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| Painted Lady, Walled Garden, Aberdour Castle |
In my previous post I included a photograph of a stained glass window on Holy Island, depicting a Puffin and an Eider duck. We left the Holy Island area and moved north into Scotland.
We had rain most days, but the sun shone for us at Aberdour Castle, a site we had not visited for some years. The warmer weather (and doubtless the nectar-rich flowers) enticed a Painted Lady butterfly out into the shelter of the wonderful walled garden. I have hardly seen any Painted Ladies this summer, so this sighting was a particular joy.
The castle backs on to some fine terraced walks.
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David ducked his head and explored the 'doocot'.
A sundial built into the wall.
I believe I had noticed the spider's web, but I am not sure I had seen the spider (if indeed it is the spider!) when I took the picture...
I'm guessing this is a bat-box in the castle wall.
I couldn't resist a few more photos of the Painted Lady...
We did not see nearly as many birds as we usually do in Scotland. The particularly unsettled weather will have had something to do with this. However, we did hear a few Curlews calling (such a special and unique sound); and perhaps what we lacked in numbers, we made up for in terms of quality sightings, like this fine king-of-the-castle Robin.
We congratulated the castle gardener on her wonderful planting in the walled garden...
... and we were not the only ones to appreciate the flowers.
You will have noticed that the Painted Lady features prominently in this post. I have been paying particular attention to butterflies this year as a result of reading two fascinating books...
- In Pursuit of Butterflies: a Fifty Year Affair by Matthew Oates
- The Butterfly Isles: a Summer in Search of our Emperors and Admirals by Patrick Barkham
