French Alps 4th - 11th July 2020

[David M]

Monday 6th July - Familiar territory....

I was up at Col de Vars by 9.30 this morning, as I wanted to spend a little time at a flowery meadow with long grass that Roger G tipped me off about a couple of years ago.

I've taken guests there the last two years with the promise of Blind Ringlet, which isn't a common species in this area, but by 10.30 all the erebia are flying constantly so interest has not been as intense as this species merits.

Pleased to say that I found a fair few of them, and although a lot were very active, a few came down for a while allowing me to photograph them in their natural conditions:

The one above is form phartina, which exhibits much reduced orange markings, but there were others that appeared much more like the nominative form:

Getting an underside shot was trickier than I had envisaged. This was the best I could do:

[BarrieS]

David
Your Day 1 review brings back many happy memories from our week with you there years ago. Wonderful pictures of Peak White (I never did get one myself), Cynthia's Frit and Alpine Blue. I've been trying to think what your three lifers were and I've listed three likely suspects in my notebook. Looking forward seeing if I'm right and to reading your exploits from the rest of the week.
Pleased to see your trip to Spain is going ahead later this month.

Barrie

[David M]

Thanks, Barrie. Yes, Peak White is tricky; should be renamed Pesky White. However, this last couple of years I have noticed them coming down either in the mornings or in cooler weather. I'm still to find a female of this species. I would imagine they are rather more inclined to come to ground.

As for my 'lifers', feel free to have a guess. I'd say you will probably have a good idea of one of them. The second might be a little harder and I don't think you'll get the third at all.

[David M]

Moving on to the col itself wasn't terribly rewarding as it was quite windy and there weren't too many butterflies in the air. The view was nice though:

There were a couple of erebia species about, both of which were seen in good numbers throughout the week.

This one is a Large Ringlet, euryale:

This is a bit of a misnomer, because they are not particularly large. In fact, if anything they are slightly smaller than the other common erebia in these parts, Almond-Eyed Ringlet, alberganus:

A couple of hardy Mountain Clouded Yellows flew past whilst I was on the col, but the only other butterfly I photographed was this surprisingly fresh Glanville Fritillary:

[David M]

In the afternoon I decided to venture up to Ceillac, a place I have passed several times but never been to.

When I arrived, I immediately spotted something very promising, a trail of water passing through the car park with patches of tacky mud.

I got out to investigate and the first butterfly that caught my attention was this Piedmont Ringlet, meolans:

Large Ringlets were also puddling in numbers and there were plenty of lycaenids and skippers too. One particularly bright Blue caught my eye...a Chalkhill Blue, seen here in the company of a Mazarine Blue:

These puddling butterflies flit about and change positions all the time. Here's another image of the same Chalkhill Blue, only this time he finds himself surrounded by Glandon, Mazarine & Small Blues:

[selbypaul]

I'm so pleased for you David, that you managed to get away to Europe. Well done! Loving the photos, and looking forward to the posts about the rest of your holiday.

PS - Assuming nothing goes wrong in the next 21 hours, I'll also be jetting off for some European alpine butterflies in a brand new area for me. Look out for updates on here in the coming days. Fingers crossed, I too have been chomping at the bit to get away!

[Padfield]

Hi David. Your 'meolans' looks more like aethiops to me. I've never seen meolans with chequered fringes - normally they're rather uniformly dark.

Guy

[David M]

Interesting judgement, Guy, and to corroborate the original image, I have to post something that doesn't result in a happy ending.

Some minutes after first seeing the butterfly, I retraced my steps and found it again, only this time it was dead, presumably trodden on by someone who was unaware there were butterflies taking minerals in the car park (there were many kids playing in the vicinity).

So, here is an underside of the same butterfly, although by this time its life had been extinguished:

[Roger Gibbons]

I hope this doesn’t spoil one of your three lifers, or maybe better if it did, David, but today I left Bonnette at around 14.00 as it clouded over and I dropped down (going south) to the village where we stopped off with the tour. I took a walk of about 1km along the old track to Bonnette and was very pleasantly surprised to chance upon… a roosting alexanor (Southern Swallowtail). True to form, it was roosting with wings open. The Tinée valley was reputedly a stronghold of alexanor in the past but I’m not sure if there have been any recent records. Until now.

Seeing your dead euryale, I have seen numerous dead butterflies (mostly Black-veined Whites) that were puddling and got hit by speeding mountain bikes. It has to be said that the loss of one euryale is unlikely to lead to their extinction - at the Col d’Izoard I could have counted over 100.

You certainly picked better weather. Today in the Mercantour was fine for the most part, but three preceding days were mostly overcast and the meteo for the next two days says rain and storms.
Roger

PS Just because it’s called Larche Ringlet (E. scipio), don’t assume that it flies at the eponymous Col. I have searched this area on the French side and found very little and, in fact, I would consider it to be a butterfly desert. A prominent UKBer considers the Italian side of the Col to be more productive.

[David M]

I'm so pleased for you David, that you managed to get away to Europe. Well done! Loving the photos, and looking forward to the posts about the rest of your holiday.

PS - Assuming nothing goes wrong in the next 21 hours, I'll also be jetting off for some European alpine butterflies in a brand new area for me. Look out for updates on here in the coming days. Fingers crossed, I too have been chomping at the bit to get away!

Thanks, Paul. Yes, I needed to get away and it looks like you do too, so I wish you good luck with your foreign jaunt and will be interested to read details of it when you return.

[David M]

I hope this doesn’t spoil one of your three lifers, or maybe better if it did, David, but today I left Bonnette at around 14.00 as it clouded over and I dropped down (going south) to the village where we stopped off with the tour. I took a walk of about 1km along the old track to Bonnette and was very pleasantly surprised to chance upon… a roosting alexanor (Southern Swallowtail). True to form, it was roosting with wings open. The Tinée valley was reputedly a stronghold of alexanor in the past but I’m not sure if there have been any recent records. Until now.

I am always mindful of this butterfly's propensity to turn up unexpectedly, Roger, and I suppose it's only a matter of time before I stumble upon it.

Well done in finding it, and given the huge time you've devoted to searching for butterflies in this area, I'd rather you got a break like this than me.

Shame about the weather. It was near perfect for me, but we have no control over it. I hope it brightens up shortly and you can get on with what you enjoy most.

[Padfield]

I've had that experience before too, David - of photographing a living butterfly while walking one way along a path and finding it dead when coming back the other way. Most notably for me, that happened in Spain with nicias - and the culprit was one of the many 4 x 4s that trundled along the track for no good reason.

As Roger says, the dead insect is euryale. I find that interesting, as I didn't know form adyte flew there - I thought it was a Swiss thing. I was a bit surprised to see male aethiops with such prominent chequering (usually it is the females that show this most clearly) but thought it had to be that. There's a reason why euryale is called le moiré frange-pie in French!

Guy

[David M]

Thanks again, both. The various forms of these species can make identification rather challenging. Must say, although it looked more like meolans than euryale, the latter was everywhere and that was the only 'Piedmont' I saw during the trip, so it makes perfect sense that the individual is (or was, more accurately) the form adyte of euryale.

[David M]

The area had plenty of other interesting butterflies in the grassy meadows and the light woodland, including several Apollos:

Black Veined Whites were prominent, both in the meadows and on the track:

A few Titania's Fritillaries were about:

This Tufted Marbled Skipper was irresistible:

Eros Blue was around in small numbers, mainly puddling:

The poor quality of images was largely due to the wind getting increasingly strong, so I decided to head back to my base at lower altitude in Réotier where there were a few abandoned grassy terraces which I thought may harbour some butterflies:

It was here I managed to see the only Long Tailed Blue of the week, a female on an ovipositing mission:

[David M]

Tuesday 7th July - Fulfilling day....

By 8.30 this morning, the winds had evaporated and I drove out towards Lac de Serre Ponçon in beautiful conditions, precisely the sort I dreamed of during that awful day at home the day before I left for France.

It took me less than an hour to reach my destination, and I must pay credit to Pete S from this site who tipped me off about this location 18 months ago. He told me about a special butterfly that could be found here as well as describing his own experiences in finding it.

Well, after over an hour's searching up and down the (it has to be said) promising looking path, the only butterflies I'd seen were Marbled White & Great Sooty Satyr, and Pete's story was rapidly becoming mine too:

Having reached the pull-in where I'd left my car, I was ready to leave empty handed, but I thought I'd first climb up onto the knoll above the parking area for this lovely view:

As I was descending, I spent a final few seconds surveying the grassy area around me when suddenly a butterfly with an unfamiliar flight pattern took to the air. I couldn't believe it when it came down right in front of me, conveniently settled on a grass stem. It was what I'd come to look for - Ripart's Anomalous Blue:

It remained in situ for a minute or two before very obligingly deciding to give me an upperside pose, replete with prominent androconial scales:

I wasn't expecting it to be so large, nor was I expecting it to fly so quickly and powerfully. That's the beauty of seeing a new species for the first time; your add your own experiences to the descriptions written in the field guides.

So to Pete - yes, I fully understand what you wrote regarding walking up and down the track only to find the damned thing next to your car when you returned; that pretty much sums up my encounter too. Thanks once again for the tip-off. 'Lifers' in France don't come along too often for me.

[David M]

After all that excitement, I had an 80 minute drive to one of the most productive sites I know, an extremely sheltered and wooded little valley not far from Col de la Cayolle:

Once again, the Small Apollos were constantly flying meaning I couldn't get any images, but there were plenty of other interesting species about. This male Silvery Argus was good for starters:

...this was the only Mountain Ringlet, epiphron that I positively identified (although there were probably more):

A mating pair of Geranium Argus was a first (I think) for me:

There was plenty more that I didn't photograph, for example several Mountain Clouded Yellows, Glandon Blues, Fritillaries of all sizes, Large Blues, Mountain Green Veined Whites and my only Queen of Spain of the week.

[David M]

On the way back to my base, I stopped at a known site between Vars and Guillestre which provides both splendid views of the mountains and a variety of butterflies.

I was glad I did, as I saw a handful of species I didn't see anywhere else during the week, the first of which was Amanda's Blue:

Chestnut Heath was surprisingly absent from the areas around the cols I visited, but there were a few in these meadows:

More surprising still was this Dusky Heath, a butterfly I didn't know was present in this area:

[Bertl]

Fantastic variety of butterflies David

[Padfield]

Glad you got your ripartii, David. It’s always exciting to see something in the flesh for the first time. And you’re right - this is a big blue. Where I watch it in Spain, it flies with its alter ego, agenjoi, which is quite different and markedly smaller. That’s why I find it difficult to believe they’re the same species.

Guy

[David M]

Thanks, both. yes, the variety of butterflies is outstanding in this area of France. If you spread your wings wide enough you can rack up 140+ in a week, although my concentration this time was on higher altitude species which meant I only saw around 105.