Marseilles and its region 2016

[Chris Jackson]

You're right Guy, following the wildfires near my workplace, nature is quite quickly taking over again,
and thanks for the dragonfly IDs.

In Vitrolles :
Down in my lunch time Olive Grove haunt, small green shoots coming up through the burnt earth are attracting many female Clouded Yellows, looking to lay

In this barren burnt-out landscape, wild asparagus is showing remarkable recovery abilities

The ground in the olive grove is pushing up new greenery and I should think that by next Spring life will abound

There are many Red Admirals about at the moment. Some seemed to enjoy basking on the burnt soil of the olive grove, on damp patches after rain. Do they find minerals in damp charcoal ? (ab. bialbata ?)

Another view of the burnt olive grove, slowly recovering

Kermès oak is pushing up from its old roots.
This is a hardy scrub plant

To change venue a little.
Back down in Marseilles, this is my neighbour's grape vine.

Some mouldy grapes are attracting many RAs. I've seen 4 in the same place.

In our local park the only nectar plant remaining is Sticky Fleabane. This is keeping Painted Ladies alive.

Sticky Fleabane in a water retention area in the Parc des Bruyères, Marseilles:

Cheers, Chris

[Chris Jackson]

Hi Folks,

Bit of a catch-up from down here in the south of France.
Butterfly species are slowly dwindling.
In this place, slightly inland from Marseilles where I can see 75+ species during the season at 650 m ASL, there was only one butterfly left on the wing.
These yellow flowers, a nectar source, are Sticky Fleabane, and there are not many left.

The only butterfly still on the wing was a solitary Wall Brown. It was fluttering around without conviction so at a distance I first thought it was a moth:

Back near my workplace, at lunchtime, in the top of these scorched pine trees on the left :

there was a pair of Lang's STB mating yesterday 16th November. Photo taken with full zoom :

pirithous pair Vitrolles scrub 16Nov16a.JPG (52.87 KiB) Viewed 374 times

Plenty of Red Admirals around:

Down in the olive grove, a dragonfly, which allowed me a couple of photos. Help with an ID would be welcome

My tally for this week is within the seasonal norm : Red Admiral, Wall Brown, Clouded Yellow, Small White, Large White, Lang's STB, Painted Lady.
Cheers, Chris