Appearances in Britain of the beautiful migrant Clouded Yellow butterfly are unpredictable, although arrivals from the Mediterranean usually coincide with hot weather. Amid continuing drought, 2026 looks like being a particularly good year for them in Hertfordshire.
Photographer Ashley Cox found five flying in the eastern meadows of Heartwood on 30 July and was able to obtain impressive images of a female and male in flight.
A characteristic of Clouded Yellows – not always obvious from field guides – is that they immediately fold their wings when perching. This means the attractive upperwing can usually only be photographed in motion.
Describing how he captured a pair on camera, Ash writes: "In previous years most of my best encounters with the Clouded Yellow have actually been at Nomansland Common but with the coming of Heartwood Forest and it's flower meadows the potential on my old patch has just exploded and it was to the eastern area of Heartwood that I was drawn, W3W///doing.snake.mouse to be precise
"Upon my arrival three Clouded Yellows immediately appeared. I was armed with my new camera and lens, retirement presents to myself. I had a button programmed specifically for high speed flight shot eventualities. So when two individuals met and spiralled upwards together I was ready and for once I sprang forth like an ageing ninja and rattled off a volley of shots.
"It was of course a male and a female and although it was all a bit of a blur at the time it looked like she was repelling him rather than him seducing her and they quickly went their separate ways. There were I would say five individuals in that meadow throughout the morning, so a Clouded Yellow year it is and I would wager there is plenty more to come."
Thanks go to Ash for send his photographs to hnhsphotos@hnhs.org, our new email for submitting all non-bird photographs. Thanks also go to Steve Chilton who is curating the HNHS photo galleries – and increasing the range content with some outstanding images of Herts wildlife.
Photos©Ashley Cox