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Speckled Wood - Favourite Photo 2019

Week 18

It was feeling like the season was just about to start proper – and then the storm hit! Oh well at least there are a couple more weeks of the Favourites threads…

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

After some hesitation, I chose this particular shot because I think it brings out the contrasty and colourful markings associated with ssp. insula, which is endemic to the isles of Scilly.

This photo was taken on St.Martin’s, on a very memorable bright and sunny day, while we were enjoying lunch on the tables outside The Seven Stones Inn and enjoying the view across the blue waters of Crow Sound to St.Mary’s.
Mike

2019 wasn't a particularly good year for Speckled Wood, they sort of pottered along in low numbers but didn't really seem to peak like you would expect them to do. Anyway I always like the first brood with their rich creamy markings, a sure sign that the first Orange-tips are only weeks away. This is one of each sex photographed on the same day in Mid April. and for comparison, here's a female from the south of Spain I found 3 weeks earlier, hard to believe they're the same species!

I have two favourite images for the Speckled Wood. The first is of a fresh female basking in an East Sussex wood. The second is my first photographic encounter with ssp. oblita; a male taken in Argyllshire.


http://eastsussexwanderer.blogspot.co.uk

I took my shots of the Speckled Wood in my back garden on the 29th July and the 4th of August, the weather was really nice and the Butterflies ( not just the Speckies) were out in force Goldie

Whilst many other spring species were exceptionally early in 2019, Speckled Wood somehow managed to evade me until 7th April:
I also liked this mint fresh late summer specimen, photographed on 15th August:

I feel that Speckled Wood had a fairly average year around my patch in 2019, including in my garden. They often have a slight gap between broods but this year there were still some faded spring brood hanging on when I began to see fresh summer brood emerging in early June.
This meant that for me they had an uninterrupted flight period from the first one that I saw at the end of March to the last one on 6th October.

As usual, I took loads of photos of the ones in my garden which is how I identify individuals to keep track of numbers. I have attempted to whittle these down but still ended up with quite a few 'favourites'.
It is often the case that I see a surge in numbers late in the season and this was true again this year when I would find good numbers enjoying overripe blackberries.
Cheers,

Neil.

Beautiful sequence, Neil. This species is most definitely your 'signature'.

Speckled Wood

Back in the first week of June the girls were enjoying a weekend at their Grandparents which meant my wife and I could enjoy some peace and quiet ourselves. We decided to have a picnic lunch at the Devenish. Near to where we’d set up camp I spied several Specklies all flying and seemingly holding territories. While I searched amid the lower canopies I stumbled across an unusual looking Specklie which I thought at first was trailing a damaged wing. As I got nearer I found that it was actually a pair of Specklies locked in cop, my first ever pairing and a welcome addition to my ‘Butterflies in Cop’ collection.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

I found this guy that had presumably just emerged in the middle of a path. Amazingly 2 walkers with a dog and a jogger had just walked and run past the spot before I got there so it was lucky it hadn't been flattened by them.
It gradually climbed up the grass and spread its wings and I luckily managed several shots before it flew.

Impossible to follow Neil Freeman's selection - I'm especially taken with the three together on the blackberries!

As Bugboy mentioned, I found that 2019 was not a particularly good year for the species, particularly early on: in fact I had to wait until September to record double fugures in one day on my local patch over a season lasting from mid-March to mid-October. Here is one early one......and one from the other end of the year.The lighting is different, but there is a marked contrast in the proportion of buff/brown markings between the two - I think these are both male butterflies.

Dave