All of the complications of travel during the pandemic were receding: no more requirements for PCR tests, passenger location forms etc. and it was even permissible to fly on an aeroplane without wearing a facemask! But in the days prior to our departure, the media was suddenly full of tales of chaos at airport check in and security desks, staff shortages, and the last-minute cancellation of many flights by several big operators, so it was with a degree of trepidation that we pulled up to Manchester airport on the morning of the 1st June.
Bag-drop and security were negotiated with relative ease and we were soon in the departure lounge. The departure screen showed our flight as being on time, and instructed us to “relax”, with gate information promised at 10:20hrs. A little later, this had been delayed to 11:30hrs, but shortly after this, the word that no air traveller wishes to see appeared in red on the screen – CANCELLED. The nightmare began. What do we do? There were no Easyjet staff anywhere to be seen; the help desk was unmanned, and frantic calls to the Easyjet phoneline went straight to answerphone. Eventually, I got a message through on my Easyjet app, and was offered the option of requesting a refund, or rebooking for an alternative flight, the next one available being late afternoon the following day, so we duly rebooked this, hoping to salvage most of the trip and just lose one full day. We were whisked back through security in the wrong direction, taken to baggage reclaim to pick up our bags, and then got a taxi to a hotel in central Manchester, to two rooms provided and paid for by the airline.
I have travelled widely during my European butterfly career, but for any fellow Lepidopterist contemplating a trip to Manchester city centre, I must advise that the habitat quality is exceedingly poor – we didn’t see a single butterfly all day! A couple of pints of Guinness and some nice but expensive red wine took the edge off our disappointment, but there was another problem to overcome. We needed to re-arrange the hire car, but holidayautos do not permit alterations to pre-booked cars. The only option is to cancel the existing booking (made a year ago at a competitive price), and rebook a new car (on a much higher short-notice tariff). We tried to do this, only to be told that there were no cars available at Geneva airport for our new arrival time and date. With no hire car, the whole trip was dead in the water. After some frantic trawling through alternative companies, we finally managed to book a Nissan Qashqai through Sixt, at more than three times the cost of our now-cancelled previous vehicle. Stress!
Happily, our rescheduled flight late on Thursday departed on time and we arrived in Geneva, where we had to book an additional hotel for the night, prior to picking up the Nissan first thing Friday morning.
Friday 3rd June
By mid-morning on Friday, this was the vista before us:
We had arrived! The weather was damp and overcast to begin with, and not particularly warm, with occasional light rain, but as soon as the smallest bright spells broke, our first major target species, the Violet Copper, appeared on the wing. The weather in Doubs is notoriously poor – the locals have a saying that translates approximately as “there are two seasons here, the ongoing winter, then the following winter”, but Violet Coppers have bred here successfully for many thousands of years and are well-adapted to making the most of small windows of opportunity.
This year the butterfly season was running early here, due to some uncharacteristically warm weather in the weeks before we arrived, and many of the male coppers were already looking tatty and past their best. We visited a couple more sites for this beauty in the afternoon. Although rare and localised across most of Europe, in places where good colonies do occur the species can be on the wing in excellent numbers, and there are plenty of colonies in Doubs where Violet Coppers fly in their hundreds. Bob was unsurprisingly elated to finally see and photograph a species that he had coveted since childhood!
We arrived at our apartment in Malbuisson and settled in to celebrate with a bottle of red, sat on the balcony overlooking a lovely lake, wrote up our butterfly records and reviewed our photographs from earlier on. We had bought pizzas from the supermarket en route for a quick and easy dinner, but they were of little use as it turned out that there was no oven in the kitchen area. There was however a hob, and fortunately we had also bought some sausages, but we couldn’t get the hob to work at all. Lights came on, buttons were duly pressed, but no heat was forthcoming. It seems that this holiday was intent on challenging us! Finally, after a tricky French telephone conversation with the owner of the apartment, we worked out that the hob only gets hot if a pan is actually placed onto it. Simple. Food was now available, and followed by an early night.
Saturday 4th June
Today we travelled to another wetland site in search of a species that is even rarer in France – the Scarce Heath. These too had been on the wing for a few weeks already, and like the Violet Copper, the males were mostly worn. I mentioned to Bob that I would really like to get a photo of a mating pair. As if by magic, a fresh female took to the wing in front of us, and out of nowhere a male appeared. A frantic, fast and furious courtship ensued and within fifteen seconds they were paired up in front of us! They moved around a couple of times until they got comfortable - twenty minutes later they separated; the male disappeared and the female rested up. All told, we only saw a couple of dozen of Scarce Heaths; they were less numerous than during my visit a few years back. The sexual dimorphism in this species is very noticeable even when the butterflies are in flight - the males are extremely dark when on the wing, whereas the females are much lighter and more orange, almost half way between a male Scarce and a Pearly Heath in appearance in flight.
Purple-edged Coppers were just emerging here and most were immaculately fresh.
Other species on the wing included Dingy, Grizzled and Chequered Skippers, False Heath, Marsh and Lesser Marbled Fritillaries, Black-veined White, Pearly and Chestnut Heaths, Mazarine Blue, and a single Violet Copper, as well as huge numbers of freshly emerged Small Tortoiseshells. We saw just a single example of the Woodland Ringlet, rather ragged and worn. It seems that this localised species was also past its best.
Later in the afternoon we visited a couple of other Violet Copper sites. At one of these I found a particularly gorgeous example. This is a highly variable species in terms of markings, but I think this must qualify as being mildly aberrant, what with those copper streaks on the forewing. These are three of my favourite photographs from the whole trip.
Duke of Burgundy and Chequered Skipper both put in appearances at these two wetlands, along with Silver-studded Blues by the roadside, and the ubiquitous Black-veined White.
We retired to our 2nd night in the apartment at Malbuisson, which of course should have been our 4th night had our original schedule not been disrupted, but nevertheless we had managed to successfully find and photograph all three of our key target species in the wonderful wetlands of this very special area in just two days, along with some other very desirable species. Tomorrow was transit day, as we headed west towards Dijon, where we would face a few more challenges, and make a few unexpected finds. Part 2 to follow…
