North African Migrant Painted Lady Butterflies Invade UK
Monarch butterflies are not the only butterflies to migrate long distances:
From the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, millions of North African butterflies are arriving in Britain - expected to be the largest migration of the Painted Lady species ever seen in the UK.
With warm, southerly winds over the bank holiday weekend, the extraordinary annual journey of these fragile looking insects suddenly hit Britain and experts think it may break all records.
“We have all been stunned at how quickly it has all happened. We were expecting them to arrive and suddenly with the good weather - Bang!”, Dr Martin Warren from the charity Butterfly Conservation tells me.
“All the signs are that this will be the largest ever migration of Painted Ladies to the UK.”…. An estimated 18,000 were spotted flying past Scolt Head Island on the Norfolk coast on Monday, passing at 50-a-minute over a 400m front yesterday…. (continues @ BBC News)
