The banks of the lake

Just 18 to 26 mm long, this little insect has a black head which looks a little like a helmet. The female can be told apart from the male by the presence of a third long appendage at the rear of the body. The cricket’s song is heard from April onwards. The male sings his chirping song from the entrance to his burrow. The fertile females lay their eggs in the ground, which remain there for two weeks before the larvae emerge.

This bush is a resinous evergreen conifer. It is characterised by its greenish to blue (glaucous) needles with a white line on their upper side, and fruits resembling blue-black berries. It usually tends to grow in warm environments receiving plenty of sunlight. It grows in grassy or scrub covered areas up to 2,000 metres above sea level.

This bird can be identified by its black and white plumage with blue-green tints on the wings and tail. Its tail is remarkably long. It can be found all year round in varied open environments. Its omnivorous diet consists of invertebrates, seeds and berries, small rodents, eggs and nestlings and even human rubbish. Except during the nesting period when it is solitary, the magpie is gregarious species which gathers into rather raucous groups in the winter.

This is a tall bird (85 to 102 cm). Its white head is adorned with two large black eyebrows. Its back and wings are ash grey, hence its name. Its legs and beak are yellowish in colour. It uses its long, powerful beak to catch large prey (fish, amphibians etc.). In flight, its neck is folded back forming an «S». This species is wholly protected by regulations.

This lizard can be spotted from April through to late September. The species is in hibernation for the rest of the year. It hunts in areas with dense vegetation and feeds primarily on insects and invertebrates. It exhibits sexual dimorphism, that is to say, during the breeding season only, the males have bright blue colouring on the throat and sides of the head. Mating takes place around May. The males engage in fights, in which they occasionally lose their tails.

The oak has a dark grey bark which is deeply fissured. Its lobed leaves, downy on their undersides, remain dried out on the tree until the spring. The fruits, called acorns, ripen in the autumn. The oak can grow at up to 1,500 metres above sea level, on well exposed slopes. Also called the white oak, the downy oak is well known for hosting truffles among its roots. This fungus develops 30 to 40 cm underground, and the difficulty in finding it makes it a culinary delicacy.

This is a medium-sized moth (25 - 35 mm wingspan), often brightly coloured: the inner wing has a maximum of six spots. This burnet moth is found on the edges of calcareous meadows, steppe-like slopes, dry bushes and clearings in dry forests. This remarkable species is a sign of the quality of the habitats but it is not at risk so does not appear on the list of threatened species.

In this small butterfly, the male's upper wings are dark grey, somewhat bluer at the base of the wings, while the female is brown. It is most common at higher altitudes, in July and August, in grasslands and meadows. The Arctic Blue is a species of northern regions (Scandinavia, Greenland, Siberia, North America) which, in more temperate parts, lives only in the mountains..

The Eurasian jay has a colourful plumage. Its black tail and blue wing streak helps to identify this relatively shy bird. It regularly utters raucous caws, but also frequently imitates the calls of several other species. In late winter, jays assemble in groups and sing as a choir, uttering whistles and chirps in a cheerful chatter. They all display their finest feathers and adopt comical attitudes, in preparation for forming into pairs.