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 butterfly (Eumedonia eumedon) * (a lifer!)
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). This is 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.
ReplyDeleteMany thank Anne! I looked at a list of butterflies in Finland and there are many more than I had imagined! What a shame about the Apollo. I read it was now very rare there. I think even in the Pyrenees and the Alps you have to be in the right place for them as I don't think they are common. I might be wrong though!
DeleteSuch a beautiful post, Mandy! Thank you :-)
ReplyDelete(Marianne in AZ)
Thank you, Marianne, for your continued support! :-)
DeleteWhat a beautiful walk - lovely wildflowers and the butterflies are just stunning! So glad you got so many "ticks" - the Apollo is particularly beautiful. You get so many more species than we have over here. Wonderful to see the orchids too - I think so many of them can hybridise which makes id even more difficult. You can't beat a wild orchid though :)
ReplyDeleteThanks very much Caroline. Orchids are a nightmare when they hybridise - they are hard enough to ID anyway, especially as there is so much variety in the markings even within one species! Butterflies are much easier! 😄
DeleteFrom Mr Equivocal.
ReplyDeleteStone the crows Mandy. Not easy. The first unknown butterfly you had not seen before could well be something as simple as a female Common Blue as it is brown underneath and it has that familiar Golf Tee mark on the underwing.
The first group of three, the unknown Fritillary. Could well be a Glanville Fritillary. That is a definite maybe. 🤔 The other Blue is most likely the Amanda's Blue.
Hi Roy and thanks for taking the time to help out!
DeleteThe first butterfly I have already said what it was in the para above - it's the Geranium Argus.
The second isn't a Glanville as they have a row of spots on the hind wing upper side. I've looked through my book with the aid of my favourite websites but no luck really without seeing the underwings. I have another butterfly that looks like this in the next post and I didn't see the underwings of that one either!
I do think the next one may be an Amanda's Blue but I didn't get very good photos so don't want to say that for sure. Thanks for confirmation. :-)
Sorry Mandy. I need new reading glasses for the one eye that actual works.
DeleteDon’t apologise! I have amended it to read Geranium Argus butterfly so it no longer sounds like a plant. Keith told me the captions weren’t very clear anyway.
Delete