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An Evolving Land- and Seascape

30/9/2021

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By Robin Noble   Photos by Martine Noble                 

It is two years since we spent a summer in PO, and it was, of course, a great joy to get back to familiar places and do the things that we always used to. A high priority, especially in the surprisingly hot, humid and mosquito-ridden month of September, was to get out to sea in the good boat Puffin. It was quite a windy month, which somewhat restricted our swimming in the more exposed locations, but almost everywhere we stopped (tied up or anchored) showed how life underwater had progressed in the last two years.
 
There are, quite simply, more fish than there used to be. One species, of which we are very fond, the saddled bream, is very friendly, and gathers under the hull pretty well as soon as Puffin is brought to a halt. They always appeared like this on the reef of the Marine Reserve off the cliffs south of Banyuls, but now we were finding them, in significant numbers, in new locations – bays where previously they did not appear. And, while September on the reef was always more busy with fish than June, this year Martine encountered the lovely salema in numbers which she had never experienced before, numbers which would not shame a glossy TV nature programme.
 
Despite the fact that individuals certainly do fish on the Reserve (and fishing boats seem to come rather close to it, too), there can be no doubt that the Marine Reserve is doing precisely what it is intended to do; fish populations are building up and spreading out to further locations.
 
The only new species we have to offer this year does not really arouse much enthusiasm – because it is a jelly-fish; one, apparently, called the ‘fried egg jelly-fish”. We saw three of them…
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Saddled Bream
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Salema

A totally different place, of which we are very fond, is the foothills of Canigou which we simply call ‘the Batère’. This upland was once mined for iron-ore, and there are some traces still of this activity, including some obvious quarry locations. The zigzag tracks which lead gently uphill were no doubt used to transport the ore but have now greened over and make for easy walking. We always used to access one of these tracks via a short, steep section of hill, which was mostly grazed meadow, full of wildflowers and wonderful for butterflies. The very first, short section of this route is even steeper, and involved pushing our way through a few bushes of broom and a little bracken. Two years on, it was a major battle to get through the explosion of new growth and, once we had, we found that our little ‘alp’ had hardly been grazed this year; the grass was long and lank, and there had been far fewer wildflowers. The worst was yet to com – at the top of the alp we used to work our way to a bend in the easy track; now it is a nightmare of broom, concealing tangles of bramble and hidden nettles, which was hell to struggle through…in shorts!
 
I have noted before that the grazed area of these foothills, so good for wildflowers and butterflies, is slowly being colonised from the nearby conifer woods, gradually losing its wonderful biodiversity. Here, in only two years, we have proof of this process; the cattle and ponies had not broken through to graze down our little alp and it is likely slowly to disappear altogether.
 
And a final note: September, as I said, was unusually humid, much, apparently to the delight of insects. That particular characteristic seems to have applied to much of the Southern France – as we drove north at the end of our stay, right up the country our windscreen was splattered with insects in a way we had not seen for decades. We certainly suffered from the hordes of mosquitoes; we can only hope that insect-eating birds had a bonanza before setting off on their migration south! We had watched huge groups of swallows and martins all through our stay in France – perhaps the humid weather had at least done them good.

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"If spring comes, can winter be far behind?"

2/2/2016

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by Robin Noble

Yes, I know it's a silly title, but I am always chary of announcing the arrival of spring, when we have, so far, had really no winter weather to grumble about. And today, February 1st, would have been a good summer day in the UK, where Storm Henry is raging...

And in the outside world, here there really are some signs of spring; upon on the hill the hazel catkins are almost over and the gorse has been in bloom for ages. In the hedges the quinces are showing that wonderful colour, and bulbs are pushing up quite fast. In our wee orchard, there is a brilliant speedwell in bloom, some bright hawkweeds, and the tiny cyclamen I planted out a couple of years back, to naturalise under the boundary hedge, are vivid pink, scarlet and crimson.

The bird-feeder has not been especially busy so far, perhaps because of the mild weather, but I am definitely hearing more goldfinches tinkling around the place. Another sign of spring is the emphatic call of the chiffchaff, and the melodious sound of the blackcap; the latter has been much in evidence in the last few days. The bees here have hardly stopped all winter, and with the rosemary and hedge shrubs blooming, they are increasingly active. Not that it has much to do with winter or spring, a jay flew low over the house today, just as I was walking out on to the terrace. The patch of vivid blue on its wing caught the sun as it passed me - lovely!

Other things have been on the move, too; sadly I did not see them alive, just dead, squashed on a short section of a byroad into the hills. There were the brilliant black-and-yellow salamanders, (salamandre tachetée), which "the book" says are nocturnal creatures of the forest. A shame only to see them dead, but the fact that there were three or four of them on a short section of a quiet back road, indicates, I hope, that they are quite plentiful. I find myself wondering why their colouring should be so bright if they are nocturnal...


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Another Mild Winter - so far!

24/1/2016

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by Lesley McLaren

As a swathe of eastern USA is buried under massive amounts of snow, temperatures continue to remain mild in much of Europe, including here. El Nino is having quite an effect this winter.

Back in mid December the mimosas were beginning to show yellow, and bougainvilleas were still developing new flowers. This month gorse is in full bloom in hedgerows and hills - and attracting plenty of bees. New leaves have appeared on my olive and lemon tree, and are on the verge of opening on my red robin hedge. Lots of spring-flowering plants are already out - even geraniums left from last summer! - and gardens are looking positively colourful.

Birds are tuning up and I've seen a pair of collared doves mating already. There are some butterflies about too - red admiral in particular, and I've seen one clouded yellow - prematurely out of hibernation.

With midday temperatures sometimes around 20ºC, and few significant frosts, none of this is surprising. If we don't get a cold snap in February to slow everything down again it will be interesting to see what the knock-on effect of all this is later in the year.

But not everything is early. My camelia has started flowering bang on time this month, and my almond tree, which usually flowers later than most (in February) looks like being on schedule too.

I wonder how creatures such as metamorphosing caterpillars fare. Can the process speed up or slow down according to the weather?

I'm especially interested, having discovered this pupa attached to the wall by our garage.

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At first glance it looks very plain and boring. Which is doubtless part of nature's grand design. Not much point making yourself conspicuous to predators. It would be better camouflaged - and perhaps more sheltered - in a less open spot, though. Amazing to see how it's held in place by such a fragile-looking silk thread.

It's quite big, and those horn-like protrusions look interesting, so I've done some internet research to see what it might turn into. And the answer is this:

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A Scarce Swallowtail. One of my favourites! I feel very honoured and just hope it survives the next few weeks, to emerge safely in March. No doubt I'll miss the event but an empty pupa shell will tell its own story.
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