Pyrenean Escapade with Birding Languedoc Part 4

On our last day, after seeing the Marmots, we set off into the hills, towards the village of Railleu. On the way, we stopped beside some valleys to look at the wildflowers and also to check for Red-backed Shrikes, which had been spotted here before. I don't have any photos as it was distant, but we did get to see one through a scope!

Whilst the birders were finding birds for us, those of us who were interested in other things had a good look around.

Glanville Fritillary (Melitaea cinxia).

I'm pretty sure this is an Adonis Blue (Polyommatus bellargus).

This is a tiny broom growing out of a rock bank, called the Winged Broom (Genista sagittalis).

We stopped for a wander around the village of Railleu, a pretty little place perched on a rocky hillside. When a group had been here the year before (later on in June) on a butterfly trip, they had seen dozens of butterflies of about 20 different species, but not so when we were there! It was a nice place to wander around anyway, admiring both the wildflowers and the little gardens beside the pretty stone houses and church.

Houseleeks (Sempervivum) growing on the rocks, the host plant of the Apollo butterfly.

We ate our picnic lunch at Railleu and then our group split up as it was the end of our trip. Keith and I weren't ready to go home though; as we were already up in the mountains it would have been crazy not to take advantage of it!

So after lunch we headed off to Lac de Bouillouses which is a large lake at 2,000m altitude. It was busy though - hardly any room left to park and people everywhere! It came as a bit of a shock after our quiet couple of days. In the summer they run a shuttle bus up here from a large car park about 10km away which is very sensible.

There were lots of horses wandering around too, including a number of cute foals. We also bumped into Niall beside the lake, who had had the same idea as us!

A rather alpine looking hotel, with lots of yellow broom in the foreground.

These heavy horses look very much like Bretons to me!

As we were walking around the path, some Citril Finches (Carduelis citrinella) came to land on the grass right near us. I took photos zooming in as I clicked, but most annoyingly some people walked around the corner and scared them off. Grrrr!

Here we were able to see the Alpenrose (Rhododendron ferrugineum) close up.

As the track beside the lake turned rather rocky we decided to give it a miss and stopped at a few places downstream of the River Tet, which isn't much of a river at this point as it is regulated by the barrage at the Lac de Bouillouses, though it becomes one of the major rivers in the Pyrenees Orientales dept when it gets down to the plain near Perpignan. We once stayed at a campsite beside this stream in an environment just like this. I think it was one of our most favourite campsites. It was a shame that the grass had all been grazed here too so there were hardly any wild flowers.

Before we got back to a main road, I stopped for a 'comfort break' in a field. I was admiring the nice field margin of wildflowers before the wheat crop started, then noticed the flowers amongst the wheat. I was amazed - this is the first time I have ever seen traditional cornfield flowers growing in amongst crops, like they would have done before agricultural modernisation and herbicides. Here there is a Corncockle (pink), a Cornflower (blue) and some Poppies, which are also sometimes known an Corn Poppies. For any readers who are not British, wheat (or other grain crops) fields used to be called 'corn fields', as an individual grain itself was known as a corn. Agricultural corn is known as maize by the way, though the eating kind is 'corn on the cob' or 'sweetcorn'. Therefore the common names for the flowers that traditionally grew amongst grain crops have the prefix of 'Corn'. Sadly no Corn Marigolds here though!

I also took a picture of this Cranesbill Geranium which PlantNet tells me is Geranium pyrenaicum (pyrenaicum = of the Pyrenees), though there is something strange about the petals - either munched by an insect or deformed.

And that, my friends, is the end of our two day Escapade, as we called it, up into the mountains! Combining my three loves of birds, butterflies and wildflowers, it was just perfect and I hope that more trips like this will be run in the future. I am sure there will be as the trip was a huge success amongst all those who went. 💕

Pyrenean Escapade with Birding Languedoc Part 3

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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!

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.

Pyrenean Escapade with Birding Languedoc - Part 1

Now that we are back from our trip to Provence, I can start to sort through my photos and get some posts up!

Birding Languedoc organised a brilliant two night trip up to the Catalan Pyrenees (Pyrenees-Orientales dept) on June 14 - 16th. We stayed in a gite on half board in the little hamlet of Espousouille in the Valley of Galbe. After meeting at lunchtime and having our picnic indoors at the gite (as the weather was cold and occasionally drizzly!) we set off for a walk to discover our surroundings and the damp meadows along the valley. We had no specific expert with us but between our group of about 14 we had plenty of experience of wildflowers, butterflies, and above all, birds. Some of our group were only interested in birds but many of us were this time more interested in the wildflowers and butterflies as there were a lot more of them around than birds, and no having to hang around waiting in the hope of seeing something!

The weather was better than forecast and although it did drizzle for a short time, we actually saw some sun on this first afternoon, though there were few butterflies about. It didn't matter though, as the wildflowers and many orchids made up for it.

The valley was at an altitude of about 1,500m and they had had a lot of rain over recent months, so the meadows near the stream were very wet. One of our group was wearing wellies so we sent him off to recce to see if we could walk over to the stream, but it was too boggy even for hiking shoes! However it was fine in most places so we didn't miss out.

The mountain meadows around these parts are a mass of white at this time of year due to the Pheasant's Eye Narcissus, Narcissus poeticus.

I much prefer these white ones to the yellow narcissus (Narcissus jonquilla) that we see in spring in the lower down and coastal areas.

This Broad Leaved Marsh Orchid (Dactylorhiza majalis) liked the damp meadow habitat.

A very pretty Barbie pink 😁😁😁 Fragrant Orchid (Gymnadenia conopsea).

Greater Butterfly Orchid (Platanthera chlorantha).

The path along the valley floor with the damp meadows on the left and drier meadows and conifer trees off to the right. We saw a lifer bird (for most of us) here in these conifers - the Citril Finch. We saw quite a number of them, and some of our group also saw Crossbills and Crested Tits. There were also a fair number of Coal Tits up here.

These two orchids were on the drier side, with some shade from the trees. The first is the Narrow-leaved Helleborine (Cephalanthera longifolia).

And this beautiful specimen is the Burnt Tip Orchid (Neotinea ustulata). I think this is one of my favourite orchids that I've seen so far!

Niall, taking the photo here, is very knowledgeable on wildflowers. These are Whorled Louseworts (Pedicularis verticillata), which is a plant of damp mountain regions and is from the family of Broomrapes, which are mostly parasitic plants which steal the nutrients from other nearby plants.

The meadows were also full of Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor) as can be just seen here on the right. Yellow Rattle (another Broomrape) is semi parasitic on various grass species and is often planted to create or restore wildflower meadows by reducing the amount of grass that would compete with the flowers.

(I've got some rain drops on my lens!). Looking down the valley towards the mountains.

Looking back in the direction of Espousouille.

Back in the village we walked to the bridge - the little stream was running rather fast due to all the rain lately.

We met up at the gite before dinner to compare notes, species seen and share photos and look at our reference books. Dinner was absolutely delicious, cooked by the French owner, with his English wife who is a potter with her studio in the same building and daughter helping out with the serving.

The next day the weather was much brighter and warmer and the butterflies came out to play..... 😀 That will be Part 2. 

If any of the plants have been misidentified, please let me know via the comments or the Contact Me button at the top right.