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Painted ladies at sunset

29/6/2018

1 Comment

 
PicturePainted lady at The Mushroom Shelter
We shared out viewpoint with painted ladies.  Delightful  to see the butterflies  but why they were drawn to the Mushroom Shelter on Scout Scar at the approach of sunset?
During the day, temperatures had climbed to 30  degrees. By 8.00 pm the sun was low in a cloudless sky and a raking light pierced  flowers of wood sage and yellow lady's bedstraw,  Floral motifs of limestone grassland in late June. Thistles were coming into flower, a source of nectar for painted ladies and a food plant for its caterpillars,  and knapweed which  is a little  later. But the ground around the Mushroom Shelter is bare of flowers so what was the attraction?

My friend Monica and I reached the Mushroom Shelter  at about 8.30 pm and sat contemplating the scene.  The Langdale Pikes showed hazily to the west.  The low sun picked out familiar contours in sunlight and shadow, rendering  unfamiliar the Lyth Valley directly below.  A flutter of wings and a  butterfly circled our stone seat and settled on the ground, on sunlit stones at our feet, a painted lady. We sat contemplative, puzzling over the butterflies.  I remembered  The Great Butterfly Adventure, Africa to Britain with the Painted Lady, presented by Martha Kearney.  I knew of their amazing migration, how they sometimes came in clouds and through the clouds, flying unseen at 3,000 feet.  And that weather systems determine their destination on a particular summer.  We could not tell how many butterflies we saw this evening. Several, or the same butterfly irresistibly drawn to the sunlit stone.
Having fed on nectar during the day their behaviour changes toward sunset. Painted ladies seek sunlit earth or bare rock, they alight and spread their wings to absorb the heat.  That is just what my photographs show.
With the setting sun dropping behind the Langdale Pikes we left the Mushroom Shelter and headed home.  A peachy moon was rising as the sun was setting. 
Rarely is summer so overpowering that we choose an evening walk, solely to avoid the heat of the day.  The last time Monica and I came here on sunset watch was, I think, in 2014.  On that occasion the highlights  were the striking patterns of alto-cumulus cloud and the screeching of swifts around the Mushroom Shelter.  You may find it at the conclusion of a chapter called Wings, in Cumbrian Contrasts. page 62. 
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1 Comment
Monica Baynes
29/6/2018 08:18:28 pm

A new experience for me to see painted ladies, and I now have learned much about their attraction to bare rock at sunset.

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    Jan Wiltshire is a nature writer living in Cumbria. She also explores islands and coast and the wildlife experience. (See Home and My Books)

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