A nice day in Touraine - friends, butterflies, snakes...

[wollastoni]

As I was family-free in Bretagne this week, I took the opportunity to visit mygos house in Touraine, 4 hours in car to see his garden and entomological book collection... and to discuss as many subjects as you can find in a long dinner with 5 bottles of white wine !

Michel has a very nice property with a meadow, a pond and swamp... all these biotopes carefully managed by a butterfly lover. So wild plants are everywhere and butterflies very abundant, including humid biotope species.

Some pictures to share this very nice day ! Taken at 5 pm in a very hot day (around 33°C)

Michel and I near the pond :


The pond :


The old wood bridge on the pond :


Lycaena phlaeas in the swamp :


Cyaniris semiargus female in the swamp :


Same female close-up :


Everes alcetas   (please confirm)

Aglais io caterpillar on an unknown hostplant (please ID the plant)I found them 5 minutes after Michel told me he saw no Aglais io caterpillar this year !  


We 've also seen in the garden : Papilio machaon, Vanessa atalanta, Pyronia tithonus, Maniola justina, Pieris napi, Pieris rapae, Pieris brassicae, Leptidea sinapis, Colias crocea and some more.

And there are not only butterflies, but also some other scaled animals :
Natrix natrix in the pond looking at us :


before revealing its whole beauty :


and Vipera aspis :




A nice spider (please ID it)


A nice dragonfly (please ID) :


A very big "thank you" to Michel for this beautiful day ! 

[mygos]

Glad you had a safe trip back wollastoni
It was a real pleasure to share these moments with you ...
The dragonfly with the red legs is a male Crocothemis erythraea !

See you soon in Juvisy
Michel

[nomad]

Looks like you had a great day out with Michel and found lots of good things. 

[timmsyrj]

Nice pond (though at that size I would say lake) what's the fishing like? It has the look of a very old established estate lake, hidden away and not fished for years, the type of environment perfect for early season tench fishing.
Surrounded by spring butterflies also, that would top it all off.
Nice photo's, I can only imagine how the conversation went after 5 bottles of wine, I trust it was French.

Rich

[mygos]

Rich,
Yes it is an old lake as my water mill was built in 1793 !
I had it cleaned and enlarged in 1987, where we removed 2 meters high of mud ...
It is fed by a spring which produce 1030 liters per minute and therefore keeps the water fresh in summer 16 to 18 °C maximum.
There are some big carps and roaches. I tried tench but they did not like and all of them tried to escape through the overflow.
I tried touts and foountain salmons which did well except they can not breed and disapeared through fishing and mainly herons
Anywhere I am not a fisherman but I like looking at the fishes through the seasons or eating a trout whith some white wine

A+, Michel

[deliasfanatic]

Nice photos to remember a pleasant day. Good to see you both!

[timmsyrj]

Trout and white wine, that sounds fantastic, though my preference is a nice red, though not with fish of course. I am surprised the tench didn't stay, it looks perfect for that species and especially with a mud bottom, I bet the carp have bred well in there, lots of English carp anglers head to France every year for the big carp, though with the water temp only 16-18 degrees they will be slower growing than those in lakes that aren't kept cool buy running water.
What is the countryside around you like, picturesque woodlands and meadows or are you more agricultural.

Rich

[mygos]

Yes Rich we are surrounded by agricultural fields, but I am touching a nice old forest by an angle of the property.
The lake is quite deep (3,60 meter at the most) and carps are growing slowly, but they are some very big ones. I think it was too cold for the tenchs
I also have a few crayfishes which I introduced 5 years ago and are breeding well : Astacus leptodactylus. I caught a 2 years old male to show wollastoni this morning
And do not worry about red wine, I have a very good cave in case you pass by

A+, Michel