A walk around the Le cirque de Consolation before we left produced little of interest.
We moved on to find consolation at a small lake neatly managed by the local community, it would provide another highlight of the trip.
Clearly popular with the local fishing fraternity a fisherman who's name was Fred proudly showed me a good sized Pike,that the French call a
"Brochet"
I was more interested in what butterflies could be seen, first on stage were several White admirals and then to my delight not one but two Lesser purple Emperors in company with a newly emerged Purple Emperor, to make my day another C hero, this a second site for this rare species.
Camping that evening was at the quaintly named Cul de la Lune at Morteau, alongside the river Doubs.
Before we returned to Levier a visit to the local fruitière, a rather odd name for a cheese dairy, the head cheese-maker obligingly showed me around the diary whilst my wife purchased the Comte Cheese.
From Camping de la Forêt we visited the reserve Frasne/ Bouverans,a great disappointment,not a place I would recommend to visit, however outside the reserve plenty of woodland tracks can be found to explore.
The next stop was at the Lac de Remoray, despite it being an important national nature reserve it was also a great disappointment,little more than a holiday camp, not my ideal of a nature reserve !!! A fellow, who clearly enjoyed his role as a commentator kept up a non stop football commentary, not surprising few birds were seen.
The man with the mike who had been giving the continuous football commentary eventually went home,peace returned giving a quiet evening and a good nights sleep.
A walk around the lake in the morning produced little of interest,access for the public is rather limited, however it is an undeniably a beautiful location.
Not recommended for butterfly enthusiasts.
We moved to a small campsite at the Lac du Rouge Truites to explore the southern part of the Doubs, an area of outstanding natural beauty, wild chives were growing in the pastures, one very pretty valley is named the Valley of chives.
At Chapelle-des-Bois several tourbieres were visited most were difficult to access , however one location was accessible and presented me with a smart newly emerged aquilonaris,and Moorland-clouded-Yellows.
We then continued to Prenoval.
Toubieres de Pernovel didn't live up to expectations, more time was needed to fully explore the possibilities, we returned to camping Lac des-Rouge truites and explored a nearby lane, a nice surprise awaited, a female Mountain Alcon blue busy ensuring the next generation.
We now move to the Jura to visit a site that I had previously visited several times in the hopes of finding the Dusky large blue, despite great numbers of Great burnet plants no Duskys had been seen on my previous visits,optimism is a valuable asset when looking for such rarities , camera to hand I ventured onto yet another squelchy patch, a black butterfly whizzes past followed by another, now this looks promising I thought, after a little searching a colony of Duskys were found, they were easy to photograph but never offered an open wing shot, in flight they appear black with a patch of midnight blue on the upper wings, not wishing to draw the attention of passers by I did not linger but retreated to our mobile home to celebrate with a modest picnic,another of my target species accounted for.
Sanguisorba officinalis.
The third leg of our journey takes us on a long drive across France to search for another Phengaris , Phengaris telelus.
Selected photos of butterflies of the Doubs and Jura can be seen on the link below.
https://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/p68 ... #hbb853741
