Swallowtail (Papilio machaon)

Today was the last day of our public holiday here, so we planned to join a nature walk. However we got very lost on the buses and missed the meet up time. So we decided to do our own nature walk, this proved tricky as the wild spaces are hard to get to and find, so Juan suggested getting on a bus and getting off when we saw green.

This worked very well as we came across Xemxija heritage trail, which had lots of interesting things to look at including prehistoric tombs, ancient beehives and some Roman baths (which made me feel right at home). I was also very happy indeed to see my first Swallowtail -at first the location seemed an unlikely one for butterflies, as we were atop a very windy hill, but in a sheltered glade I found 2 swallowtails, a small white and a dragonfly of some sort. I followed the Swallowtails around for a while enjoying their beautiful flight and finally got a photo.