Clouded Yellow

Alex had a brushcutter training course at Grafham Water, so after I'd dropped him off I went for a morning walk round Brampton Wood NR. In 2012 and 2013 I did a detailed vegetation survey of the site, and somehow had never been back since. The Wildlife Trust have removed a lot of conifers, and the whole wood was looking in excellent conditions, despite the dry weather and effects of a dramatically increased footfall since 2020.

Devil's-bit Scabious was locally frequent along some of the rides, along with localised patches of Common Knapweed, and these were providing an important nectar source for the remaining butterflies and other insects. I'd had my 100-400mm lens on for most of the visit, but decided to take a few wide-angle shots of Ash dieback when I spotted this Clouded Yellow. It hung around just long enough for me to get this one image and then disappeared, never to be seen again!

The Clouded Yellow is primarily an immigrant to the UK, originating from north Africa and southern Europe, with numbers varying greatly from year to year - an estimated 36,000 butterflies appearing in one of the infrequent "Clouded Yellow" years in 1947. This year is proving to be quite good for them - this is the second I've seen and there have been quite a few reports of sightings in the local area.