Brimstone Butterfly & an Orchid.

Brimstone Butterfly Gonepteryx sp. Click on photos to enlarge.

Lady Orchid Orchis purpurea. Supposed to look like ladies in bonnets and spotted pantaloons!

Birdsnest & Other Orchids

Birdsnest Orchid, Neottia nidus-avis

Probably Common Twyblade, Listera ovata.

Pyramidal Orchid, Anacamptis pyramidalis

Man Orchid, Aceras anthropophorum. Note men hanging down beneath hoods.

Sword Leaved Helliborine, Cephalanthera longifolia -

Another day, another trip, this time on foot, and more orchids. This group were more easily identifiable than those on the cycle ride. Butterflies are also on the increase, including a wonderful brimstone butterfly on flowers on a garden wall -see message above. It must have hatched from its chrysalis about then minutes before it was photographed.

Bugs in Summer

The clashing beetle, always to be found in flowers that do not match its colours.

Hairy green bugs enjoying the summer warmth.

Bug feasting on flowers of wayfaring tree.

Long horned beetles feeling hornier than usual.

NB These Bugs look even better if you enlarge each image by clicking on it...

There are very few butterflies around at Le Port at present probably due to the wet cold summer last year. However the bugs (Coleoptera) are not armoured for nothing and they are haveing a wonderful time energised by the warmth of the sun. Here are three or four.

XIc Sculptures at Besse Abbey.

The Tympanum at Besse XIc.

St Michael giving the opposition a hard time (as usual).

The Six winged Seraphim, the highest of the nine orders of Angels.

Trouble in T' Garden, l to r, Eve, Tree of Knowledge, Adam (aroused), God -with the pointey finger

St Hubert pursuing a stag symbolic of the soul's pursuit of God. See for example, St John of the Cross, The Spiritual Canticle v1 & v13. Left Mary, with Jesus rather tightly swaddled.

More Orchids

Here are two more orchids:

Glorious Summer, A cycle ride to Villefranche en Perigord.

After a long cold and wet spring the sun at last came out and the temperature rose in three days from 10c to 26c on the 3rd of May. The birds seem fewer this year, we only have one or two pairs of great tits, only one black redstart, no white wagtails are nesting and no warblers or chiff chaffs have been heard. A black cap was singing but is now silent. There seem to be fewer black kites overhead although the peregrine falcons have been seen. There are however two nightingales instead of the normal one although one is on our neighbours property. In early April we saw an Osprey upstream towards Souillac whilst kayaking the rain and were surrounded with early swallows. Normally they disappear after a few days and are replaced by a new crowd later in April but they have been in evidence continually this year. By May 1st there were abundant house martins wheeling and squealing around the bridge. The fewer passerines may be due to the cold summer last year or predators in the area around Le Port which has reduced the populations. The wild or feral cats that have lived in the barn for five years, killing all the rats but also probably reducing the four or five pairs of redstarts to a single pair, departed last spring and were last seen 500 m away near the masons yard. Piles of bird dung and very large owl pellets showed that a very large owl, possibly an Eagle Owl had been in residence for several weeks during our absence between January and early March. It had been in the tobacco barn and in the kayak cave and had made an extraordinary mess over the mowing machine which had to be washed with bleach and water before it was usable.

Anyway summer eventually came and a chance to photograph orchids and sculptures on a bicycle ride to the old baside of Villefranche en Perigord. The sculptures are on the XIc Benedicting monastic church at Besse which was secondarily fortified during the 100 Years War.

Photographs above show various orchids and a large Asphodel with a bee foraging.