The butterfly isles
Subtitle: a summer in search of our emperors and admirals
By: Patrick Barkham
Publisher: W.F. Howes
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Rearsby
Language: eng
Number of pages: 406
ISBN-13: 9781407485980
Subjects: Large type books; Travel; Butterflies; Description and travel
Description: Butterflies animate our summers but the 59 butterfly species of the British Isles can be surprisingly elusive. Some bask unseen at the top of trees in London parks; others lurk at the bottom of damp bogs in Scotland. A few survive for months while other ephemeral creatures only fly for three days. Several are virtually extinct. This bewitching book charts Patrick Barkham's quest to find all 59 - from the Adonis Blue to the Dingy Skipper - in one unforgettable summer. Barkham brings alive the extraordinary physical beauty and amusingly diverse character of our butterflies. He witnesses a swarming invasion of Painted Ladies, experiences the curse of the Purple Emperor, makes a euphoric sighting of an exceedingly rare migrant and as summer draws to a close, suffers from butterfly burnout. He meets some deeply knowledgeable and eccentric butterfly obsessives and reconnects with lovely, overlooked corners of our countryside. As he goes, he looks back at the butterfly collectors of the past and ahead to a future in which many of our butterflies will struggle to survive on an overcrowded and overheating island. ..."--Back cover.
Notes: Standard print ed. originally published: London : Granta, 2010.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: How I learned to love little brown jobs; title: Winter (1. In the beginning was an egg); title: Spring (2. The first butterfly of the year ; 3. Spring butterflies ; 4. Baffled by Britain's dowdiest 'butterfly' ; 5. The Duke and Duchess ; 6. A kaleidoscope of painted ladies ; 7. The woodman's friend and Lady Glanville); title: Summer (8. A very dark place: Britain's newest butterfly ; 9. The Highland ruler ; 10. Singing with the large blue ; 11. The swarm at Blean Woods ; 12. Urban butterflies and the problem with binoculars ; 13. Midsummer: butterflies of water, woods and down ; 14. The curse of thye purple emperor ; 15. High summer in the North ; 16. Butterfly burnout ; 17. The final four ; 18. The Queen of Spain); title: The sixty butterflies of 2009; title: Butterfly families.