Well folks........A huge turn up for the books today!! We saw something we never thought wed ever find in Britain!! We all visited Preston Down, Paignton in South Devon to look for a Brown Hairstreak butterfly. After 60 minutes we had no sign at all and it was time to take our sons, Robert & Michael to Paignton Zoo nearby. We were walking out of the last field next to the road where we parked our car and did a final check of the Blackthorn hedge hoping for a hidden Brown Hairstreak and the time was 13:23hrs. Alas..No! I was just turning away from the hedge when Robert, my eldest son aged 10 shouted loudly...DAD.....LOOK....A SWALLOWTAIL!!!!! I glanced perhaps 10 yards away over towards him looking towards the ground amongst some dry grass in the corner of the field right next to the road and with disbelief saw a huge Swallowtail butterfly flying & gliding around about 2-3 feet high looking for somewhere to land or perch. Without drawing breath I ran over to where Robert was right in front of this pale creamy yellow Swallowtail and got my camera ready. It briefly landed twice but not long enough to focus & take a photo. It then flew off & over a fence adjoining the corner of the field and out of view in a private garden!! Damn!!.....40 seconds later it reappeared and flew back to where we were still standing and eventually landed down on some fairly short grass. I managed to take 3 photos of which the first one showed the butterfly to be a European Swallowtail Papilio Machaeon Gorganus which proved to be in excellent condition. My wife, Lisa & youngest son Michael aged 8 had come over and witnessed this great suprise too! Before I could take anymore photos the butterfly flew off again & disappeared off in a Northerly direction & was not seen again. We were delighted with our encounter & given that this location is not more than 1/2 a mile from the sea as the crow flies and given the recent excellent migrant activity with Clouded Yellows and other species and the unusual climatic conditions following the passing of the remains of Hurricane Bertha form the Carribean just 48 hours earlier, it is highly probable that it simply flew across the English Channel from France and made landfall in South Devon. A truly memorable day out and another lifetime 1st tick for all of us! Other species also seen are as follows.....20+ Speckled Woods, 25+ Meadow Browns, 12+ Gatekeepers, 1 possible tatty marbled White, 7 Small Coppers, 10+ Common Blues, 1 Clouded Yellow, 12+ Holly Blues (mostly fresh!), 1 Small Skipper, 4 Small Tortoiseshells, 1 possible Silver Washed fritillary, 2 Peacocks, 3 Greev-veined Whites, 12+ Small Whites, 4 Large Whites, 6 Red Admirals several Vapourer moths, 1 possible Jersey Tiger moth (at a distance) & 1 x European Swallowtail Papilio Machaeon Gorganus. Cheers all....Lee, Lisa, Robert & Michael Slaughter. :-) :-) :-) :-) PS: Photo will be posted when I upload it!
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 21:06:11 +0000