Vultures seem to appear out of the blue; they are entirely silent and move remarkably quickly across the deep valleys and along the high slopes. Each bird watches everyone else and when one arrives there are soon more in train. At Col de la Core, the gateway to Mont Valier a group of upto 15…
Alcon Blues and Red Helleborines
Up a small track above Caussou, you pass through damp streamside woodland, rocky limestone grassland and then drier woodlands. There are also pastures edged by miles of electric fencing; the farmer and his family have been moving the herd regularly in the past few weeks as these are quickly grazed off and trampled; turned from…
Col du Pradel and upper Rebenty valley
23rd June, 2023 This is my favourite Col, with a narrow road that in places is now deep in cow manure as the herds have been moved up to the mountain grasslands for the summer; each is about 30 to 40 grey, white cows, many with huge bells hung round their necks, accompanied by their…
To the summit of Col de Fajou
Sunday 25th June The weather is perfectly clear all day and in the mid afternoon I climb the Col de Fajou; it is more of a large, whaleback of a hill than a mountain but still a few hours up to the base of the cliffs and then a dog leg round to the summit…
Gorges du Rébenty
The gorges du Rébenty near Joucou is a wild section of river that loses altitude with remarkable rapidity through the limestone. The gorge is surrounded by forests and meadows. The forest edges are rich in butterfly and lady orchids; the meadows are littered with burnt-tip orchids amongst an array of calcareous grassland flowers. Overhead there are…
Around Sournia on the edge of the Pyrénées-Orientales
1st June 2023 From the impressive Château de Puilaurens that commands the Boulzane valley, the minor road runs south and then east over the Col d’Aussières leaving the Aude and running down into the Pyrénées-Orientales. At Rabouillet, a large family of all ages is moving their cattle up the hill to the mountain pastures; it’s noisy…
Ariège Landscapes
The wild and vast mountain landscapes are always impressive; normally benign and welcoming but at times dark and threatening. This year the weather has been a mix of the two – beautiful mornings with crystal clear skies and dewy meadows, quickly overtaken by innocent, white puffy clouds that then gather into great grey masses that…
Aston Valley’s Apollo
This is a wild valley only tempered by the hydroelectric dam at the top together with its feeder pipes, substation, lower dam and pylons. The fast-flowing stream runs down the steep valley through dense forest for some 10 miles to Château Verdun. At the furthest most point before the tarmac runs out there is a…
Summer in the Ariège
20th May 2023 The weather is wet and cold and summer is late. There is hardly a butterfly on the wing and the bumblebees and other hymenoptera are moribund on thistles and asphodels. Early spider orchids are still out and there are no signs of spring gentian although trumpets are in flower. Surely temperatures will…
Kent – 13th May 2023
Saturday was a grand tour of some of Kent’s finest places. The day was bright and breezy and confirmed that May, the month of many weathers, is the best month of the year for wildlife (and possibly gardens). Sissinghurst We checked the plant species in the cottage garden where the colours are always burning hot…
A Curlew in a Cage…
…does not put all Heaven in a Rage, in fact quite the opposite; it is 10 minutes to settle the captured bird after it has been colour-ringed and a GPS tag put on; a small but important part of the ongoing conservation work for this rapidly declining breeding species . It is late April and…
Bursting Cornflowers
Cornflowers are just bursting. A pretty plant renowned for its a long association with cereal agriculture, apparently hated by farmers because its tough stems blunted their scythes. The pollen record suggests it was an introduction most probably from steppe habitats to Northern European countries from the ‘High Middle Ages’, perhaps enabled through the increased movements…