World Swallowtail Day 2023
It was apparently "World Swallowtail Day" on 11th June 2023 so I decided to take a drive to the Ted Ellis reserve at Wheetfen Broad, Norfolk to see if I could see any.
The old-world swallowtail Papilio machaon is one of our rarest and most spectacular butterflies. The British race britannicus is a specialist of wet fenland and is currently restricted to the Norfolk Broads (on iNaturalist I am named as the 'top observer', yet I have only seen them 4 times). Here the adults can be seen flying powerfully over open fen vegetation, stopping to feed on flowers such as milk parsley, thistles and Ragged-Robin.
The butterfly probably declined within much of its range during the twentieth century but has since benefited, over the last few decades, from conservation management aimed at increasing open fen vegetation. There are also scattered records of migrants of the continental race throughout the United Kingdom.
The rangers and volunteers at Wheetfen had strategically placed bunches of sweet-williams all around the reserve to attract in the swallowtails, and this seems to have worked as this individual was spotted throughout the day. In the past I have also observed this species at RSPB Strumpshaw fen (just across the river), and at NWT Hickling Broad.
