Clouded Yellow

I finished off last nights blog by saying that I was keeping my fingers crossed for an influx of Clouded Yellows from across the channel. It obviously works, a report on last nights SOS showed twenty of them down at Medmerry by the Easton Lane car park. I knew that they would gradually be migrating northwards and you are never sure if there are any more coming, so not taking any chances I was down at Medmerry early this morning.

I was pleased to see that they were still by the car park. They were not easy to photograph, they were very active and when perched out in the open they were being buffeted by a sea breeze. I can't complain though, I saw them, I got the record shots, and whilst I may still be waiting for that open wing shot its another in the bag for this year.

Clouded Yellow

and the shot below shows what looks like a female on a well eaten Legume. Is this the caterpillar food plant or do they stick with the clovers and smaller members of the legume family? Is she a locally bred Clouded Yellow, perhaps from a spring migrant or even from an overwintering caterpillar?

There were also a few Common Blues about

Common Blue on Birds-foot-trefoil

I am happy now and it's not just because I have finally managed to catch up with Dave on the number of species seen. We both now sit at forty seven for the year with hopefully the Brown Hairstreak still to come. This is comfortably above the target of forty that we set ourselves at the beginning of the year.

We have seen everything that we could reasonably expect to see in our part of the country. We did not get to see a Swallowtail on the downs but then you would never be sure if it was a real one or not and despite seeing plenty of them and having one on the ground in front of me, I have failed completely to get a picture of a Purple Hairstreak.

Still this looks like the start of some targets for next year - open wing shot of Clouded Yellow, any shot of a Purple Hairstreak - what else?