Migfest 2025 (Preview)

Martin Standley August 20, 2025

Well the most prestigious wildlife festival of the year is almost upon us. Such is the draw of this event, tickets were sold out weeks ago.

For anyone attending with an interest in photography or just wanting to make the most of their visit to Spurn, I will be holding my usual photography workshops.

Both sessions are between 9am-11am but places are limited to make sure that you book at the main reception in advance.

I will be talking about settings, composition, light, fieldcraft and much more. There will be a focus on making the most of your trip to Spurn that includes the importance of tide times, weather conditions and what could be expected throughout different times of the year.

I will also be running my stand in the main marquee so will be available throughout the weekend for more detailed knowledge sharing. I also have a limited set of A4 prints for sale all proceeds going to Spurn bird Observatory.

Each year there is a ‘bird of the weekend’ and a few photos from years past are below.

See you there!

Migfest 2019-Terns heading north at dawn

Migfest 2023-Spoonbills over Kilnsea Wetlands

Masked Shrike from 2014 around the same time as Migfest this year-who knows what might turn up!

Clouded Yellows

Martin Standley August 5, 2025

Compared to recent years, 2025 has been an exceptional year for butterflies.

We moved in to our new house in the Autumn of last year and after spending some time creating spaces for wildlife, I was pleased to count 14 differenst species visiting.

Locally there have been some great counts of common butterflies and Spurn has had its best ever year for number of species recorded.

I was hoping, however that given the fantastic conditions, there might be a showing from my favourite UK butterfly-the clouded yellow.

Clouded yellow don’t breed in the UK but are generally seen annually in select locations usually after favourable winds.

I’d heard of a few in East Yorkshire and last week got a tip off that a few were showing in a meadow in South Holderness.

I went last week in unfavourable conditions and managed to see one skulking in damp vegetation.The next time i went it was bright, hot and sunny. The buterflies in the meadow were like confetti at a wedding. Mainly large and small whites with green-veined mixed in. A closer look revealed common blue and small tortoiseshel with the odd, worn meadow brown.

And there, like turbo charged pac men a flurry of clouded yellows were bombing up and down.

A conservative count yielded 12 and despite numerous scans accross the meadow I couldnt get the count any higher.

But woe what a priveledge, an honour to see such a spectacle and because of all of the pressures our natural world is under, a spectacle I thought I would never see, at least in the UK.

Clouded yellows are the epitome of Summer, the Ladybird book What To Look For In Summer has an iconic image and description that takes me right back to the golden years of the seventies when I was just starting out on my natural world adventure. To see a clouded yellow then would have been almost mythical as my knowledge was only as limited to the common butterflies we saw in our garden and on our allotment.

Whilst I couldnt quite replicate the image, the feeling of travelling back in time was very real.

Seeing clouded yellows and all of the other butterflies at the weekend was more than just an observation. It was a journey back in time and for a few hours, all was well with the world.