Alittlebitoutoffocus

Butterflies around Morfa Isaf, Nr Llangrannog, Ceredigion, Wales

UK readers will know that we had a mini-heatwave over a lot of England and Wales last week. (I’m not sure if Scotland also experienced record May temperatures, but…) It was forecast and, since it was Jude’s birthday, I decided to treat her to a short, 3 night break in a wonderful cottage, situated less then half a mile from a beautiful sandy cove. The only drawback in getting to the beach was the last 10 metres or so… And I mean that in height terms, as it required some very careful footwork and down-scrambling (or bum-sliding) to get onto the sand. (See pic 3).

On our first full day there, we had the beach to ourselves until around mid-day but, even then, only about a dozen people arrived. (This was particularly surprising given that it was half term week). Almost immediately we noticed a number of butterflies flying very quickly in a northerly direction. I was pretty sure that they would be Painted ladies (vanessa cardui) and this was confirmed on the walk back to the cottage, as I waited further up the hill to watch. I was amazed to see one flitting by every 10 seconds or so. All, seemingly, on a mission,

On day 2, we took a walk along the coast path to Penbryn beach, which was a little more crowded. We had a delicious lunch at the delightfully named cafe, just up the road, called Plwmp Tart (pronounced Ploomp Tart).

Back in the cottage garden, one of the bushes was covered with Painted ladies, all re-fuelling no doubt for the next leg of their long journey to who knows where… I counted 10 in pic 23 with one lonesome Red admiral (vanessa atalanta) on the left.