James Lowen

And now for the hybrids. A Military x Lady and what we think is Fly x Early Spider. An absolute privilege seeing both.

Other inverts

Some cracking non-lepidopteran invertebrates were admired, including a giant weevil, abundant owl-flies and an unusual blue-eyed form of Winter Damselfly.

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6 June 2025 Vercors

Last week, I was part of the Wildlife Travel to to the Vercors of south-east France. In the 1990s, I spent perhaps two years living in France, but this was my first visit to the country in 25 years. When living there, I never even heard mention of the Vercors, let alone visited it. But Phil Saunders and Sarah Lambert both enthused about how good the region was for plantlike and wildlife, so I was keen to make amends. As it turned out, Phil and Sarah undersold the destination. This part of the pre-Alps is simply magnificent. Outstanding and varied plants and animals amid spectacular scenery - and all enjoyed with comparatively little effort and in gorgeous weather. Pleasingly, we travelled by train, easing our collective carbon conscience.

Orchids

One of the stand-out attractions of the Vercors in late spring is its orchids. I saw thirty species in the week, plus at least two intriguing hybrids. Many are species that are localised or rare in the UK: think Lady, Military and Burnt Orchids, and Late Spider Orchid. Two are phenomenally rare in the UK: Lady's Slipper and Red Helleborine. And several were entirely new, non-UK orchids - the undoubted highlights being Pale-flowered Orchid and, particularly, Sptizell's Orchid (which had been at the summit of my wishlist). Seeing them all was a proper treat.

And here are the stars of the show: two groups of Spitzell's Orchids in the Vallon de Combeau.

Other plants

This was one of the most botanically rich places I have ever been. The pre-Alpine meadows were a riot of colour, the plantlike at higher altitude unfeasibly varied. Had there not been so much else to look at, I would have drowned myself in the botanical expertise and several of the guests. As it was, I had bandwidth only for some of the more colourful, pretty or remarkable. And that was world enough.

Moths

I ran two battery traps on four nights, and the group enjoyed seeing some of the results - and we also saw plenty of day-flying moths. I haven't totalled up the species count, but it was probably in the order of 120-150. Here are some of the (mainly non-UK) species encountered. As usual when mothing away from the UK, ID resources were negligible. Please contact me if I've misidentified anything! My fave species was probably the Pine-tree Lappet, and my fave photo the one of two 'courting' Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk-moths.

Mammals, herps and birds

We enjoyed a nice variety of quality vertebrates, notably high-altitude specialities. The star mammals were a gargantuan herd of 43 Alpine Ibex and four Alpine Marmot. Birds included Lammergeier, Citril Finch, Golden Eagle and Alpine Chough. My fave herp was Southern Pool Frog (of which I have only seen adventive previously), but mating Common Wall Lizards and a spectacular male Western Green Lizard ran it close.

Wildlife

Butterflies

Butterflying was exceptional. The meadows and high-altitude slopes were heaving with butterflies in a way I have not seen since watching mudpuddling leps in Paraguay almost exactly 30 years ago. Indeed, mineral-supping butterflies were a feature of the trip with our only Oberthür's Grizzled Skippers, Osiris and Mazarine Blues seen this way. These three were new for me, as were two fritillaries (Knapweed and Provençal), Chequered Skipper, Pearly Heath, Sooty Copper, literally hundreds of Clouded Apollos (compared to the single individual that Sarah and Phil saw on this trip last year) and - arguably the highlight of the trip, because it was unexpected and so goddamn spectacular - Spanish Festoon.

Wildlife