Sir David’s field of screams

THIS rare wildflower meadow will need a wing and a prayer to recover after being mown flat by a blundering worker.

Full of plants, birds and insects, it was monitored for Sir David Attenborough’s Big Butterfly count.

Sadly a council employee on a sit-on mower ignored instructions just to cut a path and turned the field into a green desert.

Ed Dolphin had been counting butterflies the previous day at The Knowle, in Sidmouth, Devon, and was horrified when he returned. He said: “It wasn’t just the number but the sheer variety of butterflies there - at least eight sorts. The day after there was one, a good old cabbage white.” East Devon District Council has apologised and will collect the mown grass to spur regrowth.

Green and gone, the field now Unmown it was full of wild plants ONE RESIDENT IN THE MEADOW FLOWERS Ringlet butterfly A Speckled Wood MOWER

COUNT David Attenborough