We headed to Llo, where I had read about a circular gorge walk that sounded interesting and just about the right length for me (about 7km/4 miles).
We followed a quiet paved road which lead uphill, but not steeply. In any event, there was so much stopping to look at the wildflowers and butterflies that the uphill wasn’t a problem!
The first butterfly I saw was this one below, one I’d never seen before. It was perched on one of its host plants, a Cranesbill Geranium. The sides of the road had lots of large flowered Cranesbills along it, not something I see very often in the wild.
Alpine Saxifrage (Saxifraga paniculata)
Geranium Argus (Eumedonia eumedon) *
Either Common Spotted (Dactylorhiza maculata subsp. fuchsii) or Heath Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata). I can’t tell the difference and as you will see, I saw many that are one or the other (or indeed, something else!). The ones where I took photos of the leaves had spotty leaves.
Queen of Spain Fritillary (Issoria lathonia)
All along the way we walked beside this mountain stream, the Segre.
Above and below: either Heath Spotted or Common Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza species)
Yet more lifers! I saw five on this day! Asterisk denotes a lifer.
Iberian Marbled White (Melanargia lachesis) *
Pearly Heath (Coenonympha arcania) *
Unknown Fritillary
Round-leaved Restharrow (Ononis rotundifolia). I thought this was a delightfully pretty plant.
Apollo (Parnassius apollo). And then…. the butterfly we have been longing to see for years. It’s not a lifer as we saw some in the Jura mountains above Geneva more than 20 years ago, but we weren't into photography much back then, and didn’t have a digital camera at that time, which helps i.e. taking loads of pics! There were tons of Apollos flying about along this road and up the gorge banks. 💜
These are Keith’s images, as mine were not so close up.
Heath Fritillary (Melitaea athalia).
Piedmont Ringlet (Erebia meolans) * This butterfly took a liking to K’s foot, and jumped onboard to drink some of his sweat!
Unknown Blue butterflies. I'm not sure if they are the same species though they look similar. Possibly Amanda's Blue?
Alpine Saxifrage (Saxifraga paniculata)
Below is the only building we came across, a farmhouse called Mas Patiras.
Large Wall Brown (Lasiommata maera) * Slightly larger and lighter than the regular Wall Brown.
We came to where we turned off the paved road at a bridge and looked around for somewhere around the stream to have our picnic lunch. The rest is in the next post.
Relief map showing the Cerdagne and the places that we went to. Not marked is Llivia and its hill, where we went in the last post, bottom left.
Hi! Oh, what interesting observations! Absolutely lovely terrain. There are some familiar-looking butterflies there. The Apollo (Parnassius apollo) has disappeared from here. Too bad! When I was a child, there were a lot of them.
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