July 31, 2007
Late July in the Pyrenees
This weekend I headed south to visit Andrew in Montpellier, though we didn't stay there long - at rather short notice we decided to take advantage of the glorious weather and head into the Pyrenees. While the focus of the trip was hiking and scenery, I wanted birds too, and perusing various site guides suggested that the area around Gavarnie was a good bet for all of these (thanks also to 'rosbifs' at BirdForum for his prompt reply with some up-to-date gen).
We left Montpellier just early enough on Friday to avoid the holiday traffic, and 5 hours later found ourselves in the Vallee des Gaves. Driving by the Pic de Pibeste around 730pm, I immediately spotted a Lammergeier (Gypaete barbu) over the high cliffs, but we were both too tired and hungry to stop!
Next morning dawned depressingly grey and cloudy in the valley, but we decided to push up to the high tops anyway. This proved to be a good decision, as we soon broke through the cloud into brilliant sunshine.
In spite of arriving shortly after 9am, the Port de Gavarnie car park was already full! The first part of the walk produced a few Water Pipits (Pipit spioncelle), several vocal Marmots and a few flyover Alpine Choughs (Chocard a bec jaune).
The high-elevation meadows were carpeted in wildflowers - anyone know what this one is?
English Iris and mountain backdrop.
The mass of flowers proved attractive to butterflies - most were too fast-moving for me to identify, though I managed to photograph this Silky Ringlet.
The walk provided some of the most spectacular mountain scenery I've seen in a long time.
Mid-morning I spotted some perched Griffon Vultures (Vautour fauve) - conspicuous even at great distance.
We later had astounding overhead views of them flying off to feed.
Most of the breeding passerines had young which had already fledged the nest. We spotted an Alpine Accentor (Accenteur alpin) family...
... plus newly-fledged Black Redstarts (Rougequeue noir) and Wheatears (Traquet motteux).
An adult Snowfinch (Niverolle alpine), only my second ever, was searching for insects here, but ran around at such a pace that it proved tricky to digiscope.
Driving back down to Gavarnie we ran into a pair of Red-backed Shrike (Pie-grieche ecorcheur), got flight views of a Rock Thrush (Monticole de roche) and spotted a noisy family party of Red-billed Choughs (Crave a bec rouge).
We took a detour a little way up the Oussoue valley, hoping for a glimpse of the nesting Lammergeier - no joy there, but a singing Rock Bunting (Bruant fou) and an unexpected Citril Finch (Venturon montagnard) were bonuses.
The area was excellent for butterflies, including my lifer Apollo. Fritillaries were represented by Spotted, Meadow Fritillary and this Heath.
Marbled Skipper was relatively straightforward to identify...
... but I was less sure about these two:
I'd go for Cinquefoil for the former and Carline for the latter. Is it possible to ID the Blue sp. in the second photo? Comments on flower and butterfly identifications are most welcome; please email me at rjhall@surfbirder.com.
In the late-afternoon we took a relaxing stroll around the village of Luz St Sauveur, where Crag Martins (Hirondelle de rochers) entertained us swooping low overhead. Seemed odd to se these nesting in buildings here, while many of the cliffs higher in the mountains held House Martin (Hirondelle de fenetre) colonies!
On Sunday we drove over the Col du Tourmalet, dodging cyclists all the way up.
As predicted by 'rosbifs', we were treated to great views of Snow Finches in the field adjacent to the car park. This youngster had already fledged the nest...
... and some of the adults were already acquiring their winter yellow bills.
The long journey back to Montpellier was punctuated with more Crag Martins, sightseeing and a delicious cassoulet in Foix.
The final stretch of road between Narbonne and Montpellier produced Bee-eater (Guepier d'Europe) and Roller (Rollier d'Europe) as 'autoroute ticks'. This may be my last posting in a little while, as I'm back off to California for a week of work and another 2 weeks of birding my brains out. Happy summer everyone! :-D
Posted by rjhall at July 31, 2007 11:08 PM