A first for me with this Swallowtail ,well at least on UK soil ! and one of my butterfly highlights of 23'. I,ve been fortunate enough to see Swallowtails in their Norfolk homes a few times ,and also found quite a few larvae as well .In 23' Continental Swallowtails turned up in a few places along the Kent coast ,and after a few reports from the St Margarets area ,i thought i,d have a look for myself ,i was able to "kill two birds with one stone " ,as there was also a scarce plant that i wanted to try for ,so i headed along the cliffs towards Deal to look for it ..........I got lucky and although not quite in full flower ,i found my target plant (actually 4 ) plus another plant species i stumbled across which i was also pleased to find.
Kept my eyes open as i strolled along ,thought i may get lucky ,the BLEP plants were looking good for later on and were in good flower .I wandered back to the monument and decided to have a little look at the small grassland reserve to the left of the monument (Bockell hill ) I found good numbers of Small Blue here and a stunning "Blue" female Common Blue . As i was crouching to take a few shots of this beauty ,and as i straightened up i immediately noticed a Swallowtail ............tearing along at some speed towards me ...............head down ,no stopping till Dover !!
Very pleased ! but a little disappointed that it didn,t stop for its picture !.
Nipped back to the car for a drink and noticed two or three other enthusiasts wandering about ,they,d seen one briefly as well ,and after a while it reappeared ,but refused to come out of a dense bramble patch ,beside the old look-out post ,had lovely views at distance and some very close flybyes
but this was the best shot that i managed . But no matter !..............I was very pleased !
Finally time to head home ,put the bins and camera in the car ,and blow me a Swallowtail shot over the bonnet ,landed on a verge-side bush for about two seconds ...........then disappeared !
Allan.W.
attached.
