With reports of Clouded Yellows at Cliffe Pools in Kent (including 2 helice and mating activity) i had to visit this location last Sunday. The last time i was at Cliffe Pools, must have been at least a decade ago, when huge numbers of Clouded Yellow were seen on site!!
Its a massive area, so hard to track the CY's at times, but i saw 4 of the beauties. A couple of fresh ones, a worn one(which never stopped/landed once!) an just the one fly-by of a beautiful helice. Others got photos of the helice...but i failed on the day.
I sighted 15 species, Clouded Yellow, Large White, Small White, Green veined White, Peacock, Red Admiral, Comma, Small Tortoiseshell, Painted Lady, Small Copper, Common Blue, Brown Argus, Small Heath, Meadow Brown, an a single Wall Brown.
6+ of Common Lizards seen, an i spent some time chasing the lovely Wheatears, which were feeding on the sea wall. Ive never managed to get any decent shots of Wheatear in the past, so was really pleased to put the effort in, an "stalk" these little beauties.
The butterfly of the day was the Large White, i must have seen at least 200+ of them!!!
The whole site is covered in Ox Tongue Thistle, an that was the main nectaring flower for the butterflies.
Not many pics were taken! but i did get some highlights. No images are cropped. Cheers Paul.
Painted Lady.
Clouded Yellows.
Wheatear.