Nymphalids at Redhouse Barns, 4th August 2022

I love seeing Painted Ladies and I love the smell of Buddleia! Painted Ladies are so exotic looking, with an amazing migration and  take me back to a wonderful family holiday in Corfu about 22 years ago. It was filled with sightings of tortoises, lizards, snakes, butterflies and moths. The smell of Buddleia takes me back to my childhood, when I first became fascinated with butterflies. Yesterday, I saw 4 Painted Ladies, 5 Red Admirals, 1 Comma and 3 Small Tortoiseshell on 3 large Buddleia bushes at Redhouse Barns, Newport Wetlands. There was also a Holly Blue on fleabane and 2 or 3 Common Blues, plus dozens of Gatekeepers.

Two weeks ago, I had noticed caterpillar frass on virtually every spear thistle that I looked at at Goldcliff Lagoons. There were no caterpillars in sight though. I concluded that the frass was from Painted Lady caterpillars that had now pupated. I had seen several Painted Ladies at Goldcliff about 5 or 6 weeks ago, so this made sense. I was therefore expecting to see fresh Painted Ladies in the coming weeks. It was therefore very pleasing to have these thoughts confirmed with these sightings of very fresh, home bred, Painted Ladies.