Wednesday 13 July 2011

A Strange Piece of Synchronicity

It was grey, cool and overcast this morning - anything but butterfly weather - and yet, as I stepped out of my front door, I brushed against the ivy-grown fence and inadvertently flushed a roosting Holly Blue, which fluttered off sleepily down the garden path. This was a strange piece of synchronicity, as I'd just been listening on the Today programme to a rather stilted chat about butterflies between the great David Attenborough and 'Jim' Naughtie, who at one point asked Sir David, What are those little blue ones I see flying around? Are they moths? No no, Attenborough assured him - not moths. Common Blues... Hmm. More likely Holly Blues surely, in a North London garden at this time of year? There was also a lot of loose talk about 'cabbage whites' and the still more mythical 'common white' - but never mind; this was all in a good cause, publicising Butterfly Conservation's Big Butterfly Count, which begins on Saturday. I might be returning to this later...

2 comments:

  1. I heard the very same radio story Nige, as was going to tell you about it, so I am glad you heard it too!

    another very interesting thing I found out about butterflies yesterday- a bilateral gynandromorph, the holy grail of butterfly collecting, has been discovered living at the natural history museum!

    http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/news/2011/july/dual-sex-butterfly-hatches-at-natural-history-museum99300.html

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  2. Wow - that's quite a story! Thanks Worm.

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