On our way down to the south of France for some fieldwork, we did a three-day, two-night stopover at Mont Ventoux, the ‘Beast of Provence’.
Mont Ventoux is probably best known for its inclusion in the Tour de France and popularity with skiiers during winter, but has gained a much-earned secondary fame for being an excellent place to see wildlife. The mountain boasts a good diversity of bird life, a unique suite of invertebrates, and a large floral diversity; it is this that earned its newly-acquired National Park status, as well as being a UNESCO-recognised biosphere reserve.
We stayed on a small campsite (Camping le Mont Serein) surrounded by mixed pine forest and the gentle curve of the mountain towering above. While setting up the tent and stove, we saw Wall Lizards / Lézard des murailles (Podarcis muralis), heard many mysterious small birds, and rescued a Hummingbird Hawk Moth / Moro-sphinx (Macroglossum stellatarum) from the campsite toilets. All of this seemed promising for our brief time in the woods.
That evening, we went for a walk into the forest to further absorb this atmosphere and scout out some animals. We weren't planning on taking any long trails (although there seemed to be plenty available) rather just get a taste of the general area. On this early summer evening, the colours in the forest and on the mountain were very changeable, fading from greens and browns into gold and bronze tones. Despite the many walking trails the forest area felt very wild, with the rugged-looking skyline and the ever-present top of the mountain far above us.
We saw Crested Tits / Mésange huppée (Lophophanes cristatus) and Citril Finches / Venturon montagnard (Carduelis citrinella) both of which were fairly abundant, and several half-seen animals including a large, dark bird that we couldn’t identify.
At a viewpoint in the woods, there was a clearing with a wide view over the valley below. Around the clearing there were a few large Glow-worms / Lampyre (Lampyris noctiluca) wandering about on the path, but we saw none glowing.
On the second day (our only full day) we travelled to the summit of the mountain. Early morning was spent unsuccessfully trying to catch a large Green Lizard / Lézard vert (Lacerta bilineata), vibrant emerald green with a thickset turquoise head, which ran across the path in front of us and then sat in the very centre of a large and inaccessible shrub, watching me as I crawled on my stomach in an unsuccessful attempt to reach him.
The habitat at the top was significantly different to the rest of the area, comprised of mainly scree and rocks, interspersed with short-cropped alpine meadows in the dips where the wind couldn’t scour. There was a lot of invertebrate life at the top. The meadows had been grazed heavily by sheep, which had left plenty of dung everywhere to attract beetles. I spent a long time watching Dor Beetles / Géotrupes (Geotrupes sp.?) picking the dung apart and rolling it roughly with their back legs; several beetles would often roll pieces into each other and squabble over which bit belonged to who.
In and around the rocky scree there were small glomerid millipedes (Glomeris cf. guttata), with shiny brownish-black bodies spotted in bright orange. This species of pill millipede are supposedly imitated by the caterpillar of the Apollo butterfly / Apollon (Parnassius apollo) due to their toxicity; while I saw no caterpillars, I did see several adults. The Apollo is heavily protected in Europe, under CITES Appendix II, Habitats Directive Annex IV, and Bern Convention Annex II, being a keystone species which has historically been vulnerable to overcollection. The caterpillars are black with orange spots, as is Glomeris guttata, suggesting that the aposematic colouration of both species is an example of Müllerian mimicry. It would be highly interesting to return to similar habitat to compare the two species side-by-side in person.
There were lots of beetles, including Bloody-nosed Beetles / Timarque (possibly the lesser bloody-nosed beetle, Timarcha goettingensis) the longhorn beetle Dorcadion fuliginator, and I caught a horsefly that had been bothering us; the heaviest fly in Europe, Tabanus sudeticus, sometimes called the ‘Dark Giant Horse Fly’ (or should that be Giant Dark Horse Fly?) or Taon.
During the afternoon, we had a walk through alpine forest and some more meadows, where I found a fantastic Golden Ground Beetle / Carabe doré (Carabus auratus) under a small log in a boggy ditch. Commonly found in grassland areas, they are irrefutably one of the most stunning-coloured carabids, with the smooth carapace emphasising the liquidity of the green and bronze tones.
In the evening (before we were due to leave the next morning), we went for another walk to the forest clearing to see the sunset for the last time. In the clearing I spotted movement on the ground by the edge of the slope, which upon inspection turned out to be a little Wood Mouse (Apodemus sp.). It seemed healthy, and was happily foraging and stuffing things into his or her cheek pouches, seemingly completely oblivious to my presence. I hoped this was due to there being little human disturbance in the area.
As we were walking back to camp, we again glimpsed the black bird we couldn't identify from the previous night. This time, it flew silently through the trees and landed on a log around 20 feet away from us, revealing itself to be a Black Woodpecker / Pic noir (Dryocopus martius). It was extremely large for a woodpecker, completely black aside from its crown, which was red, and its beak and eyes, which were ivory-coloured. It was an incredible bird, and to be able to see it at such close range at dusk in the quiet forest was magical.
Mont Ventoux is a fantastic place for wildlife watchers; we saw a lot of animals within an extremely limited timeframe, and clearly barely scraped the surface of what the mountain has to offer. It seems to be a place that is likely to be excellent year-round; I would be interested to see the bird and mammal life in winter on the mountain, or to spend an extended period there in spring.
Following this, we headed south for further wildlife-watching and fieldwork in the south of France.
Invertebrate highlghts:
• Apollo (Parnassius apollo)
• Bloody-nosed Beetle (Timarcha sp.) • Dark Giant Horse Fly (Tabanus sudeticus) • Glow-worm (Lampyris noctiluca)
• Golden Ground Beetle (Carabus auratus) • Hummingbird Hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) • Longhorn Beetle (Dorcadion fuliginator) • Pill Millipede (Glomeris guttata)
Bird highlights:
• Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius) • Citril Finch (Carduelis citrinella)
• Crested Tit (Lophophanes cristatus)