SHERBORNE, England, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- An unusual number of wayward monarch butterflies have been spotted in Britain after flying across the Atlantic instead of heading to Mexico.
At least six have been identified, The Independent reported. Most were spotted in the Scilly Isles, west of Cornwall, and in Cornwall and Devon, but one made it as far east as Dorset.
Clive Farrell, one of Britain's best-known amateur lepidopterists, captured the monarch that arrived in his garden in Sherborne, Dorset. He transferred the butterfly to a greenhouse with a temperature close to its winter home in Mexico, where it could become the first to overwinter in Britain.
"For me this is a one-in-50-year event," he said.
The monarch makes a remarkable migration between Mexico and the northern United States and southern Canada. Experts say the handful of butterflies that cross the Atlantic are swept off course by strong westerly winds as they head south.
