Belgium's most wanted

Yesterday, I finally connected with my most wanted butterfly in Belgium; the beautiful Large Copper.  This scarce and much sought-after species is restricted to a few, scattered localities in the southern half of the province of Luxembourg.  I had visited one of their strongholds in early June but came up with a blank, so a recent sighting of several individuals was a sign that the second generation were now on the wing.  I thus gave it another try and, sure enough, found three or four, very fresh-looking individuals of both sexes (male above, female below).

The area was fantastic for coppers in general, with Sooty Coppers absolutely everywhere plus a few Small Coppers.  There were lots of Red-backed Shrikes around too, plus several individuals of both Black and Red Kite, one the latter having an in-flight scuffle with a pair of Hobbies.  This lovely artwork at the reserve entrance gives a good impression of the area.

French frits

I did some cross-border butterflying over the weekend and went to Givet, in a tiny, northwards extension of France along the Meuse which is surrounded by Belgium to the north, east and west.  It was great to get away for a short break but I was hoping to see my first High Brown Fritillary, which I found without too much effort in the nearby Pointe de Givet nature reserve.

There were plenty of other butterflies too, including Swallowtail and Mallow Skipper, as well as a Grasshopper Warbler I eventually got to see singing, having heard it from afar.  Numbers of High Brown Fritillary in Belgium have increased greatly over the past fifteen years but it still remains a scarce species with the greatest concentration along the French border.  Having found my first one in France, the next step was to try and add it to my Belgian list so, the following day, I walked the 3km back into Belgium and explored the wooded hillsides around Agimont, where I found at least three more individuals.  One particular clearing was full of butterflies, with a supporting cast of Marbled Fritillary, Queen of Spain Fritillary, and this Dark Green Fritillary tussling for the longest time with a Marbled White over the feeding rights to the one and only thistle in a large patch of flowers.

Birdwise it was pretty quiet apart from another vocal pair of Ravens, whilst my second Green-eyed Hooktail was a nice dragonfly surprise as I waited at the bus stop on my way home!

Butterfly bonanza

Three years ago, I visited a reserve close to the French border which had lots of Green-underside and Silver-studded Blues.  It requires a three-hour train journey to get there, though, so I've not been back since, until yesterday that is.  I was tempted back to try and add another blue to my lifelist but, once there, I was disappointed to see no blues whatsoever, in stark contrast to my first visit, the only butterflies on the wing being Marbled Whites.  After about fifteen minutes, however, I noticed just one blue low in the vegetation and it turned out to be the one I was after, a beautiful, female, Short-tailed Blue!

 
You can even see the ever so tiny tails after which it is named even though these are rarely visible in the field.  After such a quick result, and with very little else around, I decided to try another reserve a few kilometres away, the Crassier de Musson.  This had lots more butterflies, including a male Short-tailed Blue which was camera-shy, and a few Silver-studded Blues which had lost their silver studs and thus had me confused for a while, as well as a pair of extremely vocal, territorial Ravens.  The forested walk between the two reserves was full of Silver-washed Fritillaries and I'm pretty sure I also saw a couple of Southern Small Whites, although I really needed a photo to confirm the identification of this tricky species.

 
This was the leaf they were sitting on right up until I took the photo!  Nevertheless, I ended up with a new, all-time high day-list of 25 species of butterfly and, whilst I was very pleased with my pictures of my first Short-tailed Blue, this Sooty Copper, another rare species I only get to see a few times a year, ended up being my favourite photograph of the day.

Damsel of the dunes

I finally made it back to the Belgian coast for the first time since January!  Of course, early July is probably the worst time to go, being in-between the two migration periods, and there were very few shorebirds as a result.  I did see one Green Sandpiper, however, which was new for the year, as was a Little Tern, which I got to see really well fishing close to the shore.  There were plenty of butterflies around, especially Ringlets, but the day really belonged to the odonata, with lots of Ruddy Darters, many of which had just emerged.

Walking through the extensive dune system, I also photographed this damselfly, which I presumed was just a Willow Emerald Damselfly, a common species I've already seen a few times recently.  It was only when I looked at the photo that I noticed the distinctive, bicoloured pterostigma of my first Southern Emerald Damselfy, my third new odonate so far this year!

Night, night

I visited a nature reserve south of Leuven over the weekend and was surprised to find this sleepy, second-year Night Heron sitting out in the open.  The bird has been present at the reserve since 24 May but hadn't been reported for over two weeks so I wasn't expecting to see it, especially in the middle of the day, which is way past its bedtime.  This was only my third in Belgium and the first since 2013 as it is a very rare breeding species here.  Yesterday, I made another attempt at finding Cranberry Fritillary at a different reserve in Belgian Luxembourg.  The weather was not great for butterflies, however, although I did eventually see Marbled Fritillary, lots of Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries plus another, which may well have been Cranberry but just didn't stop long enough for me to tell.  There were Red-backed Shrikes everywhere and it was nice to see lots of Siskins, which I only usually get to see during winter.  Originally, I was going to walk there and back from Libramont train station (roughly 6km one-way) but, once there, I decided to continue on to the next train station instead and ended up hiking 20km!  The only new butterfly for the year was this lovely Silver-washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia).