Butterflies of the French Pyrenees, Conat and Torre de Goa

The first whole day butterflying and we had three venues to visit - roadside meadows at Conat, Vernet les Bains and finally the Torre de Goa.

Conat and Vernet les Bains

Even more Glanville Fritillaries making even more Glanville Fritillaries

Another Glanville!

Green Hairstreak

Marsh Fritillary

Provencal Fritillary

Provencal Fritillary

Provencal Fritillary

Provencal Fritillary

Provencal Fritillary

Spotted Fritillary

Spotted Fritillary

Spotted Fritillary

The Pyrenees  had a late spring and snow had hung around for some time. Consequently the vegetation was not as advanced as in a normal spring, even the butterflies were late and this turned out to be a bonus. By late May the Spanish Festoons have all but disappeared but we managed to find several fresh specimens - definitely worth photographing.

Spanish Festoon

Spanish Festoon

Spanish Festoon

Spanish Festoon

Spanish Festoon

Weaver's Fritillary

Weaver's Fritillary

Weaver's Fritillary

Spotted Fritillary

Torre de Goa

Adonis Blue

All three species of Bee Hawk moth were on the wing and as always, very difficult to capture. This Broad-bordered Bee Hawk Moth was no exception. I cranked up the ISO and shot wide open to get the shutter speed as fast as possible, of course at the expense of the depth of focus. I guess this is a subject where you just have to get lucky.

Broad-bordered Bee Hawk Moth, unfortunately with one antenna missing.

Broad-bordered Bee Hawk Moth

Broad-bordered Bee Hawk Moth

Broad-bordered Bee Hawk Moth

Broad-bordered Bee Hawk Moth

Next up was a life tick, I hadn't come across Chequered Blue before and it isn't one that you would forget. It has the odd quality that it subtly changes colour and intensity in the varying light conditions. Definitely a butterfly that brightens up your day.

Chequered Blue

Chequered Blue

Chequered Blue

Chequered Blue

Chequered Blue

Chequered Blue

Chequered Blue

Chequered Blue

Chapman's Blue

Chapman's Blue

Southern Scarce Swallowtail, Iphiclides podalarius feisthamelli

Southern Scarce Swallowtail, Iphiclides podalarius feisthamelli

Spotted Fritillary

I was so intent on capturing the Chequered Blues that I only had a slight inkling of something on the path. When I looked up I was confronted by what looked like a wolf. Well it turned out that I was half right - a cross breed Wolf/Alsatian, specially bred as sheep guard dogs. At least this one a had a rather nice lady owner, not sure I would like to meet one on my own - the dog that is - not the owner.

High Brown Fritillary

During Tuesday's Large Blue outing I struck up a conversation with a fellow enthusiast and mentioned that I would probably be visiting Heddon's Mouth to find a High Brown Fritillary. The information he provided, chapter and verse complete with maps, brought about a change of plan and early today Martin and I were on our way to Aish Tor near Ashburton on the edge of Dartmoor.

My confidence that the HBF would be in the bag before lunch and that we could make a dash for Collard Hill to have another session on the Large Blue started to wane as we approached Honiton. Gathering gloomy clouds were not what we expected - the BBC said wall to wall sunshine. No worries - as we approached Aish Tor the weather turned to that forecast - brilliant sunshine and light winds - perfect for butterflies. Armed with local knowledge it wasn't long before we encountered our first fritillaries, fresh specimens ghosting through the bracken at ground level, probably in search of a mate. Unfortunately in this mode they just weren't going to sit and pose to allow us to get a positive ID between the High Brown and the Dark Green Fritillary.

Later in the morning as the sun became stronger some specimens started to nectar on the brambles that were just coming into bloom. Finally a positive ID with all the key features ticked but the underwing shot was the clincher for me. The activity was frenetic and although there were many butterflies on the wing, few deigned to settle. So we took a break and had lunch and a brew to refresh ourselves and resumed in the early afternoon. By now there was a steady stream of visits to "our" bramble patches and the ratio of HBF to DGF increased notably.

High Brown Fritillary

Sex brands on the 2nd and 3rd veins up from the base of the wing are more obvious.

The High Brown Fritillary has a row of "ocelli" just inside the outer margin. Also the High Brown Fritillary has a brown hue to the underside, whereas the Dark Green Fritillary is obviously green.

The third dot from the apex of the forewing is indented toward the body.

 

 

 

Dark Green Fritillary

 

Lots of other butterflies on the wing in what were now perfect conditions and I recorded the more notable specimens of Green Hairstreak and Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary. The SPbF looking somewhat worn but still a welcome sight as we haven't actively chased them this year.

Finally we had had enough so back to the car for a late afternoon brew, setting off for home after the evening rush hour traffic. A cracking day out at a superb butterfly venue, if you need HBF then this is the place to go.