As mentioned in my previous post, the main reason I went back to Modane was for butterflies.
Two years ago, I'd given it a try and found it was a great place to see them, especially the picturesque Vallon de l'Orgère, at an altitude of 2000m. I had hoped to go back last summer but my ankle injury forced me to cancel that trip so I had to wait until the end of June this year. My plan was to take the once-a-day hiker's bus up to the valley but that didn't start running until July 1st, a week later, and there was no way I was going to attempt the
nightmare, three-hour hike straight up from Modane again. Rather than pay a ridiculous amount for a taxi to take me the 30km or so by road up to the refuge, I decided to stick to the hillside behind Modane and try to return again later in the summer for the higher altitude species. Naturally, spending three days exploring the same area I'd done two years previously made finding any new species difficult and I only ended up with six lifers, three of which were seen during my Rock Partridge excursion further along the valley. The biggest suprise of all, though, came on the first evening, when, tired from the day's hiking, I went for a short stroll along the river before having dinner, and stumbled upon this extremely tatty Camberwell Beauty sunning itself on the path!
