Silver-studded Blue - Favourite Photo of 2011

[GOLDENORFE]

shot at prees heath on emergance week, i love this species!

phil

[Vince Massimo]

This thread is now open and is where you can post your favourite photo(s) of a particular species taken in 2011.....................or the last time you saw one!

This is part of a series which will hopefully grow throughout the winter until all 58 British species have been covered. Three new threads will be introduced per week. Our overseas friends are welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to our rare migrants, but please try to observe the alphabetical listing

Details of places, dates, times and circumstances would be appreciated and please feel free to contribute observations of behaviour, personal encounters, anecdotes and other interesting points.

Vince

[dilettante]

This one taken at Broxhead Common, Hants, a fresh male rather inadvisedly sitting on a tube-web spider's web



The SSBs there didn't seem to be very silver-studded:



Broxhead Common, Hants, 25-Jun-11. Sony A700, Tamron 180/3.5

[millerd]

There are several sites within half an hour's drive of me, and I tend to visit them on the way back from somewhere else. The Surrey heathland was very dry by early June, and the heather was suffering noticeably, with stunted growth and fewer flowers than usual. Nevertheless, I found good numbers at both Thursley Common on 28th May and Fairmile Common on 14th June. I found my first ever larva at the former - a brief glimpse before it was hustled away by ants, and a blurry photo.

Apologies for so many images, but they are lovely creatures...

Dave

[David M]

I daresay if there were a British species that can claim to have had more top quality photos taken of it than any other then the Silver Studded Blue would be the award winner.

Docile and numerous in the few locations where they occur, they are a photographer' dream. Dainty, stunningly marked on the undersides and a lovely sky blue on the uppers. Add to that their propensity to hang out their lifecycle's dirty-washing for all to observe and it all adds up to the perfect photographical subject.

Sadly, my shots fall far short of the standards many people on here manage to capture, but I particularly liked the image underneath of these two males happily cohabiting on foliage at Prees Heath last June - like two naughty schoolboys planning a bit of mischief:

[Wurzel]

This was the first year that I caught up with Silver Studs. I spent a few hours broiling on Arne heathlands when they'd only just emerged and whilst they were willing to pose showing the studs none would let me see or photograph the uppers. A week or two later I paid a visit to Slop Bog and I couldn't believe my eyes. The reserve is tiny, bordered on one side by a by-pass and all the other sides are surrounded by housing but there were mulitudes of Silver Studs. I as literally spoilt for choice. One would pose for a few photos, then another, then a female with wings firmly shut showing huge studs, then a male with upperwings showing and so on and so on. At one point I didn't know where to point the camera first,and I remembred some pearls of wisdom from these forums - I just sat there and drank in the spectacle .

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[MikeOxon]

It was hard to choose a favourite from a series I took on an excellent day on Silchester Common. I have posted some undersides before but I like this topside for its 'Leaden Argus' colouring, which gave this species its old name. Something strange seems to have happened to its left antenna.

Silchester Common, Hants - 11th June 2011
Nikon D300s with Tamron 90mm - 1/750s@f/13 ISO400

Mike