Belges

My inspiration for a trip to the French/Belgian border was a throw-away comment on the Kent Butterflies Facebook page, where James said that his favourite place for butterflies is Viroinval.

I'd never heard of it but after a little research realised that it's just my kind of place.

There were not too many butterflies on the wing (just before the recent warm spell) but enough variety to be interesting.

 

Wood whites were frequent.

The area also has plenty of forest which immediately makes me think of purple emperors, but only white admirals were seen.

One lovely area of wet heath-like clearing had plenty of bugs of all kinds, and there was one unidentified brute of a butterfly that evaded the camera. And this fritillary which I tentatively identified as a marbled fritillary.

On the rocky limestone slopes were the first chalkhill blues of the season.

And while I was chasing more butterflies on a forest edge, I saw a refugium, lifted it up and saw my first ever smooth snake.

Regrettably, I heard no corncrakes, but the hay meadows seem to be a possible habitat for them.