Hautes Pyrénées - 6th to 10th July 2023

[David M]

Lycaenidae - Blues

After missing them for the first time in the French Alps, it was good to see quite a few Idas Blues on the first full day here:

Eros Blue was a welcome find:

There was no shortage of Mazarine Blues:

My day spent on the Spanish side threw up a surprise. There were quite a few of these puddling at a roadside stop:

The lack of basal coloration as well as the submarginal markings on the undersides means this can only be Black-Eyed Blue, a species I'd have expected to be over for the year by July.

[David M]

Lycaenidae - Blues

63. Brown Argus
64. Mountain Argus
65. Geranium Argus
66. Holly Blue
67. Small Blue
68. Mazarine Blue
69. Large Blue
70. Silver-studded Blue
71. Idas Blue
72. Adonis Blue
73. Chalk-hill Blue
74. Turquoise Blue
75. Eros Blue
76. Escher's Blue
77. Common Blue
78. Chapman's Blue
79. Black-Eyed Blue
80. Long tailed Blue

[petesmith]

No Gavarnie Blue David?

[David M]

No Gavarnie Blue David?

No, Pete. I was too preoccupied with finding the Erebia. I did visit Vallé d'Ossoue one afternoon, but it had become cloudy and no butterflies were puddling on the damp sections of the track where they can often be seen.

[David M]

Pieridae

Peak White apart, there was nothing out of the ordinary seen within this group:

81. Orange Tip
82. Black-veined White
83. Berger's Clouded Yellow
84. Clouded Yellow
85. Cleopatra
86. Brimstone
87. Wood White
88. Large White
89. Green-veined White
90. Small White
91. Peak White
92. Bath White

[David M]

In summary, this was an excellent few days butterflying. 92 species in just 4 full days was a good return, and it was nice to see a few species I'd missed out on in the Alps due to the late season, e.g. Idas Blue & Scarce Copper.

Finding sthennyo and lefebvrei so quickly helped make the rest of the trip feel less pressurised, and crossing the Spanish border added different habitat and different butterflies.

One conundrum still remains - how to see all five Erebia targets along with Gavarnie Blue in a single week. Given the repeated vagaries of the seasons, this is going to be challenging.

As ever, the landscape in this part of Europe was spectacular, although overgrazing remains a colossal problem.

There was plenty of other wildlife on offer, the best being when Dave P and I literally stumbled upon this semi-tame snowfinch at Col du Tourmalet. All those titbits left by the throngs of people up there have obviously made this particular bird considerably less wary of humans:

[selbypaul]

The ever present grazing problem!

If only there was less grazing. I can only imagine the clouds of butterflies that would be in that part of the French Pyrenees if the grazing was less intense!

[David M]

It'd all be like Vallé d'Ossoue, Paul....and the world would be a truly better place!