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.

Purple Hairstreaks and a Valesina at last.

An early morning dash to Alners Gorse in Dorset, one of my favourite butterflying venues. I arrived far too early, about 07:30, but even at this early hour Ringlets, Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns were on the wing. Unfortunately the weather wasn't quite as forecast and it remained overcast for at least another hour. As soon as the sun peeked through, the place started to buzz. Plenty of Purple Hairstreaks coming down to nectar on the brambles kept me busy, shame they only have one pose. No real open wing shots though, but you can't moan when they are at eye level. Nice to meet Lee from Bristol, he was after White-letter Hairstreaks but sadly there was only one present but it provided some good shots.

 

I wandered off to see what else I could find but returned post haste after Lee had found a stonking Silver-washed Fritillary of the valesina form. Thankfully I managed to capture a few shots. So, by mid morning I had both my planned targets in the bag.

A Brown Hairstreak had been found on the path down to the reserve, perfect photographic evidence was provided so we went off in search of the specimen, alas we never found it.

Plenty of SWFs about and a full supporting cast of the usual suspects - a place that is well worth a visit.