Blue Morpho Butterfly

Isle of Wight Story Festival features nature’s very own Harry Potter

Harry Potter isn’t the only one with an invisibility cloak and the ability to fly, and one of the Harry Potters of the animal kingdom – the Blue Morpho butterfly (pictured above) – will feature at the Isle of Wight Story Festival this February half term.

Butterfly expert Adam Barron, who will be running a session at the event explains,

“There are many butterflies with this ability to appear a certain colour, when in fact they are no that colour at all. So yes, it is like Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak… My Favourite butterfly with this ability is called the Emerald Green Swallowtail.”

Emerald green swallowtail butterfly
The Emerald Green Swallowtail

The session is a must-see for nature enthusiasts of six and over, as Adam will be sharing the knowledge and amazing facts he has learnt in his life studying nature, there will lots of hands-on things to, practical advice on setting up a butterfly patch in your garden, and the chance to get up close and personal with some of Adam’s creepy crawly friends.

Lots to see and do
Nature is one of the themes of this year’s IW Story Festival and children will also have the chance to meet the bats from the IW Bat Hospital, do some Glorious Gull spotting and making with Dave Fairlamb and do a Bats, Bugs and Bunnies walk with storyteller Sue Bailey.

Sue Bailey storyteller

Meet local authors
Local authors will also be running sessions on their nature-themed books: Jules Marriner will be launching her brand-new nature journal, Bloomin’ Marvellous; Paul Barrett will be there with A Rabbit’s Tail, while Peta Rainford will be reading her Dark Skies book, Jacob Starke Loves the Dark and making nocturnal animal masks.

Peta Rainford and Jacob Starke
Peta Rainford and Jacob Starke

Book your tickets
You can find out more and book tickets for these sessions and the rest of the festival programme on the Isle of Wight Story Festival Website.

For more information contact: [email protected]