14th July 2025

La vallée d’Ossoue sits below the Col des Tentes and runs west from Gavarnie; it is a long valley of two halves with flower rich grasslands full of pinks and field gentians beneath a huge cliff, that after a tortuous section of road runs into a wide valley with track that runs next to the Gave d’Ossoue to the Barage.

The cliff holds a well know Lammergeier breeding cave and we watch the adult fly in, folding up its great wings to land. It is however the smaller things in the lower half that steal the show; butterflies, mainly marbled whites and gatekeepers but also blues, coppers and fritillaries, are abundant on the diverse flora. Higher up the valley, the beautiful mountain stream or gave is perfect sit by and watch the dippers flash low over the water and for a ringlet species, possibly mountain ringlet Erebia epiphron, to take salts from my old boot!