The wild flower meadow that used to be our front lawn is looking gorgeous – even R says so, and at heart he believes a lawn should be an emerald green sward with neatly mown stripes. But the ox-eye daisies are now blooming in thick drifts and corn poppies are starting to appear between them, with low growers like speedwell and groundsel providing ground cover, and in this morning’s brilliant sunshine, with insects zooming, drifting and fluttering all around the flowers, you’d have had to be an utter curmudgeon not to find the sight uplifting.
Among the diners at our No-mow Eat-your-fill Buffet were three Painted Lady butterflies – or possibly four: they were so hyped on daisy nectar that it was impossible to keep track of them all. I wrote about the rolling migration of the Painted Lady here, so I won’t repeat all the details now, but in essence this butterfly migrates northwards from North Africa each spring, spreading across the Continent and breeding as it goes. In a good year it can reach Scandinavia, or even Iceland. Then, come the autumn, it turns back southwards and does the whole thing in reverse. No single butterfly makes the entire journey, but the constant wave of movement from harsher to more temperate environments allows the Painted Lady to breed throughout the year, and ensures the species’ survival.
A few Painted Ladies reach the UK each summer, but they’re usually more widespread than numerous. Every few years though, the butterfly migrates north in vast numbers, probably because of a scarcity of resources in its home range, and we then get an influx into the UK. Scientists call this an irruption, and everyone else says we’re having “a Painted Lady year”. As reported this week by Bird Guides, one of these mass movements seems to be happening now, and higher than usual numbers of Painted Ladies are already being reported around the country. I’ve been finding them in ones and twos at all the Odonata sites I’ve visited this month, but to have so many in my own garden at one time is a highly unusual treat.
R: L2, C10, D6.
