Greenwings: French Alps - 27 June to 8 July 2015

[David M]

Best wishes for your annual pilgrimage, Charles. I'll look forward to further images of the gastronomic delights you sample!

Puddling

It's interesting how it's mainly Blues and pyrgus that indulge themselves in taking fluids from damp areas. Of course, they're not alone, but apart from erebia, most of the other types of butterfly do this in small numbers, rather than en masse.

Here are four shots of this behaviour from the trip:

One day I'll simply find a 'hotspot' and sit there for a couple of hours and watch what goes by!

[Chris Jackson]

Excellent report from your trip to the Alps this year, David.
Tiring I can imagine, with all those species photos to sort.
I will try and set aside 1 weeks' hols. for a visit to the Parc du Mercantour next June.
Cheers, Chris

[David M]

I will try and set aside 1 weeks' hols. for a visit to the Parc du Mercantour next June.

You won't regret it, Chris, and here's a preview of what you might see (this full species list does not include a handful of species that others in the group saw during the first week but I missed):


1. Tufted Marbled Skipper
2. Marbled Skipper
3. Dingy Skipper
4. Silver Spotted Skipper
5. Large Skipper
6. Large Grizzled Skipper
7. Dusky Grizzled Skipper
8. Carline Skipper
9. Safflower Skipper
10. (Southern) Grizzled Skipper
11. Olive Skipper
12. Red-Underwing Skipper
13. Lulworth Skipper
14. Essex Skipper
15. Small Skipper
16. Glandon Blue
17. Damon Blue
18. Alpine Blue
19. Brown Argus
20. Mountain (Northern Brown) Argus
21. Geranium Bronze
22. Holly Blue
23. Small Blue
24. Osiris Blue
25. Mazarine Blue
26. Geranium Argus
27. Long-Tailed Blue
28. Adonis Blue
29. Chalkhill Blue
30. Large Blue
31. Mountain Alcon Blue
32. Meleager's Blue
33. Silver Studded Blue
34. Idas Blue
35. Amanda's Blue
36. Turquoise Blue
37. Eros Blue
38. Escher's Blue
39. Common Blue
40. Chapman's Blue
41. Silvery Argus
42. Purple-Shot Copper
43. Purple-Edged Copper
44. Small Copper
45. Sooty Copper
46. Scarce Copper
47. Purple Hairstreak
48. Sloe Hairstreak
49. Ilex Hairstreak
50. Blue Spot Hairstreak
51. High Brown Fritillary
52. Dark Green Fritillary
53. Niobe Fritillary
54. Silver Washed Fritillary
55. Weaver's Fritillary
56. Pearl Bordered Fritillary
57. Mountain Fritillary
58. Shepherd's Fritillary
59. Titania's Fritillary
60. Marbled Fritillary
61. Lesser Marbled Fritillary
62. Cynthia's Fritillary
63. Queen of Spain Fritillary
64. Glanville Fritillary
65. False Heath Fritillary
66. Heath Fritillary
67. Spotted Fritillary
68. Knapweed Fritillary
69. Meadow Fritillary
70. Grison's Fritillary
71. Small Tortoiseshell
72. Lesser Purple Emperor
73. Southern White Admiral
74. White Admiral
75. Large Tortoiseshell
76. Comma
77. Southern Comma
78. Red Admiral
79. Painted Lady
80. Poplar Admiral
81. Scarce Swallowtail
82. Swallowtail
83. Apollo
84. Small Apollo
85. Clouded Apollo
86. Orange Tip
87. Black-Veined White
88. Berger's Clouded Yellow
89. Clouded Yellow
90. Moorland Clouded Yellow
91. Mountain Clouded Yellow
92. Mountain Dappled White
93. Cleopatra
94. Brimstone
95. Wood White
96. Large White
97. Green Veined White
98. Small White
99. Peak White
100. Bath White
101. Ringlet
102. Great Banded Grayling
103. Pearly Heath
104. Darwin's Heath
105. Alpine Heath
106. Small Heath
107. Chestnut Heath
108. False Mnestra Ringlet
109. Almond-Eyed Ringlet
110. Dewy Ringlet
111. Sooty Ringlet
112. Arran Brown
113. Large Ringlet
114. Mountain Ringlet
115. Common Brassy Ringlet
116. Woodland Grayling
117. Dusky Meadow Brown
118. Large Wall Brown
119. Wall Brown
120. Meadow Brown
121. Marbled White
122. Speckled Wood
123. Great Sooty Satyr

124. Mystery Ringlet (possibly Silky Ringlet).

So, a definite 123 species plus another probable. I could have made 127 it had I not missed out on Baton Blue, Mallow Skipper, Oberthur's Grizzled Skipper and Duke of Burgundy. That's quite a return for an 11 day trip and I'd recommend anyone to spend time in this beautiful, unspoiled part of Europe as the majority of the species above are easy to find and quite common.

The weather played a part, as the heatwave saw to it that all altitudes were accessible and no time was lost for cloud/rain breaks.

I'm almost wondering if there's anything left to find if I go back next year.

Perhaps a three or four day excursion to the highest mountains may throw up a few more species. We'll see.

[David M]

As a final appendix to this report, I should point out that one of the guests was a moth enthusiast and had brought a light trap which he used at both hotels.

I stupidly didn't pay too much attention to his first array of specimens, which included beautiful Striped and Oak Hawk Moths, but I captured an image of some of the second 'batch'. I really don't know what these species are, but if there are any moth lovers out there, feel free to provide IDs:

[bugboy]

A very interesting thread, enjoyed reading this over the past couple of weeks. Your species list puts my mission to shame, thought I was doing well with 44 so far this year !

I love the mud puddling shots, something I really must witness sometime, although I'm not sure I would be able to identify everything that turns up

[Roger Gibbons]

David,

I went back to the hotspot the next morning and there was some serious puddling going on as this photo shows. I got to 100 and stopped counting.

Roger

[David M]

They really DO love that spot!

Looking back, it's amazing how desperate we all were for Damon Blue to appear. Once they did it seemed they were everywhere.

[Roger Gibbons]

It was the same with Idas. We looked at dozens of Silver-studded before finding a single Idas. Then we saw shedloads (a recognized butterfly term for "quite a lot") of them.

[essexbuzzard]

What a geat picture that last one is. I'm speechless! Wow,wow-and wow again!