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Swallowtail
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Britain's largest resident butterfly, the Swallowtail is a creature of the Norfolk Fens, where the population seems to be reasonably stable. Occasional members of the continental sub-species turn up in other parts of the country, notably Kent and Devon in recent years, and some may be released by captive breeders. A beautiful creature, I spent the first week of June in 2006 in the Broads, only to find that thanks to the cold spring, they were only just emerging, and their was very little nectar about. We managed to track them down at two sites, Hickling Broad, and Strumpshaw Fen (where these pictures were taken just off the reserve, in the garden of a generous enthusiast) but failed to find them at How Hill, where the usual meadow had no nectar or butterflies, and had been grazed by ponies until two weeks previously.