Wall - Favourite Photo 2019

[Wurzel]

Wall - Favourite Photo 2019

Week 19

Dennis the Menace I still battering us as we enter into the penultimate week the Favourites 2019. A heads up for next week…as well as Wood White there will also be the Vagrant and the overall Favourite thread.

Please could I ask that everyone waits until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos as then it will be easier to keep track of things? Of course our overseas members are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants. As in previous years details of locations, dates, times and circumstances would be welcome as would any accompanying stories and anecdotes or other observations of behaviour and interesting other points.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[downland boy]

The Wall wasn't as numerous on Pevensey Levels in 2019 as in other years and neither was there a third brood in evidence. The only photograph that I took of this species happened to be my first Wall sighting of the season, always a good moment, a male taken on 2nd May.


http://eastsussexwanderer.blogspot.co.uk

[bugboy]

A couple of favs from a day trip to Wiltshire in search of Marsh Fritillary. A particularly striking and well marked female

A second female where I inadvertently found a Marsh Fritilary pupae which I only noticed when I got home

and a third female, this time because it was found late in the season (October) when I'd all but given up on finding anything other than Red Admirals, on a site I've never seen them before (Two Tree Island in Essex) and nectaring on Ivy, also something I've never seen before.

[Wolfson]

I usually see Wall at the coast where it is often windy and more often than not they are worn or damaged. Therefore, this freshly emerged individual sat on the path at Hickling Broad was a bit unusual for me and so is my favourite for 2019.

[Goldie M]

One thing about having to stay put in Kent last year was the fact I saw the Wall butterfly on three separate days
We went to Reculver on the 23rd Of April and the 5th/12th of May and on each occasion although the weather wasn't all that bright they were at their best.
The Roman Wall at Reculver is Ideal for them, the part of the wall they like is sheltered from the sea so when the Sun does appear they open their wings once they land, it was great, Goldie

[Wurzel]

Wall

This was actually taken in Portugal in early August. It was my Favourite because I was able to get a type of shot easily that in the UK is really hard work. Normally back home when the light is right it’s accompanied by warm weather and so the butterfly is hyper and almost impossible to approach. Yet in Portugal the sun shone from almost as soon as it came up so the light was spot on but it was still cool enough that the butterflies were sluggish and wanting to sit tight and bask. Hence I was able to take my time approaching and getting into a good position, in fact I could have popped back to the tent and had a cup of coffee in between shots and I don’t think the butterfly would have moved. Another reason for choosing it was because this Wall was our ‘Guard Butterfly’ and I would see it in roughly the same place at the end of our ‘drive’ each morning on the way down to breakfast. It was therefore named, as most things in the Wurzel household, as Bob.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

I usually see Wall at the coast where it is often windy and more often than not they are worn or damaged. Therefore, this freshly emerged individual sat on the path at Hickling Broad was a bit unusual for me and so is my favourite for 2019.

Nice image, Wolfson. I never realised how scalloped the hindwings were.

[David M]

Easy one for me is this. I only saw Wall Browns on one occasion in the UK in 2019, at Dan-y-Graig Cemetery in Swansea on 4th May:

[Goldie M]

It always strikes me has unusual how lots of Wall Butterflies seem to enjoy a cemetery, Goldie

[millerd]

Looking back, I seem to have encountered this species in a variety of locations in 2019: Arnside Knott in Cumbria, the chalk hills of Wiltshire, Shipton Bellinger in Hampshire, plus the usual Sussex haunts of High & Over and Mill Hill. However, also in Sussex, they were flying on the slopes of the Rifle Range at Steyning on a day when I was engaged in fruitless search for Brown Hairstreaks. The species here seems to emerge noticeably behind those at Mill Hill (which is only a handful of miles away) with this fresh second brood female out on 2nd August.

Those at Mill Hill on the same day were very worn. The sightings at Shipton Bellinger were the subject of a bit of local excitement, being technically seen inland in Hampshire, where the species is a relative rarity.

Dave

[Neil Freeman]

Sadly, no longer a species that I have easy access to these days although it is often a secondary target on my various trips. In 2019 I managed to see quite a few down on the Lizard plus a few on the dune system at Upton Towns when we were down in Cornwall in early August.

Wall Brown female - Lizard 05.08.2019

Wall Brown female - Upton Towans 07.08.2019

Wall Brown male - Upton Towans 07.08.2019

I also saw a female doing a fair impersonation of a dead leaf being blown about in the breeze at Lulworth Cove in early September.

Wall Brown female - Lulworth Cove 05.09.2019

Cheers,

Neil.