck on the sticky leaves and the plant absorbs nutrients from them.
A little froglet!
Niall found this orchid for me, as I had not seen one so far on our walk. This is Common Twayblade (Neottia ovata), but obviously it's not opened up yet.
One more lifer! This is a Purple-edged Copper (Lycaena hippothoe), but I couldn't get very close as we were all interested and taking photos like mad! So the images are zoomed in rather than taken from close up.
I don't seem to be able to embed this where I want it in the post so it's at the end or no video. So here we are back to the butterflies on the horse dung. I very rarely take videos but thought this was something worth recording, however it's a bit rubbish and rather wobbly. Ignore me saying I think it's an Adonis Blue - it was a Mazarine Blue but I had never seen one before at that point.
Part 3 to come which will be what we did that afternoon, and day 3.
