Arles Holiday - 20th June

Arles is mainly known for its Roman history and architecure, but what attracted me there were the few van Gogh landmarks and the nature, under which label the main declared targets were bee eater, wallcreeper and white admiral and Bath white butterflies.

Principally with birdlife in mind I rented a bike from the hotel and made for the Marais Du Vigueirat via the cycle track along the navigation channel and Mas Thibert.  The waters of the former looked distinctly carpy and sure enough a couple of anglers were out using notably heavy float tackle that looked more appropriate for pike or catfish - or perhaps to deal with a strong current.

White Admiral

Shortly after stumbling by complete accident on Van Gogh's famour bridge, which in fact appears to be a reconstruction as the original was further upstream, a white admiral flew straight in front of the bike and settled to pose for a photo as a Bath white fluttered nearby. So that, to my surprise and delight, was the key butterfly targets sewn up within an hour or two!  In spite of the name, the Bath white is not present in the UK.

Further down the path something similar happened when a black kite lumbered over in one direction while a purple heron glided along in the other - both first sightings, although both were pretty much expected.  By this time I had already spotted an egret plodging in the paddy fields (rice is grown in the Camargue) that I thought was a little egret, which proved correct as I was soon in a position to compare the three egret varieties.

The experience at the reserve was mixed as, in spite of much research, local guidance and looking around, I did not see the bee eater.  However I did see:

• a beaver in close-up
• a fox running along the wooden path with a vole in uts mouth (twice)
• cleopatra butterfly
• a dragonfly clutching a white butterfly (didn't know they attacked butterflies!)
• an unidentified fritillary (not pearl-bordered)
• great white egrets and little egrets, allowing closer comparison
• cattle egrets, though they were showing more interest in the Camargue ponies than the bulls
• many carp swimming around on the surface of the lake (as below but there were far more than you can see)
• more herons including squacco heron
• marsh harriers
• turtle
• several lizards
• white stork
• magpies all over the place, more kites of both kinds, several wall butterflies, tree creeper, long-tailed tits.

I wondered if there was a reason why the cattle egrets preferred the horses to the bulls.

On the way back, I also noticed what I thought at first was a black bee, but was probably a flying beetle (leatherjacket). I reckon I saw in total eight new species today, the most in one day since I went to Minsmere in 2011.