Mellow Yellow

male Clouded Yellow, Colias croceus

To  view  a  Slideshow,  click  here  then  choose  Fullscreen  (top  right)

My Mill Hill transects for the past two weeks have shown increases in Wall and Common Blue and the emergence of second brood Adonis Blues on Saturday. A Clouded Yellow flew across my car as I drove up the hill and I found a male and female flying at the bottom of the hill.

Saturday's transect results (previous week in brackets): Adonis Blue 4(0), Brimstone 1(0), Brown argus 4(3), Chalkhill Blue  49(50), Comma 0(2), Clouded Yellow 2(0), Common Blue 69(40), Gatekeeper 8(46), Large White 7(5), Meadow Brown 294(224), Painted Lady 6(3), Peacock 5(8), Red Admiral 2(2), Small Heath 6(6), small Tortoiseshell 8(6), Small White 11(7), Speckled Wood 0(1), Wall 3(1), other whites 1(4)

While Clouded Yellows are almost guaranteed at Kithurst I continue to pursue them. Yesterday I saw two males and it was warm enough for them to nectar to enable me to obtain some more flight shots. There were two Walls on the entry path.

they often lay almost flat on the path, looking like a leaf

sometimes I catch an unexpected visitor in my photo space

male Wall, Lasiommata megera