I flew into Marseille airport on 31st May, with five days ahead of me, a solo trip with the prospects of butterflying all day long from dawn to dusk. The spring weather out in the south of France had been poor this year, and the season was running late as I headed east to the Sainte Baume area in search of my main quarry, but the weather whilst I was there had turned very warm, and I enjoyed wall to wall sunshine every day. This created problems of its own though, as all butterflies were very active, bordering on the hyperactive, which made photography, and sometimes identification, very difficult on occasion.
Just over an hour after leaving the airport, I was wandering through some lovely habitat, and was soon amongst good numbers of Twin-spot Fritillaries, very happy to add this to my life-list on day one! I struggled to get near them with my camera, and returned early the next morning, hoping to catch them before they got too warm. Thankfully this paid off!
My next challenge was to try and see Spanish Purple Hairstreak, but despite a trip to a known, usually reliable site, there was no sign of this species on the 1st of June. Presumably the late season was the cause, so I headed further east into the pre-alps to the north-west of Grasse, where I spent the whole of 2nd June and the morning of 3rd June chasing after Northern Wall Browns, desperately trying to photograph them! They were completely manic, hardly ever settling, and on the rare occasion that they did sit still, it was usually somewhere out of reach, or else they would land for a second and then fly off again immediately. It took a frustrating 3 hours for me to get my first photograph, and eventually I gave up with my camera and just enjoyed getting to know this lovely dark wall butterfly, and enjoying its company. I eventually came away with a couple of record shots:
The area where I was searching for Northern Wall was absolutely alive with Duke of Burgundy. There were dozens along every woodland ride that I visited, and the area around one particular col held several hundreds. I don't recall ever seeing so many before - I certainly cannot recall counting over 300 Dukes and Duchesses in a single day before!
One advantage of the season being late was the presence of de Prunner's Ringlet in fair numbers. I am never usually in France at the right time and place to find this lovely Erebia, and it was a pleasure to get to know it. Quite a large species, and gorgeous when fresh, it does seem to have the habit, like many of its relatives, of landing down in amongst the grasses, making it hard to get a decent photo.
This area also produced a sighting of the Clouded Apollo, although following the general theme of the trip, this butterfly seemed to never sit still. I managed a fairly poor record shot:
Soon enough I had to begin my drive back west, and I spent my final day back in search of Spanish Purple Hairstreak, in the hope that they might have finally appeared on the wing. They hadn't, but there was still plenty of interest flying, including this ancient Camberwell Beauty. Even though the wings are very ragged, this beauty was still magnificent in flight as it soared and glided up and down a woodland ride.
Niobe Fritillaries were doing the only sensible thing, and sheltering in the shade, keeping out of the heat:
Spotted Fritillaries were ubiquitous, and even though I have photographed hundreds over the years, I still find it hard not to point a camera at one!
One of the commonest skippers of the holiday was the Red Underwing Skipper:
And finally one of my favourite photographs from this short but sweet trip, a mating pair of Spanish Gatekeepers:
I had a wonderful five days in Provence! It doesn't sound long enough, but when you have the freedom to spend the entire five days meandering amongst such a wonderful array of butterfly species, it is close to perfection. The only disappointment was missing out on Spanish Purple Hairstreak, but I hope to remedy that omission in three weeks time during a trip to the Picos de Europa. Fingers crossed...
