FRANCE Butterflies of Wild Dordogne 11 – 17 June 2016
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FRANCE Butterflies of Wild Dordogne 11 – 17 June 2016 TOUR REPORT Leader: David Simpson Day 1: Saturday 11 June The Ryanair flight landed rather early at Bergerac airport so there was little time to check out the local wildlife in the fields around the airport. However I did manage to find a few meadow browns and common blues to start my list off. A corn bunting on the fence driving back to the car park was a nice bonus. Before long the passengers on the Stansted flight were disembarking and soon afterwards the group were with me in ‘Arrivals’. I collected the minibus from the car park and we packed the bags in the boot and headed back to our hotel in Mauzac. After a short drive though the fields of young maize via Saint Capraise (where we saw a crag martin at the river bridge) we were parking up next to ‘Le Barrage’ hotel, our base for the week. Amanda, the hotel manager, came out to greet us and we sorted out keys, rooms and bags before re-convening in the dining room for tea and biscuits. I gave a brief introduction to the week and explained that a poor weather forecast meant that we had to make the most of any sunny weather. So with a fine late afternoon we were going to explore the hill around my house at Cabant, a couple of miles away. Before going we had a quick look along the riverbank outside the hotel. Here we found crag martin, black kite, little egret, white wagtail, black redstart plus a mass of mute swans and one short-necked and noisy ex-domestic grey lag goose. We started in the meadow beside my house where many meadow brown and marbled white were flying. Adonis blues were also present along with a couple of common blues including a wonderfully marked blue female. One of the stars of this meadow is the Reverdin’s blue and we were lucky enough to find a fresh male with its strong blue upperwing and spotted pale underwing, together with silvery-blue spots or ‘studs’ like its cousin the silver-studded blue. A fresh knapweed fritillary posed briefly on a flower head and we found a nice Lulworth skipper – rare in the UK. Other species here were small and pearly heaths, small white and brown argus plus a few ringlets in the orchard area. Day-flying moths included Mother Shipton and burnet companion. In our little pond we saw some large midwife toad tadpoles whilst field crickets sang in the meadow. There were a number of interesting orchids with a patch of lizard plus a few bee and woodcock – allowing comparison between the latter two similar species. As we left the meadow a group of four hawfinch flew overhead. On the terrace we watched several common wall lizards enjoying some late afternoon sunshine. As we walked up the track to the hilltop we studied several plants of the beautiful red helleborine before walking through the woodland where we also found broad-leaved helleborine and then out on to the hilltop where there were a few pyramidal orchids still in flower and some fly orchids gone to seed. On the grassy areas there were plenty more Adonis blue, meadow brown and marbled white and then we found another interesting blue – baton blue, looking like a tiny Adonis. There was another unusual skipper, this time red-underwing which we saw on two occasions and first found by Margaret Several Berger’s clouded yellow were flying, as were more small and pearly heaths. In the scrubby areas we found around five ilex hairstreak and several small blue. Day-flying moths included silver Y, six-spot burnet, many straw belle and another ‘spotted’ burnet, which appeared to be loti. A large violet carpenter bee was nectaring on one flowery patch. Bird song and calls accompanied us as we walked. The best was perhaps a black woodpecker which did its wilder version of a green woodpecker’s ‘yaffle’ song. Other birds included blackbird, mistle thrush, robin, chiffchaff, Bonelli’s warbler, blackcap, jay and golden oriole giving a pleasant background chorus to our walk. We briefly saw a woodlark on its song flight above the forest as we returned to the minibus. Whilst driving back to Mauzac, Malcolm saw a roe deer in a field. By now it was time for the list, aperitif and the first of many delicious dinners at the hotel. Day 2: Sunday 12 June The morning started cloudy and cool with a poor forecast. Today was a local day around the valley at Mauzac and Trémolat. We started out high above the River Dordogne at the Cingle (meander) de Trémolat, a noted local wildlife area. As usual meadow brown and marbled white were in evidence as we walked along the track from the wooden cross. Other species of butterfly included Adonis and common blues, Berger’s clouded yellow, ilex hairstreak, small blue plus small and pearly heaths. Small skipper was however new for the week. A hummingbird hawk-moth was a new moth species for the trip. A clubtail dragonfly was most likely the yellow clubtail whilst a young grasshopper on the track appeared to be the red-winged grasshopper Calliptamus italicus. We found droppings on the track left by a marten, either pine or beech. Cuckoo, turtle dove, golden oriole, green woodpecker, woodlark, cirl bunting and yellowhammer sang from the scrub and woodland as we walked. There were more orchids beside the track including red helleborine, greater butterfly, pyramidal, lizard and bee. When we reached the truffle orchard beyond the pinewood the rain started so we decided to retrace our steps to the minibus. We headed back to Mauzac where we first had a walk along the river to the dam and marshy area before lunch. Over the river were swallow, house and crag martins and swift. A couple of mistle thrushes flew off over the fields. On the marsh we saw a melodious warbler well through the scope. In the trees by the gardens we heard firecrest, short-toed treecreeper, serin, goldfinch and linnet but they were not viewable. There were a few beautiful Demoiselle damselflies in this area as well. After a nice lunch at our hotel we drove beyond Trémolat to an area of limestone grassland and scrub as the weather improved a little. Here we found our best butterfly of the day a female turquoise blue which I managed to catch so that we could see it features for identification: the lack of a cell spot on the forewing underside, broad pale margin to the underside of the wings and the orange spots near the underside hind wing margin in the shape of hearts. At the same site we saw another knapweed fritillary and then a new species – a couple of spotted fritillaries: the male with very orangey upperside forewing whilst the female had rather a grey dusting to the upperside forewing. Otherwise it was a similar mix of butterflies to the morning. An interesting sharp-leaved trefoil with a spike of reddish flowers in this area was Trifolium angustifolium. We drove further east to Paunat where there is an area of rough grassland noted for orchids. Here we added flowering fly and fragrant orchid together with violet limodore (or violet bird’s-nest) recently gone to seed. The roadside here was festooned with the pretty white lace flower Orlaya grandiflora. With brighter and warmer weather there seemed to be more butterflies flying and we found this to be quite a rich area. Apart from species seen earlier we found clouded yellow, red admiral, meadow fritillary and Malcolm added large white. Of the day-flying moths clouded buff and feathered footman were new ones noted. As we returned to Mauzac, Malcolm saw a kestrel – also new for the week. Day 3: Monday 13 June With reasonable weather forecast I chose the Causse de Daglan for today’s trip. It is always a good site for butterflies both in total number and variety of species. The morning started cloudy but there were to be some sunny intervals. On route around Siorac we saw a sad sight by the roadside: a dead immature wild boar with stripes, obviously a road victim. Further on we noted kestrel, black kite and buzzard plus a greyish immature green woodpecker as we neared our destination. On the wires just before our first stop was a pair of stonechats. We began the day near Veyrines de Domme on a grassy hilltop with scrub and woodland. We parked in the car park by the wood and walked along the road through the top of the site. As on previous days we found meadow brown, marbled white and Adonis blue common on the limestone grassland, but there were also a few brown argus. The pretty little burnet moth Zygaena fausta was common amongst the roadside flowers. Walking up a side track we were pleased to see our first black-veined whites together with another first: a brief view of a scarce swallowtail. Further along we found a large dark grayling – in this case a woodland grayling with a single pale wavy line down the dark underside hind wing and a little fawn colour showing around the eye spot on the forewing underside. A little later on around the hilltop we studied a common grayling settled with wings closed on some stone, cryptically marked and difficult to see – our fourth new species of the trip during the morning. Another was soon to follow – a beautifully marked and fresh Queen of Spain fritillary with pointed wings and large silver spots on the underside hind wing.