19 Days in France: Natural History Highlights

 These are a few of the items seen on my recent trek across France. From the top, they are a beetle larvae on the sand dunes of Le Touquet. A Hummingbird hawk moth (Macroglossum stellatum) at Voves. At Pouilly sur Loire on the river bank, I spotted Field scabious (Knautia arvensis), Greater knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa), an Edible snail (Helix pomatia), a summer brood Map butterfly (Araschnia levana), a Large tortoiseshell butterfly (Nymphalis polychloros) and a Common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis). At the chicken capital of Bourg en Bresse, I was treated to a mass migration of White storks (Ciconia ciconia). Arriving at Martiniere in the Chartreuse region, I noted Large-flowered hemp nettle (Galeopsis segetum), Meadow saffron (Colchicum autumnale), Bistort (Persicaria bistorta), Crown vetch (Securigera varia), and Devilsbit scabious (Succisa pratensis). Critters included larvae of the Small copper butterfly (Lycaena phlaeas), a Great-banded grayling (Brintesia circe), an unidentified long-horn beetle, a Strangalia maculata beetle, a Leptura rubra beetle, an Argiope bruennichi spider, what looked like an Eagle and Munjac deer (Mutiacus reevesi).