Highlight of the day was a clouded yellow at Dairy Farm Road. It had been seen the day before and we twitched it on the way back from Martin Mere to St Helens. We spent a good 45 minutes searching in the area that it had been seen, just off the footpath between Dairy Farm Road and Siding Lane to no avail. However, on the way back to the car we saw it flying along the footpath in front of us, at least 200m from the original site.
"In flight" is actually the best way to see this butterfly, I've never yet seen one land with it's wings open. When landed they always close their wings like the butterfly in the photo above which I saw at Tetney Lock in 2015. Sadly the underwing is a pale yellow and a poor substitute for the bright yellow with black border of the upperwing which is only visible in flight.
Clouded yellow is a migrant species common in Europe which occurs in the UK in variable numbers each year. This was my third record in St Helens, the others were both in 2000 at Reed's Moss and Ruskin Drive. In the North West I've also seen them at Banks (10+ in 1983) and Martin Mere (2003). The most that I have seen in the UK were 30 at St Bees Head in Cumbria (1992).
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