On the morning of day 5, there was an option of either waking up early to check the moth trap that Paul had set up outside the hotel the previous night or to stay in bed for another hour. Of course, I went for the moth trap option, who wouldn't? Here's what we caught...
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| Small Elephant Hawk-moth |
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| Grey Arches |
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| Uncertain (that is what its called by the way) |
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| Some kind of Wainscot Moth |
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| Mottled Beauty |
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| Summer Chafer |
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| Black Redstart |
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| Short-toed Eagle (very distant) |
After Breakfast, we went to Traffet, a forest not far from Lans-en-Vercors. As soon as we got there, we saw a short-toed eagle soaring over the forest. I then found it again perched in a distant tree. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a decent photo of it. We also saw a willow tit and heard a grey-headed woodpecker (which sounds similar to a green woodpecker but with fewer notes) and grunting bellows of wild boar (which I thought was the sound of someone pulling a fast one on us at first)!
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| Willow Tit |
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| Wood Ants |
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| Transparent Burnet Moth |
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| Chicken-of-the-woods Fungus |
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| Male Beautiful Demoiselle |
The plant and butterfly enthusiasts in the group were having a good time and found more orchids that we've already seen like red helleborines as well as butterflies like Arran brown and dark green fritillary. I, on the other hand, had mixed feelings with this forest. Sitting down by the side of the path watching a male beautiful demoiselle defend his territory from flies on the top of leaved branches was enjoyable, finding out that I was left behind and later, after catching up with the group, losing my footing on a loose rock and falling onto my backside was not so enjoyable.
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| Arran Brown (underwing) |
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| Arran Brown (upper wing) |
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| Red Helleborine |
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| Cross Gentian |
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| Damon blue |
We then went along a road through Forestiere-de-Moliere for lunch and explored parts of this road for more plants and butterflies afterwards. Here, in the extreme heat of the afternoon, we found spotted heath orchids, round-headed orchids, Damon blue butterflies, small blues, brown argus, geranium argus, a grizzled skipper of some kind (there are several species of them and they all look alike. You need to a good look at the underwing to really tell them apart), wood white, black-veined white, heath fritillaries and many more. As it was so hot, we stopped at a café for an ice cream and called it a day.
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| Some kind of Leaf Beetle |
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| Grizzled Skipper of some kind |
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| Heath Spotted Orchids |
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| Small Blue |
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| Brown Argus |
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| Geranium Argus |
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| Round-headed (or Globe Flower Orchid) |
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| Wood White |
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| Heath Fritillaries |
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