On the Bike in Avignon - Day by Day (Part 2)

Day 3

The day started at Avignon Station, where I had a bit of spare time before catching a train to Orange and noticed there was an interesting bee feeding on some lavender.

Digger Bee

I haven't managed to dig into digger bees much but a suggestion on iNaturalist 
of urbane digger bee seemed fairly definite at the time. One slight problem is that anthophora urbana occurs in North and Central America so I think digger bee is as near as I'll get.

At Orange the idea was to launch North to Uchaux but ultimately I didn't fancy the road and turned back.  Before I did, I discovered another flower meadow, this time quite a large one, where several butterflies could be seen.  I very quickly found some dingy skipper (yet again after a near blank last summer) but also a skipper that was different.  Past experience in the Camargue (and for a change my memory) came in handy and I soon realised it was a mallow skipper.

Dingy Skipper

Mallow Skipper

There were a good few spotted fritillaries around and one kindly posed to allow me to get a good shot of the upper wing

Spotted Fritillary

Also seen but not photographed at this sight were clouded yellow, ringlet and brimstone, plus an annoying hairstreak that I narrowly missed. I wondered about ilex hairstreak but didn't get a good enough view.

After turning back to the Arc de Triomphe in Orange (yes there is one!) I joined the Via Venaissia aiming to join the Via Rhôna North of Carpentras. About 10 km out of Orange I encountered a farm garden where there were a few marbled white (which always seemed to be a sign that others were present) and stopped to check out what looked like large fritillaries. In fact they all turned out to be wall browns, painted ladies or spotted fritillaries. In fact the spotted fritillary proved to be the only fritillary found. Anyway I did this time get a good shot of another scarce swallowtail that appeared.

Scarce Swallowtail - Upperwing

One interesting point here was that a lady exiting the farm by car stopped specially to tell me to lock the bike up (which was no more than five metres away) as the area was often patrolled by "bandits" who would escape with it high speed given the chance.

Unfortunately the remainder of the ride proved to be somewhat disappointing.  The rest of the Via Venaissia led mainly through farmland with little to note and a lively Mistral to face. At the Via Rhôna I encountered rather arid country, with the occasional outburst of painted ladies where there were a few flowers.  Otherwise the main butterfly sightings were individuals blown across my path at high speed in the wind, not to be seen again.

At one area I investigated as promising I thought that I had found an interesting moth, which actually proved to be a couple of short-horned grasshoppers caught "in flagrante delictu."  A good job I'm having an eye test shortly!

Short-horned Grasshoppers

I was beginning to reflect that the lack of moisture in most areas was having a clear effect on sightings. There was not a drop of rain the whole week as temperatures gradually rose.

A little way North of the Île de Barthelasse, I did actually find a nice looking neglected path with plenty of vegetation and a few marbled whites.  What I actually sighted was largely a repeat of those seen in the morning including, annoyingly, a repeat of mystery disappearing hairstreak.

In the end I had to settle for a cleopatra and a pretty banded demoiselle.

Cleopatra (underwing)

Banded demoiselle

Day 4

In temperatures up to 35C, Day 4 turned into more of a survival exercise.  Starting out from Tarascon, I took a run across the North of the Alpilles.  This was firmly the day of the cleopatra as both males and females turned up repeatedly especially in the morning.  They were also extremely reluctant to settle but in the end I managed to get a video capturing a bit of both and showing the colouring.

Cleopatra

Matters were made considerably worse when I realised I had an hour less than planned to catch a train at Cavaillon, and so was forced into cycling at as much pace as I could manage for the last 25+ km.

I did stop briefly for a rest and had a bit of a surprise when on a rare plant I found a stripey bee that appeared to have a bloated white abdomen. It clearly noticed me and took off towards me and started flying from right to left repeatedly in what appeared to be some sort of threatening behaviour before finally moving off.

Unfortunately the camera couldn't help with even video evidence but I was able to establish that it was  a wool carder bee.

Day 5 

Increasingly tired and interested in creature comforts I decided to roughly repeat the run from the first day as it passed through the best area for nature.  The result was perhaps inevitably that, having dispelled any notion of finding the hungarian glider, I saw pretty much the same species - white admiral, marbled white, spotted fritillary etc. but with one major difference.

Regiscola Bidens

At the spot West of Les Angles where I first stopped on Day 1, I found up to twenty massive insects circling an area of broken bushes.  They were black, about as long as a dragon fly, thicker than most caterpillars, and had two bright yellow stripes.  They also had antennae suggesting they were bees or wasps

On the way back later in the day I encountered a French Natural Biologist who told me they were regiscola bidens, i.e. mammoth wasp, a species that predates on the rhinoceros beetle.  Whilst it looks highly dangerous, it is actually very placid and rarely stings. Apologies for the poor photo.

I got chatting to the French chap who, as well as complaining about the local authority's failure to protect the area, for example by cutting it as on Day 1, told me that it held over 500 distinct species, of which over half had special protection status.

There was something about that that made me feel I had made the right decision!

Madeira Day 6 and Evaluation

"So what happened  to Madeira Day 5?" you might understandably ask.  The simple answer is I had a day off on the sun lounger and in the swimming pool!

Day 6 was my last day in Madeira but an evening flight left me time for another short walk.

My original intention was to walk the road to Quinte Grande for a snack but on getting there sooner than expected and not feeling hungry I changed plan. It wasn't far to get to Campanario, so I decided to revisit briefly the Levada do Norte and make my way back to Cabo Girao via the Vereda das Fumas instead of through the tunnel.

Although I only spent half an hour on the levada, it was pretty productive although the wagtails were no longer around.  

There were firstly a couple of hoverflies I wasn't sure about and still haven't identified.

Hoverfly

Hoverfly

There was a suggestion that the one on the left is a marmalade hoverfly but I'm not convinced - it's plainer in pattern, darker and has a different body shape to ones I have seen.

 Near the area where I saw the painted lady two days ago a small white flew over and settled on the other side of the levada.

Small White

What is interesting here is the paucity of markings. Presumably a male, the spot is very pale and there is a complete lack of making on the edge of the upper forewing.

Of course there was a profusion of speckled woods and this one is an example where the background colour of the upper wing is a bit paler than the one I saw in the Tropical Garden.

Speckled Wood

Also settling very briefly was a butterfly that was clearly a blue but on checking the hurried photograph, clearly not the common blue I first expected.

Long-tailed Blue

In fact it is a long-tailed blue, known locally as pea blue, but the poor focus makes it hard to see the underwing pattern and of course the tails are not in view.

Crossing the road onto the lower section of the levada, a red admiral was for a change obliging enough to pose for the camera.

Red Admiral

However the next stretch, which is partially shaded by a rocky skyline, was less productive until the very end of the Vereda das Fumas.  Here there was a brownfield area with plenty of flowers that was attracting the attention of several clouded yellow.  I thought one I saw might be a female and spent some time trying to chase it down.  In fact I think they were all males.

Clouded Yellow

I like the detail on the head anyway. Today I had the feeling that the butterflies were just starting to get really active after a week of good weather.

After an ice cream at the tourist trap, I took a last brief walk up to the capella but saw nothing there of interest and it was time to head for home.

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In terms of overall comments, Madeira has to be mainly about the flowers.  I was really struck on flying in from the sands of Fuertaventura how green the island is. Anyone who loves flowers will be delighted by the immense variety.

In that respect it is perhaps puzzling, given the vast number of species of flowers how few pollinators there are - only 18 species of butterfly and one diurnal moth and around 20 species of bee, less than the number of bumblebees alone in the UK.  

Presumably wasps, flies and hoverflies make up some of the numbers but I still find myself wondering how so many flowers get pollinated.  One plant I never saw was buddleia and I idly speculated that its introduction might lead to an explosion of butterfly numbers.

One explanation for the lack of species variety of course is that Madeira is an isolated island so some of the species that are there have been imported accidentally or otherwise.  However some butterflies clearly make it on the wing from Africa and the Canary islands. There are also a number of obvious inconsistencies.  Madeira has small tortoiseshell, red admiral and painted lady so why not peacock? How come the large white died out when it is so plentiful elsewhere? How does the relatively even temperature on the island affect the development of butterflies and bees that flourish in other places where there is much greater seasonal variation in temperature?

These are just the thoughts that ran through my mind rather than any attempt to find a scientific explanation. I'm certainly glad I went and enjoyed what I found.

Madeira Day 4

Today I decided to do a walk along the Levada do Norte in the hope of extending my butterfly sightings in the forests North of Cabo Girao.

The trail led me along a narrow path with a mini levada past and through several gardens with some stunning flowers.  It struck me that they were just as interesting as anything I'd seen at the Tropical Gardens yesterday, so here are some examples.  I'm no expert on flowers so no guarantees as to the accuracy of the attempted approximate identifications.

(Rough?) Poppy	Wood Sorrel?
Babiana (genus)	A Hullwort

All improvement suggestions welcome...

Having missed an early red admiral, I joined the Levada do Norte at the point where it goes through a tunnel under the motorway (torch essential!) and set forth slowly in a Northerly direction.  The recommended walk from the hotel was about six miles return but, anxious to reach woodland, I reckon I did about double that.

I certainly saw a greater number of butterflies than on the Butterfly Tour but apart from the inevitable speckled woods, none of them settled for more than a few seconds.  The eventual count was:-

Painted Lady - 1

Red Admiral - 2

Clouded Yellow - 4

Small White - 6

Speckled Wood - 200 (estimated)

Of these only the painted lady was the only one that graced the camera lens.  I must admit that I was pleased to see one so early in the year even if it wasn't a great shot.

Painted Lady

I decided on a change of tactics for this walk and started lining up the targets using the LCD screen rather than the viewfinder.  It then seemed easier to pick out the intended subjects, including the following insects:

Bent-lined Carpet Moth

Indian Milkweed Bug

Again I'm grateful for extra help from iNaturalist on these. There were also three or four larger moths I wasn't able to identify and didn't settle.

Also sighted on the way out near Campanario was a blackcap and on the way back and slightly further North a group of grey wagtails.  I had hoped they'd turn out to be yellow wagtails thinking they would be the local equivalent but apparently not the case.

Grey Wagtail

As for the forests further North towards the picnic area, they produced precisely nothing except more speckled wood.  However they were predominantly pine and palm trees.  You probably would have to go a good deal further to find more Lauressilva forest.

Madeira Day 2

The next morning was free of firm commitments so I decided with some reluctance to visit the local tourist trap, the Cabo Girao Miradourou  At 589m above sea level, the cliff is reckoned to be the highest in Europe.  As I suspected it is largely a place for taking selfies and admiring the views detailed in the link above though possibly not bad value at five euros a pop given the prices at other tourist hotspots.

However I did manage one interesting sighting.  The wall lizards were already active on a rock just below the glass platform and in there among them were some birds I though might be rock sparrows.  I managed to get a few shots which turned out to be of island canaries, a different species to the atlantic canary seen yesterday and not obvious songsters.

Island Canary (and cactus)

Island Canary - front view

I had the notion that they might be hunting baby lizards as I understand some other small birds do but AI on the subject was not conclusive.

I also thought I might have seen at distance a bee that wasn't a buff-tailed bumblebee or a honey bee but it proved to be an old familiar - the common drone fly.

Common Drone Fly

This species was encountered on a number of subsequent occasions.

In the afternoon I was on a butterfly tour which proved to be a decided mixed bag in that not very much was seen but a couple of key endemic species did turn up.  

I had been previously warned that an untypically cold and wet winter and early spring meant that sightings had for a while been non-existent and were only just starting to pick up.

We headed West from Cabo Girao and the first spot was a riverside site where nothing turned up of note - no expected small whites, just a few more clouded yellow, the ubiquitous speckled woods and the odd red admiral. Plus at one point the tour leader had a mini mining bee on his finger.

He also noted that he thought the local goat had taken a dislike to him, but it seemed friendly enough to me:

Goat

I thought I might have seen a blue in flight but this couldn't be confirmed.

We then moved on to a levada that headed North towards the Fanal Lauressilva Forest, which is where it got interesting.

Here we encountered the Madeiran Speckled Wood, all the others seen up to then being the mainland European version.  The Madeiran Speckled Wood is a larger butterfly with different markings that are less precise on the underwing.  One of them landed in front of us but only briefly and once again I missed the shot, trying to focus through the viewfinder.

We were now in the area where the environment was favourable for the Madeiran Cleopatra.  In Madeira they actually call it Madeiran Brimstone, though my understanding is that the powers that be think brimstone and cleopatra are identifiably separate species. Prospects of seeing one were reckoned to be extremely small this year, although they had been sighted once or twice in the few days before my visit.  My hopes of bettering a brief sighting of a Cleopatra in France were not high.

Well in fact one did flutter down right in front of where I was walking.  It didn't settle but flew away along the treeline of the levada.  Realising that there was no other option, I attempted a speculative video, hoping to catch its path along the trees:-

Clearly that didn't work but if you watch carefully or stop the video around the five - six second mark you can see a butterfly shaped object against the skyline. This is not a UFO!  It is in fact - and you'll have to take my word for it - the Madeiran Brimstone (aka Madeiran Cleopatra.) 

As this was the butterfly I was keenest to see I was in favour of hanging around for a repeat performance, but we were duly ushered back to the van, where ironically the driver, also a Naturalist, had seen another iconic species, the Indian Red Admiral  - which of course the Madeirans call something different i.e. Macaronesian Red Admiral.

All our party got on the way back was more views of the Madeiran firecrests and chaffinches, one of which I did manage get a passable image of.

Madeiran Chaffinch

You can notice the greenish tinges not found on UK chaffinches.  This bird has the reputation of being exceptionally tame to the point of visiting restaurant tables in search of titbits.

We moved on to a nearby woodland site where the Madeiran Speckled Wood apparently breeds. On arrival we did see a few rising up into the trees but on foraging around nothing but a wild pussy cat.  I eventually sat down at a picnic table where it was a firecrest rather than a chaffinch that made bold approaches for possible handouts.

This area used to be home to the Madeiran Large White, recently officially declared to be extinct.

Madeira Day 1

This year's attempt to hasten the arrival of Spring was a holiday in Madeira from 30th March to 6th April. It was fortunate that I planned for the whole week as the original Day 1 turned into Day 0 after heavy winds forced a detour and overnight stay in Fuertaventura (Canary Islands) only arriving at my designated hotel one day late at 4.00 pm. There was just time for a quick walk to find a speckled wood butterfly - which turned to be the first of several hundred during the week.

Fortunately I had nothing planned until a birdwatching tour the next day.

This required getting up at dawn to catch the bus to Funchal.  I don't really do sunrises and scenery but the view over Cabo Girao was quite impressive.

Madeiran Sunrise

After a quick breakfast I had time to take a quick look in the Municipal Park, where I was impressed by the brightly-coloured flowers produced overhead by some of the trees.  There was also a waterfall catching the low sun to show a small rainbow. 

Colourful Tree

Waterfall

The birdwatching took place to the East of Funchal.  On the coast nearby we found several of the noted trocaz pigeons, the nearest of which never fully emerged from the cacti, and a sample of the local kestrels.

Trocaz Pigeon

Kestrel

However the star turn was this Atlantic Canary, singing its heart out:

Atlantic Canary

Just a pity I thought it wasn't going to!.. Apparently this is the forerunner of the domesticated canary.

A brief visit to a levada near Camacha produced a good number of madeiran firecrest sightings as well as some madeiran chaffinches.

Firecrest

On some examples the crest on the Madeiran version is quite spectacular.  Gere you can't see it at all.

Then it was back to a rugged piece of coast near Canico where I was pleased to get my first sighting of a clouded yellow this year.

Clouded Yellow

This was also a known location for spectacled warbler, which I was keen to see as I only heard them on  a previous trip to France in 2015  Unfortunately it proved to be tricky as they were plentiful but weaving in and out of the undergrowth and I was cursing myself for not having brought the lens hood for my camera as it was hard to focus in the bright and windy conditions.  After some patience (others' as well as my own) I did manage to get a fairly acceptable shot.

Spectacled Warbler

You can actually see it has a bit of nesting material in its mouth.

There was also a brief distant sighting of bertholets pipit - another first for me - as well as of a couple of hoopoe.

After the tour I got dropped off at the Parque de Santa Catarina on the promise of a sedge warbler on the island, for which however I had no interest.  By now the wall lizards were out and about and there were a couple of the larger examples quickly apparent as soon as I reached the lake.

Wall Lizards

The slightly smaller one however is technically still a juvenile as it retains a stripe on the upper body.

I was to learn in coming days that the appearance of wall lizards signifies that butterflies may be around.  Just after I saw them I noticed that a monarch butterfly - one of my key targets - was fluttering past the island on the left hand side of the lake.  Anyway I decided (rather coolly, I thought) to snap the lizards and meet the monarch when it reached the other side of the lake.

This duly occurred but it refused to settle until I pursued it into a children's play park, when it did settle high up in a bush. I focused on the exact branch and took the shots, only to find later that they did not show the butterfly.  No idea what happened there.  The only other thing I saw on going round the lake was a bunch of very lazy muscovy ducks snoozing under a tree.

Muscovy Ducks

I then decided to return to the Municipal Garden as I'd noted that the wee restaurant had scabbard fish on the menu.  There was some time to sit around and observe during which I spotted a red admiral and this interesting looking hoverfly - later identified on iNaturalist as an epauletted hoverfly

Epauletted Hoverfly

The even better surprise came when another monarch turned up and posed reliably on a flower bed near some teenage girls.

Monarch - upperwing

Monarch - underwing

Overall, a pretty successful day.

More Landmark Sightings

The day after I finished writing the last post, I saw something I'd never seen before - in the dining room.

Apparently this is a moth fly (also known as a drain fly) of the pericomini genus but apparently you'd need to be a serious expert to identify one more closely.  It was tiny and had a wingspan of about 3/8".

Another pleasant surprise occurred on 30th August, when a painted lady was finally spotted in the garden and reappeared several times until the sun clouded over.  With the weather now on the change I doubt if it'll be seen again...

Unlike the bullfinches, which will probably keep turning up while sunflower hearts are available. This time I managed to capture the male.  You can't quite see the sunflower heart in its beak.

Male Bullfinch

Today I took a trip to the Big Waters Reserve, where something interesting has been reported.  I have mainly known it as a fishing and birdwatching venue, but was quite impressed on wandering around that there's quite a fair amount of invertebrate-friendly territory in the form of meadows (now mostly dead) and woodland clearings.

Near the Little Waters area there were a good few speckled wood and a few dragonflies.  I think the ones that actually landed were common darters.

Speckled Wood

Common Darter

There were also some large blue dragonflies - possibly emperor dragonflies.

Moving further around the area, I was pleased to come across some small coppers.

Even more were to turn up when I searched an area by the path near the track to the bird eyes, probably about twenty and also a good number of common blues, both male and female.

Common Blue

Small Copper

I wished I had taken the trouble to get a better photo of the small copper.  There were plenty of opportunities but they didn't land for long.

I was heading back to the car park when I bumped into a chap who said he knew where I could find what I was originally after.  We went back to the same area a bit further along where the farm fields have a good covering of bird's foot trefoil and after a fair bit of messing around (and me starting to head for the car park again) we found it.

Clouded Yellow

I'd never heard of the clouded yellow being observed this far North and had thought it might be rare here.  This isn't so as there have been scattered sightings in the past but it is distinctly scarce locally and I don't think I've seen one elsewhere in the UK.

There was actually a very large amount of farmland with a good covering of bird's foot trefoil, so who knows whether there are more of them at Big Waters?

Bordeaux Day 3

With day time temperatures scheduled to hit a maximum of 36C I was a bit cautious about my plan of heading towards the sea at Lacanau and reckoned to do about half of the approximately 120km round trip.  In the event, thanks to an early start and a good day in the saddle I managed about three-quarters of it, turning back a good way past St Helene.

It was quite a long way to the National Park I wanted to suss out and the main thing I noticed meanwhile was the abundance of some yellow flowers on the outskirts of Bordeaux.

Common Evening Primrose?

Suggestions by AI favour Common Evening Primrose, though this sighting was actually timed at 8.31 a.m. Hmmm?

Meanwhile also a sign advertised the presence of a rare mammal, the 'genet commune' in the Parc des Jalles  Apparently it's totally nocturnal so i didn't look for it.

Anyway there was an early success on reaching the Park when I came across one of the target species - a pearly heath, not a great discovery but it's as near to the UK as I've ever seen one. 

Pearly Heath

Other heaths seen were decidedly common.

After that things frankly got a bit frustrating.  I stopped at a promising looking spot a few miles South of Salaunes, where there was clearly a lot of action.  A number of brown butterflies were fluttering around and arguing with some speckled wood but they refused to settle properly.  I wondered distantly about gatekeeper but could not prove my hunch.  After a while an impressive marbled white spent a long time working the path edges but without landing at all.

So the only ones things I captured on camera were small skippers and, a bit later on, some burnet moths.

Small Skipper

? spot Burnet Moth

I think all the several skippers I saw on the day were small.

From this point on it got even more frustrating.  I notice that the photos I tried to take tended to be poorly focused just as the butterflies' behaviour got extremely skittish and now wonder if these factors were the result of the increasing heat which duly exceeded the 35C mark as promised.

Having just passed Salaunes (where there was thankfully a water pump) I noticed a number of blues zooming around but couldn't manage to get anything like a decent view.  They definitely weren't commons, having a brighter shade of upper wing and dark spots on the underwing.  I wondered about nazarine blue but I think they were smaller than that.

So I rode on thinking to stop at St Helene, seeing continued brimstone, the odd clouded yellow and occasional annoying marbled white until I could smell the sea air and eventually realised I'd overshot the turnaround point.

It was worth it though as my last stop was for another group of fast-flying blues.  After much patience, 

I finally did see one settle for several minutes.  So I managed to identify it as I sat sprawled in the roadside grass with the thing virtually between my feet!  

In the end it was nothing special or new - a short-tailed blue and my only disappointment now was that I didn't get a better shot of it.

Short-tailed Blue

So mystery solved - always assuming that they were the same as the ones at Salaunes! We will never know.