What's flying in Marseilles 2015

[Charles Nicol]

brilliant pic of the Pashapillar

also the Skipper

[Chris Jackson]

Monday 5th of October
South of France - lo of 17°C, hi of 25°C - overcast

Hi Folks,
Today during my lunchbreak I counted 14 species still flying on the plateau of Vitrolles.
Painted Lady, Small White, Large White, Lang's STB, Berger's (on my patch only at the end of the season !), Clouded Yellow, Bath White, Wall Brown, Long Tailed Blue, Two Tailed Pasha (still around), Common Blue, Grayling, Brown Argus and Swallowtail.

The largest numbers flying were Lang's STB, Small White, Clouded Yellow and Bath White. We often get an end-of-season peak with these species, and LSTB may go through into next year (accompanied by Red Admiral) if it remains mild.

Some photos from today. Auspicious Burnet:

Lang's STB

Tree where the TTP was perched

Two Tailed Pasha

Crimson Speckled Footman (this usually appears late October)

Clouded Yellow male on Sticky Fleabane (which is about the last flowering nectar source of the year around here)

Brown Argus

Cheers, Chris

[Charles Nicol]

Monday 5th of October
South of France - lo of 17°C, hi of 25°C - overcast

Hi Folks,
Today during my lunchbreak I counted 14 species still flying on the plateau of Vitrolles.
Painted Lady, Small White, Large White, Lang's STB, Berger's (only on my patch at the end of the season !), Clouded Yellow, Bath White, Wall Brown, Long Tailed Blue, Two Tailed Pasha (still around), Common Blue, Grayling, Brown Argus and Swallowtail.

The largest numbers flying were Lang's STB, Small White, Clouded Yellow and Bath White. We often get an end-of-season peak with these species, and LSTB may go through into next year (accompanied by Red Admiral) if it remains mild.

Some photos from today. Help with the Burnet ID would be welcome.
Burnet:

zygena Vitrolles scrub 05Oct15 (6).JPG

Lang's STB

pirithous Vitrolles scrub 05Oct15 (1).JPG

Tree where the TTP was perched

Vitrolles scrub 05Oct15 (3).JPG

Two Tailed Pasha

jasius24 Vitrolles scrub 05Oct15 (2).JPG

Crimson Speckled Footman (this usually appears late October)

Ecaille du myosotis_Crimson speckled4 Vitrolles scrub 05Oct15 (5).JPG

Clouded Yellow male on Sticky Fleabane (which is about the last flowering nectar source of the year around here)

crocea34 male Vitrolles scrub 05Oct15.JPG

Brown Argus

agestis Vitrolles scrub 05Oct15 (4).JPG

Cheers, Chris

lovely pics. great to see another Pasha with open wings

were you affected by the floods on the coast ?

[David M]

Good stuff, Chris. Lots of noteworthy species in that tally.

Like Charles, I'm keen to know whether you escaped the worst of the floods.

[Chris Jackson]

Hi Charles and David,
It did rain quite heavily in Marseilles over the weekend, but with no consequence. The heaviest rain and flooding was much further east, towards Cannes. They are blaming urbanisation for all the flooding.
Chris

[Charles Nicol]

Hi Charles and David,
It did rain quite heavily in Marseilles over the weekend, but with no consequence. The heaviest rain and flooding was much further east, towards Cannes. They are blaming urbanisation for all the flooding.
Chris

Glad you weren't caught in the floods.

[David M]

It did rain quite heavily in Marseilles over the weekend, but with no consequence. The heaviest rain and flooding was much further east, towards Cannes. They are blaming urbanisation for all the flooding.

Good that you missed the worst of it, Chris. It looked pretty grim on the news.

These underground car parks the French seem so fond of are literally deathtraps during monsoons like this one.

[Chris Jackson]

Here is more from today, Charles and David.

Vitrolles, South of France - lo of 17°C hi of 23°C - bright and windy

A break from work at lunchtime down in the olive grove produced 10 species.
Clouded Yellow, Small White, Wall Brown, Meadow Brown, Mallow Skipper, Common Blue, Lang's STB, Brown Argus, Bath White and Small Copper.
Pair of Cloudies:

Female CY form helice:

Context - Olive grove:

Mallow Skipper:

And in front of my offfices, yesterday, Auspicious Burnets:

Cheers, Chris

[David M]

Those daytime maxima are making me jealous, Chris. We're down to 15c now and in a week or two's time, the only butterflies left will be the hardcore adult overwinterers (with perhaps a Specklie/Small Copper/migrant thrown in).

[Charles Nicol]

Brilliant pic of the Clouded Yellows

as David said there is very little here... one or two Red Admirals on the remaining Buddleia flowers.

[Chris Jackson]

Hi Folks
End-of-season trip today up to the mountain of the Sainte Baume in the Var, north of Marseilles:

Mountain of the Sainte Baume

Some blues are difficult to identify due to their Advanced state of wear:

However, Bath Whites were on form:

Here is a Berger's male (I think) looking quite fresh:

Cheers, Chris

[David M]

Still looks idyllic, Chris, even at this late stage of the year.

[Charles Nicol]

beautiful countryside

[Chris Jackson]

South of France, Thursday 22 October - lo of 5°C and hi of 15°C

Hi Folks,
Sunny in the South of France today, and despite a chill wind blowing at lunchtime, I made the 5-minute walk out of work up onto the plateau of Vitrolles to see what was still flying. The tally is diminishing each week. Today the following were on the wing: Wall Brown, Clouded Yellow, Bath White, Small Copper, Brown Argus, Small White, Large White, and, increasing numbers of end-of-year Red Admirals and many tens of Lang's Short-tailed Blue.
The RAs and LSTBs should accompany each other over into January unless the cold really sets in.
Context - plateau of Vitrolles with chill wind blowing

Lang's STBs courting:

Another LSTB from last week.
This female was vibrating her wings after having shunned the advances of a male.

Cheers, Chris

[Chris Jackson]

6th of November - South of France - Blue skies 20°C

Hi Folks,

The weather is still holding out down here at work in Vitrolles, near Marseilles. Lunchtime up in the scrub came up with 8 species in modest-to-low numbers, apart from the LSTBs which were having a big get-together.

Lang's STB (20 +), Long-tailed Blue (2), Small White (2), Wall Brown (10), Clouded Yellow (5), Red Admiral (1), Bath White (1) and Small Copper (1).
Here is the copper :

This is a view back down from the plateau of Vitrolles into my 2nd work haunt, the Olive Grove, which can see up to 42 species over the season, including vagrants, along the 150-meter-long path behind the olive trees at the foot of the escarpment.

Cheers, Chris

[Chris Jackson]

Monday 16th November - Lo of 8°C and Hi of 22°C in late afternoon

Hi Folks,
The weather is still holding out just on the south coast of France.
During my lunchbreak up on the plateau of Vitrolles, I saw tens and tens of Lang's STB, 5+ Clouded Yellow, 2 Small White, 5 Wall Brown and a couple of Long-tailed Blues. Red Admirals were probably around somewhere.
The temperature was probably up around 18 to 19°C at that time.
A male Long-tailed Blue was patrolling and very quickly found a female.

The plateau of Vitrolles again (for anyone who has missed this):

Cheers, Chris

[Chris Jackson]

South of France - Blue skies

Hi Folks,
After a chilly couple of weeks, the temperature has returned to a "seasonal average", i.e., today a Lo of 7°C and Hi of 14°C.
Species seen flying during half an hour at lunchtime today on the plateau of Vitrolles:
Wall Brown (1), Clouded Yellow (2), Red Admiral (3+), Small Copper (2), Lang's Short-tailed blue (10+).
No LTBs, no Painted Ladies.
A Small Copper with a big shadow:

Male and female LSTB courting:

Female (two views of same individual):

In fact the temperature is favourable for open-wing shots although the low sun makes camera shadows more risky.
Context:

Cheers, Chris

[David M]

Nice stuff, Chris. We almost matched your daytime high here in south Wales today - 13c, but the continued gale force wind and clouds meant no self-respecting butterfly would even think of venturing out.

[David M]

I see from the index that it is your birthday today, Chris.

Many happy returns.

[Chris Jackson]

Thank you, David.
I'm spending my birthday week in the south west of France with Veronique and my parents at Lège-Cap-Ferret on the Bassin d'Arcachon (too boring for our grown-up kids though).
The weather forecast for today announced sunny with a low of 7°C and a high of 17°C, however the sun barely made an appearance and I doubt it got above 12°C.
I had my camera with me because sunny and 17°C could bring up some surprise butterfly opportunities.
However, instead we did the Dune of Pyla. There were hundreds and hundreds (thousands ?) of tourists of different nationalities scaling the biggest sand dune in Europe :
Pausing before the ascent :

We then later tasted local oysters from the Bassin d'Arcachon (impossible to buy fresher oysters than that !):

Me, lamenting the high cloud cover over the Bassin d'Arcachon

Cheers, Chris