Pyrenean Escapade with Birding Languedoc Part 2

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.