THOUSANDS - even millions - of Painted Lady butterflies have been sighted flying across Dorset, Wiltshire and South Somerset in the last couple of weeks, heading north and west on their annual summer migration from North Africa..

A Wiltshire Wildlife Trust spokesman said the good weather and prevailing winds were encouraging huge numbers to visit our shores, and there are reports that some are now settling in Wiltshire and laying eggs, which could mean another surge in their numbers in our county in late summer.

Mike Fuller, Wiltshire's county recorder for butterflies for the Wiltshire and Swindon Biological Records Centre (WSBRC), based at Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, and vice-chairman of the Wilts Branch of Butterfly Conservation, says: "I have never seen anything like it – the last time we saw a mass migration of this species was back in 1996, but this year's one is going to top that. Some experts say that 40 million have arrived in the UK."

These are startling figures. "Last year Wiltshire members of Butterfly Conservation counted only 56 in Wiltshire – this year the number in our county is likely to be in the tens of thousands," says Mike. During one spell of less than 10 minutes, 50 Painted Ladies were spotted flying over the Trust's head office in Devizes.

Picture by John Notman