Painted Lady irruption

It appears that we are in the midst of an extraordinary naturalistic event. We are currently witnessing an irruption of the beautiful butterfly above, called the Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui. The Painted Lady is not a British butterfly but arrives here on migration.

We had three of these butterflies nectaring in our garden during the unusual hot weather this past bank holiday weekend. Two arrived on the 23rd May and three were seen on the 24th May.

What was particularly unusual was the flower they appeared to favour - the perennial wallflower Erysimum 'Bowles' Yellow'. I had practically given up with this plant as it does not seem to attract any wildlife, even though it is one of the longest flowering plants that one could ever wish to have.

Here is a list of the first sightings of this butterfly in my garden:
2009 - 23rd May.
2008 - Not observed.
2007 - 15th Sept.
2006 - 26th July.
2005 - Not observed.
2004 - Not observed.
2003 - Not observed.

This year has already broken the record for this species, and for me really gets my pulse racing! One cannot help wondering what on earth is going to happen next.

While we are on the subject of migrants, I also saw my first Silver Y moth in the garden on the 25th May. The earliest I have seen this moth before was on the 22nd July 2006.

For a full report on the irruption please have a look at the links below.
http://upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/butterfly_sightings.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8068050.stm