Going up, up, up - day 1

I was relieved to awake to bright blue skies the following morning and had decided the first day would be spent exploring the Fort du Replaton area immediately behind the hotel, since I guessed the first day would not be good for making any sort of progress hiking as I knew I'd be stopping frequently for whatever I saw.  I was climbing the steep track to the fortress by 8am, expecting to have at least a couple of hours looking for birds before the butterflies became active but, within half an hour, I'd already seen my first Marbled White, the most abundant species in the area.

This was soon followed by my first new species of the trip, and another one which turned out to be abundant, although the marked difference between males and females kept giving the impression I was seeing a different species each time.

Great Sooty Satyr (male)

Great Sooty Satyr (female)

The next few hours were rather overwhelming, with butterfly after butterfly I just  didn't recognise, beautiful scenery in all directions, and plenty of birds singing, including several Bonelli's Warblers and a song I couldn't place at all, which I managed to track down to a singing Rock Bunting.  I really didn't know where to look first, with day-flying moths, lizards and alpine flowers also vying for my attention.

With 38 potential species in the area, I was dreading seeing my first blue since I expected it to be an identification nightmare, but the first one was really large and I got good enough photo's to confirm it to be Escher's Blue.

I made very slow progress, finding more and more blues, then a meadow filled with fritillaries (Niobe, Heath, Dark-Green, High Brown and Queen of Spain) before returning to the hotel for a well-deserved break.  In the late afternoon, I tried the road up to the fort, which was much easier going and provided yet more new species, including Meleager's Blue and Marbled Skipper, before finally retiring ready for the real hike the following day.