Butterflying in the Alpes-Maritimes - Tinée Valley

Day 4 - moving day, as we swapped Rimplas for Saint Martin d'Entraunes, of course butterflying on the way. First stop was the famous manure heap at Beuil.

Lots of skippers and blues but odd to see a pristine Swallowtail puddling in a pile of poo

Foulquier's Skipper??

Large Grizzled Skipper??

Safflower Skipper

A Cleopatra that, try as I might, I failed to capture with an open wing shot.

Damon Blues

On down the track were some decent thistles attracting a few Fritillaries.

Dark Green Fritillary

Dark Green Fritillary

Marbled Fritillary

Marbled Fritillary



Rather close Silver-washed Fritillary

Silver-washed Fritillary

Then on to a roadside meadow for mud puddling blues and a plethora of fritillaries.

 

Apparently seven species

 

Easy - mostly Damon Blue

Another Chestnut Heath

 

Too close!

First Queen of Spain Fritillary

Next Niobe Fritillary

Finally we arrived at our new base and having checked in I dumped my bags, grabbed my camera and joined David to investigate a stand of thistles and umbellifers at the side of the hotel. We struck silver, first a Silver-spotted Skipper  then I was delighted to be able to capture a fairly obliging Silver-washed Fritillary, forma valesina, a perfect end to another great butterflying day.

High Brown Fritillary

During Tuesday's Large Blue outing I struck up a conversation with a fellow enthusiast and mentioned that I would probably be visiting Heddon's Mouth to find a High Brown Fritillary. The information he provided, chapter and verse complete with maps, brought about a change of plan and early today Martin and I were on our way to Aish Tor near Ashburton on the edge of Dartmoor.

My confidence that the HBF would be in the bag before lunch and that we could make a dash for Collard Hill to have another session on the Large Blue started to wane as we approached Honiton. Gathering gloomy clouds were not what we expected - the BBC said wall to wall sunshine. No worries - as we approached Aish Tor the weather turned to that forecast - brilliant sunshine and light winds - perfect for butterflies. Armed with local knowledge it wasn't long before we encountered our first fritillaries, fresh specimens ghosting through the bracken at ground level, probably in search of a mate. Unfortunately in this mode they just weren't going to sit and pose to allow us to get a positive ID between the High Brown and the Dark Green Fritillary.

Later in the morning as the sun became stronger some specimens started to nectar on the brambles that were just coming into bloom. Finally a positive ID with all the key features ticked but the underwing shot was the clincher for me. The activity was frenetic and although there were many butterflies on the wing, few deigned to settle. So we took a break and had lunch and a brew to refresh ourselves and resumed in the early afternoon. By now there was a steady stream of visits to "our" bramble patches and the ratio of HBF to DGF increased notably.

High Brown Fritillary

Sex brands on the 2nd and 3rd veins up from the base of the wing are more obvious.

The High Brown Fritillary has a row of "ocelli" just inside the outer margin. Also the High Brown Fritillary has a brown hue to the underside, whereas the Dark Green Fritillary is obviously green.

The third dot from the apex of the forewing is indented toward the body.

 

 

 

Dark Green Fritillary

 

Lots of other butterflies on the wing in what were now perfect conditions and I recorded the more notable specimens of Green Hairstreak and Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary. The SPbF looking somewhat worn but still a welcome sight as we haven't actively chased them this year.

Finally we had had enough so back to the car for a late afternoon brew, setting off for home after the evening rush hour traffic. A cracking day out at a superb butterfly venue, if you need HBF then this is the place to go.