Mercantour part II

In 2018 I fell in love with the diversity of the Mercantour and its surrounded area the Haute Alpes. In 2019 I returned to this region for two weeks and together with Gerard and Frank I searched for butterflies every early morning. My favorite area is the Col d'Allos because of its alpine vegetation, the amount of butterflies (unfortunately a big part is gone due to a new ski piste....see the photos below) and the fabulous 'petit dejeuner' with view at the Refuge.

Arnica montana and in the background the Refuge at Col d'Allos

Near the Col d'Allos, on the higher parts a lot of Arnica is growing which is a popular resting/hiding place during the night for some fritillaries:

We also visited the National Park for Titania's Fritillary and the Apollo but the amount of butterflies in the Park was disappointing low. We found some Apollos but a few days later on an other spot we found a lot of them resting. My accommodation was situated in a very quit/isolated valley near Villars-Colmars and one evening I found two Titania Fritillaries and the last evening a resting Apollo near the house. 

A big wish (since years) was to find the Scarce Copper again and finally I did. Not in big amounts but a few were resting around the Col d'Allos. An other butterfly was the Glandon Blue....his 'brother' the Alpine Argus was also a high-light but I did not find him....a part of the hill where we found a lot of blue species last year is gone. Although the area around the National Park is a natural zone with the same 'principles' as the National Park the habitat is gone:

This is only one part of the piste, the valley with blue species and other butterflies is filled with large quantaties of sand. Money and profit always comes first, human entertainment second.....nature/the essence of our existance comes last.