Create your own butterfly, bumblebee or flower mask! Download the PDF below, print them out, colour them in, cut them out and you’ll have your very own mask!
Why not model your mask after a ‘species on the edge’? Here’s some inspiration:
Bees
Great yellow bumblebee
Great yellow bumblebees are a large bee covered in yellow hairs with a black band on its thorax
Moss carder bumblebee ssp. agricolae
The moss carder bumblebee ssp. agricolae (also known as the Shetland bumblebee) has a bright orange thorax and a yellow bottom.
Northern Colletes
The northern colletes has fox coloured hair on its head and thorax and has a a black abdomen with a white band on each segment.
Butterflies
Northern brown argus
The northern brown argus butterfly is dark chocolaty brown in colour with orange crescents towards the outer edges of the wings. The male has less or no orange crescents on the upperwing. In Scotland, it has a white dot on its forewings.
Small blue
The small blue is the UK’s smallest butterfly. Male small blues tend to be dark grey black with a sprinkling of silvery/blue at the base of its wings. Females are much browner in colour with no sign of blue.
Marsh fritillary
The marsh fritillary is a brightly coloured butterfly, with a mosaic of orange, yellow, and brown markings on the upper surface of both the forewings and hindwings, which form distinct rows of the same colour. There is a prominent row of small black spots towards the outer edge of each hindwing.
Plants
Oysterplant
Oysterplant grows close to the ground forming a mat of stems and leaves that is often roughly circular. It has branching green or purple stems and blue-grey leaves that look quite thick and succulent. The flowers are pink in bud and change to blue as they open. Flowers develop at the ends of the growing stems often around the edge of the plant.
Scottish primrose
The Scottish primrose is only a few centimetres tall with grey-green stems and leaves. Its flowers have five pinkish-purple heart-shaped petals and a yellow centre; the petals can turn a darker bluish purple as they age. The flowers are tiny – less than 1cm across.
Irish Lady’s tresses
Irish Lady’s tresses have a spike of creamy white flowers, arranged in a small spiral atop an pale green stem. It grows to about 30cm high.
Purple oxytropis
The purple oxytropisis a hairy plant with purple flowers and green leaves which grow in pairs along a stem.
Shetland endemic hawkweeds and mouse-eared hawkweed
The Shetland endemic hawkweeds and mouse-eared hawkweed are dandelion-looking plants; they have hairy leaves and a hairy stem with bright yellow flowers.
