Despite strong winds picking up roughly halfway through my field trip and clouds coming in, those 25°C (11:05 AM) largely were uncomfortable due to the high humidity especially in Zone I.
As expected, most insects have migrated away from areas next to the bike path due to the increase in car traffic. I counted three cars while I was observing in "Mixed Field", four cars in Z I, and eight cars in Z II. Two more cars appeared while I was in Z III and one last car was seen before I reached my home's backdoor. Considering that I started my field trip shortly after 9 AM, 18 cars within roughly two hours is a lot.
Most butterflies in Z I thus migrated to spots I'm unable to reach, though two Zygaena sp. made a brief appearance.
Z II, on the other hand, was almost drastically different. While C. splendens migrated back to Z III and C. mercuriale mostly began to hide in the bushes nearby again, the vast majority of butterflies were attracted by a bunch of field thistles scattered across David's fields. Only P. bellargus and T. lineola showed a clear preference for the smaller thistles on the empty field; A. io, A. urticae, A. hyperantus, M. jurtina P. brassicae, P. napi and P. rapae demonstrated a clear preference for the larger ones next to the potato field. M. galathea, which was observed on the hay field on the other side of the dirt path, and P. icarus, which came from Z III and flew to the usual spot of C. splendens, were the only species avoiding those fields.
Due to some mowing that was carried out by the owner of the cow field between Z I and III, not many meadow geraniums were left, though those still managed to attract one A. levana, one M. jurtina, one M. galathea and some P. napi and P. rapae.
With what is left of the alfalfa in "Mixed Field", it continues to largely fail at attracting species that once populated the now-gone northern branch and seemingly prompted I. lathonia and Colias sp. to not make any appearances this summer, so far. The amount of individual P. icarus also remains significantly lower compared to P. bellargus. What I do fear, however, is the effect of the current traffic on P. coridon which should be active by now. I mostly encountered it on dirt paths and the one crossing Z II also is being used by cars, albeit not as much as the asphalted bike path.