Painted Ladies Everywhere

I have seen virtually nothing but Painted Ladies during the past 24 hours, it all started with 4 near Rankinston last night followed by another in Ayr early this morning but that didn't prepare me for what I saw today at Ballantrae. As soon as I walked down towards the beach there were at least 10 flying just in front of me and between Ballantrae and Bennane Head I stopped counting at 200 and all the way up the coast from Balcreuchan Port to Pinbain Burn/Pinbain Hill it was exactly the same so there must have been at least a few thousand Painted Ladies flying in the Ballantrae area today. The other butterflies seen were 160+ Green-veined Whites, 18+ Large Whites, 5 Small Whites (but there may well have been quite a few more), 3 Orange Tips, 6 Small Coppers, 3 Peacocks, 2 Small Tortoiseshells and 50+ Wall Browns (including 23 at Bennane Lea/Bennane Head and 15 at Pinbain Burn) but I found no Dingy Skipper, Large Skipper or Northern Brown Argus although it may be slightly early in the year for the latter 2 species.

Painted Ladies

Painted Ladies everywhere today. Most notable counts were 5 flying through Garnock East and a further 27 nectaring - mainly on Bird's-foot Trefoil. Across the Garnock at the Ardeer Brownfield land, 31 were nectaring in a 40mx40m patch of Bird's-foot Trefoil.