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Thanks Felix and Kipper for the nice presents, but its not my birthday till Oct 3rd

Hi all,

Today I visited Birling Gap on the South Coast near Eastbourne to check out reports of good numbers of Clouded Yellow. Upon arrival at 11am I saw 3 straight away in the car park. By 12.45 the estimated total had risen to OVER 500 . Most were in the two fields on either side of Hodcombe Farm which is on the north side of the road (opposite the Shooters Bottom car park). The western field is centred on TV568956, while the eastern field is at TV573957. All of the Clouded Yellows looked surprisingly fresh. Five were of the Helice form while another pale one looked very odd in flight so I need a second opinion on the attached photo. There was also a mating pair and a runty female which looked fresh but could not possibly have flown across the Channel.

After consulting with The Kipper I went back to the western field after lunch and found that the numbers had fallen dramatically. By the time I left at 3pm I would estimate that there were ONLY around 100 there.

Also seen were 5 Painted Lady, 4 Meadow Brown (including a mating pair), 2 Speckled Wood, 1 Small Heath, 5 Small Copper, 1 Common Blue, 2 Brown Argus, 2 Comma, 2 Red Admiral, 3 Small White and 8 Large White.

Proceedings were then interrupted by someone wanting to borrow my partner's phone to call the coastguard. Shortly afterwards three people were rescued from the rocks at the foot of the cliff by the lifeboat, having been caught out by the rising tide.

For anyone proposing to visit and arriving by bus, please be aware that the 12A service between Eastbourne and Brighton ceases to serve Birling Gap after Sunday 27th September.

Cheers,

Vince

That one on the clover is a stunner. I was hugging the coast again in Dorset this afternoon. Caught up with this pristine Painted lady, and some of her dowdier friends, some Small torts, Speckled woods, and several Commas at Bullers Cliff near Abbotsbury.

Vince M wrote:Five were of the Helice form while another pale one looked very odd in flight so I need a second opinion on the attached photo.

Wow - what an incredible sight that must have been! (the Clouded Yellows, not human beings in a life-threatening situation)

I think the 2nd "pale" Clouded Yellow is also helice. You can just make out the forewing markings - which appear to show a black band that starts to run outside of the line of dots (toward the wing edge) on the underside, before coming back inside. This is one way of distinguishing a Clouded Yellow (helice or otherwise) from both Pale and Berger's.

Cheers,

- Pete

Hi Vince,

Lovley clouded yellow shots, wish I could have seen one this year, maybe next year. I put a 6w heath trap out in forest last night, totally suprised by what I found, only one moth, but also:

1 Red Admiral that must have got startled by light, flew in and went to sleep
1 Honey bee from the bee hive nearby
4 crane flies
4 spiders
1 Common Marbled Carpet

Also today, I saw what was at least 12 red admirals, possibly more, resting in an oak tree here. In the area I have noticed its where they usually hibernate as I have seen one or two there in warm december days in past 2 years.

That makes my paltry one clouded yellow at Denbies Hillside this afternoon seem even more pathetic!

There were good numbers of small coppers but not a great deal else about, just the odd tatty blue and meadow brown and a few fast flying red admirals and a comma.

Birling Gap is one of my favourite places but didn't make it there this year, used to go there a lot when I was younger.
Might have to squeeze a trip in now though!

Susie said

That makes my paltry one clouded yellow at Denbies Hillside this afternoon seem even more pathetic!

Nah! dont think it makes it paltry or pathetic at all. Most people don't know what a Clouded yellow is.

Mikhail wrote:Lee, Clouded Yellow larvae have overwintered successfully on the Bournemouth cliffs in most of the last ten years. In the species specific album for the Clouded Yellow you will see my photo of a Clouded Yellow drying its wings on 15 Apr 2007. The empty pupa can be seen in the lower left corner. The attached photo shows another pupa I located on 7 Mar 2008.

Misha

Thanks for that Misha. I'd read Nick's post as the adults overwintering.
Cheers
Lee

Hi all,
Sussex is now awash with Clouded Yellows! "Thanks" to Vince for his call about the site at Shooters Bottom near Birling Gap. Yesterday I went for a look and I was amazed as a huge area, apparently devoid of butterflies at 8.45am, started to 'come alive' with these beauties. Although there are some quite tatty immigrants still amongst them, a large proportion are emerging on-site and are pristine. It was particularly nice to see perfect specimens of the pale form helice. By counting 'strips' in the fields to both east and west of the farm (see Vince's report) and multiplying up, I got a figure of between 500 and 600 (good guestimate Vince!). Some were still 'drying off' in the grass and others were found in mating pairs. Also some nice freshly emerged Painted Ladies.
A brief visit to Lullington Heath to look for third brood Brown Argus (now being seen on a few sites in the county) revealed more Clouded Yellows, although in much lower numbers. By the time I got to the Ouse Estuary Reserve at Newhaven they had gone to roost, but I still spotted about 15 freshly emerged CYs on the deck. A fantastic grand finale to the season.
Neil

Thanks for the comments Neil. I am very relieved to have my figures confirmed. I tried to make a conservative estimate but I must admit that I started to have reservations later in the week. It's not often that you are faced with such large numbers and I was fearing that I may have got a bit carried away by the occasion. I based my figures on 200 per field plus another 100 on the southern side of the road between Birling Gap and Beachy Head.

Credit must also go to Polly Mair who made the initial report of 30 Clouded Yellows in the Sussex pages on 19th September because this is what led me to visit.

Cheers,

Vince

Although not in the dizzy heights of the Sussex counts south Essex had up towards 10 in Gunners Park

The second one is a wonderful shot Steve.

Regards Gruditch

Yes - nailed that one!
N

It took a bit of manouvering to get a pretty plain background whilst laying virtually flat on my face but worth the effort I think

I was going to say that Steve, with the first shot particularly you must have been lying down!
Great photos.
Cheers
Lee

Greenford Park Cemetery yesterday yielded some nice surprises:
Painted Lady x 1 (fresh)
Meadow Brown x 1
Small White x 5 (1 very fresh)
Large White x 2 (1 male very fresh)
Common Blue male x 3, plus one pair mating
Small Copper x 3, all quite fresh. Cheers
Lee

First clouded yellow of the year for me at Bonchurch Down near Ventnor IOW early this morning!

hi ian,
nice one!
just over the water at barton on sea we have had a few earlier in the year but in the last couple of days on the under cliff there are several going up and down some of them looking as if just hatched.

gary.

these meadow browns are going strong still at this rate they be seen in december, that be nice