Clouded yellows

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 Following a tip off via facebook, today I drove to Hampton just south of Peterborough and parked up at a newly created nature reserve round a lake where I was told 20 clouded yellows had recently been seen amongst the scrub along the lakes edge.  The vegetation looked past its best and not very inviting for butterflies and it was also quite breezy so I decided to sit on a bench and enjoy the warm sunshine and the view and wait. It wasnt long before I noticed a butterfly flying over the scrub a little way in front of me and I suddenly realised it was bright yellow not the usual white at this time of year.  Was it a clouded yellow or just a moth?  I couldnt get close enough to determine but then saw another and this time I could definitely see the brown edges to the wings.  I followed it but to start with it refused to land so I felt resigned to just having to tick it off but then it eventually stopped on a yellow flower but trying to identify a yellow butterfly amongst hundreds of yellow flowers through a camera viewfinder is almost impossible so I had to be patient to get my only photo!    I sat around a bit longer and just enjoyed watching a couple more flying backwards and forwards over the vegetation. Worth the visit though and very grateful to the person who told me exactly where to find them.

 
 Clouded yellow!
 
 
Can you find it?

 
Lake view

 Swan Family
 




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