Painted Lady

I was very pleased to spot this Painted Lady in our garden this afternoon.  They are fascinating butterflies being one of the few pure migrants to the UK.  It is too cold for them to overwinter here so they migrate en masse from North Africa each spring, breed here and then migrate back again in Autumn. In a good year (such as 2009) an estimated 11 million butterflies arrived in the UK and 21 million migrated back in the Autumn.