Painted Lady migration recorded at Eakring Spring and Autumn 2009 | ||
........ |
Early Spring 2009 saw massive
numbers of Painted Ladies move through northern Africa
and Europe, before eventually arriving in southern areas
of the UK in the third week of May. It was widely estimated that between 10 and 50 million Painted Ladies were involved in this migration and the whole of Nottinghamshire featured in the event. However, by the time word had got round, most had completely missed out on what was a truly remarkable period of migration. European and UK Painted Lady movements The event had been largely predicted earlier in the year, with huge counts of Painted Lady pupae noted in fields around the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Comments were made on the Migrant Recorders Network Yahoo Discussion Group at the time and in early April, large numbers of Painted Ladies started to move through southern Spain. |
||
........ |
Painted
Ladies (mostly singles and twos) began to be seen in the
UK during late April and early May. More substantial
movement was noted through Cornwall during the second
week of May and along the southern UK coast on May 21st.
Corresponding with this, was a single Painted Lady at
Eakring Flash on May 22nd, which was actually the
earliest ever recorded at Eakring, but there was no
coverage possible at Eakring on May 24th/25th, during
which millions of Painted Ladies arrived. We did note
them passing through wooded glades in Sherwood Forest,
but had no idea of the scale of the event at the time. Movement over the next few days was limited through unsettled and windy weather, but began again when warm, sunny weather returned. We were once more in Sherwood Forest when a constant stream of Painted Ladies were noted moving north on May 28th, following every contour of the trees and ground. Purposely moving to the open farmland of Red Hill at Eakring, we began to systematically count Painted Ladies as they moved over a cornfield. Counts were made during the afternoons of three consecutive days and the results are shown in the graphs below, along with written accounts made at the time. |
........ | ||
Autumn
Painted Lady migration and results The last time a notable southerly return migration event involving Painted Lady butterflies took place, was back in 2003 and followed on from a much less spectacular Spring arrival than in 2009. It was widely believed that there would be much larger numbers during the Autumn, than there were in Spring, so August and September were eagerly anticipated, with a return Painted Lady migration that was expected to break all modern records. |
||
........ | ||
It eventually turned out
not to be the case, but some Painted Lady movement was
evident in early August and perhaps much earlier than
would have been expected. In fact, it was in line with
the larger southerly movement of 2003, although
circumstances were different that year, as there had been
no massive Spring influx. Early August 2009 saw the start of a southerly Painted Lady movement, which in the end never really got going. At Eakring, the first movers were noted on August 6th when three went south. This was followed on August 8th by a further 12 south, but movement proper, seems to have commenced on August 9th and also featured several other species. Totals for a two hour count on the 9th included 93 Painted Lady, 109 Large White, 47 Peacock, five Small White and three Red Admiral all heading south-west across open fields. Movement for all species was direct. Peacock is not a species known for it's migratory tendencies, but was seen in numbers, during similar movements in August 2003. |