Clouded Yellow at last

Summer blues come to an end.

With the long, but appreciated, hot spell birding has been some what put on the back burner with the only exception being a few visits to the patch in search of that midsummer mega. As these visits yielded little I have been turning my attention to the great numbers of butterflies that have been gracing us over the last few weeks. The buddlieas around the visitors centre have been my main focus and a good variety has resulted, some of which I managed to photograph.

Today (11th August)  I visited the patch with the main aim of photographing Clouded Yellow butterflies and to perhaps add black tern to the patch year list. I started with a seawatch at around 7:10 to let the sun get high enough in the hope butterfly activity would increase. The sea was very quiet with not much more than a few comic terns moving south distantly and the odd Gannet cruising around. It was therefore a bit of a shock when a Cory's Shearwater flew through my field of view and headed south giving nice views as it did so. A couple of other species also made it on to the patch year list and these were Teal!! (how on earth I have missed them up until now is beyond me) and Golden Plover. It seems autumn is upon us as a few more warblers have started to appear and waders where frequently encountered passing over. I did manage to see 3 possibly 4 clouded yellows, all of which eluded the camera. Several hundred large whites were on the move and heading south. Also seen where peacock, small tortoiseshells, Gatekeepers, common blue, painted lady, grayling, and meadow brown.