Friday, 29 May 2009

Nature Notes (1): Painted Ladies in Profusion

The first thing we buy on arrival at the Guardian Hay Festival site is a copy of The Guardian, complete with cotton shoulder bag for any book purchases we may make later in the day. I was delighted to open the g2 supplement of the paper for 25th May and find a feature by Patrick Barkham on the (welcome) invasion of the Painted Lady. 18000 butterflies (give or take a few) were recorded in the Scolt Head region alone. These creatures had flown in from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. The next generation will leave their thistles and their caterpillar bodies behind when they spread their painterly wings as adults in August.

1 comment:

Crafty Green Poet said...

I was very pleased to see the article too. We saw two painted ladies yesterday, and seven small coppers.