Swallowtail Butterfly

British Butterfly Gallery

Swallowtail

An afternoon at Strumpshaw Fen near Norwich looking for the Swallowtail butterfly produced a few interesting species. such as Garden Tiger moth caterpillar and Bee Orchid.
We visited on Saturday 6th June 2009, which was more or less the prime time for this species. Due to other commitments we only had one weekend in June free and the Saturday weather forecast was better than the Sunday forecast.
Even so the weather at Stumpshaw was fairly cold and fairly windy for June. As a result Swallowtails were hard to see and after three pleasant hours walking around the reserve we were pleased to see a single Swallowtail and to get a few brief pictures before it flew across the meadow and out of sight.

The Swallowtail only showed for a few minutes and I was only able to get one decent picture.

It was a lovely butterfly and I definitely want to visit again in warmer less windy weather to attempt better pictures, but I guess this may not be in 2009. This brought my number of butterfly species I have photographed up to 47. The total is rising well in 2009 and I am still hopeful that 50 can be achieved in the next few months.