Clouded Yellow and Marbled White

The last butterfly survey of the holiday was completed under formidable heat and for three consecutive days I had seen Clouded Yellows but never managed to photograph one; so vexing their behaviour of whistling passed the spectator at speed, as Whites are apt to do, in lines at head height before turning back on themselves and repeating the exercise in the other direction. This can continue for minutes before one eventually takes the decision to refuel on a nearby flower; the pitstop quicker than anything seen in Formula 1 and lasting no more than a few seconds whereupon it then powerfully addresses the heavens and takes to the wing with majesterial grace. This behaviour, and another of never opening its wings during feeding, can prove rather irksome to the voyeur, balanced only by the eye's greedy absorbtion of every breathtaking bright tangerine wing beat against a powder blue sky. An Entomologist's delirium.

Two hours had been lost in the pursuit of the perfect photo and the raison d'etre was updated, or downgraded to achieve simply one clear photo of the Clouded Yellow. Perspiration wound its way towards sharp angles, nose tips, elbows and aching knees. Reflective thoughts turned back to a supine, sunbathing wife, who read under a playful sun. A Marbled White joined in (Photo above). She wore an apple bright skirt complimenting a bright white vest, glasses assumed and sandals proudly deposited by the waist. The back of one hand wistfully pressed against her forehead with the other holding up a book on modern feminist theory. How patiently she lay, how patient she was of my butterfly obsession and here I stood. The helpless Naturalist with as many blurred images as she had pages.

And then Nature flicked her switch and I came out of a rose-tinted reverie. A refuelling Clouded Yellow reduced its speed and alighted briefly on red clover, subsequently followed by an olympic dive to the ground, adjusting of a lense, intake and suspension of breath and finally a deluge of shutter clicks. Success.