4th July, 2025 The rolling hills around Boisjarzeau are bleached after a months of incessant sun; the wheat has been cut early and much of the maize and sunflowers are looking small and underwatered. The irrigation where applied appears futile. The gardens are barely coping too; and yet the wet ditch in the marshy field…
Tag: butterflies
June butterflies and orchids
A hot and dry June brings out the bee, fragrant and pyramidal orchids here on the North Downs; it seems a good year for them all even though the ground is parched. There are also droves of meadow browns, marbled whites and skippers. The dark green fritillaries are on the greater knapweed Centaurea scabiosa in…
Spring butterflies in Kent
The local butterflies seem more abundant than last year and the recent, warm weather has only helped them along. The photos were all taken in Kent on trips to Stodmarsh National Nature Reserve, Shellness in the Swale National Nature Reserve, Mereworth Woods, and Fackenden Down Kent Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve.
August Insects
The weather in SE England is warm and dry through July and August; the mid-summer flowers are now late summer seeds and fruits. Coming after a wet spring, it is a great year for blackberries. The ivy flower is taking over from the bramble and will be the chief source of pollen and nectar for…
On the edge of Nebrodi National Park
The Nebrodi National Park is at its heart a huge and little modified beech and oak forest that rolls over a long ridge of high hills; it sits only a few miles behind San Marco d’Alunzio. A track from the town winds its way towards the Park boundary and we walk up it through scrubby…
Brown hairstreaks on the North Downs
30th July 2023 The walk from home near Hextable in north west Kent to the corn bunting colony up on the downs passes along a tall, ancient hedgerow before emerging onto the rolling arable fields. This year the fields are down to flax and there are no nesting buntings to be seen or heard in…
Postcards from the Ariège – March 2022
I spent March 7th to May 19th 2022 and May 20th to July 8th 2023 based at Luzenac in the Ariège Mountains. This then is the first monthly review; a chance to take a another look at this great, mountain wilderness that is so rich in biodiversity. March in 2022 is surprisingly warm and often…
Wet meadows in the Pyrénées-Orientales
2nd and 4th June 2023 The road to Spain and Andorra from Ax-les-Thermes is a busy, twisting road up a magnificent, mountain valley. Before the turn to Andorra, the main road to Barcelona cuts through a long tunnel which opens into a wide and open valley totally different in character to the steep valleys of…
Ariège’s Resurrection Plant
Sunday 2nd July 2023 The Biros valley in the western Ariège is the nearest location to find Ramonda myconi according to to the excellent Biodiv’Occitanie website; this is the sister plant to the Ramonda serbica, which I was excited to find on the hills to the south of Lake Skadar on the eastern edge of…
Around Mijanès
Col de Pailhères at an elevation 2,001 m is an arduous but popular 20km cycle ride from Ax-les Thermes or a shorter but more strenuous one, with some remarkable hairpin bends, from Mijanès on the other side. At the summit, the support vans wait for the groups of exhausted riders with a table of refreshments….
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…
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…