Small Copper - Favourite Photo of 2013

[Vince Massimo]

Week 17.

Here is the opportunity to post your favourite photo(s) of a particular species taken in 2013 (or the last time you saw one!).

This is part of a series of topics which will grow over 20 weeks throughout the winter, eventually covering all 59 species which are regularly found in the British Isles. The intention is to showcase three species per week (in alphabetical order), so please wait until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos. Our overseas members are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants.

Details of locations, dates, times and circumstances would be welcome and please feel free to contribute observations of behaviour, stories of personal encounters, anecdotes or other interesting points.

Vince

[Wurzel]

Small Copper

This was the first ‘favourite’ which I really struggled to choose just one image for. All the others jumped out at me almost immediately but I was lucky to capture so many different attitudes and Coppers from such a range of sites choosing juts one proved to be a major headache.
Somehow I whittled it down to two. The first of which was from our visit to my in-laws in Ffos-y-ffin in early August. The small field behind their home was a mixture of tall grass and boggy flowering plants and it proved a rich hunting ground for the duration of my stay. Having discovered that they were there over a few visits I racked up the full range of shots. This is my favourite of those because as I was photographing it feeding it turned, looked directly at me and we shared a moment.

The second is from Martin Down later in the month and classed as my fave as it possessed so many features of interest. It was possibly my only ‘blue spot copper’ of the year, I liked the attitude of the pose, its tail was quite pronounced and to cap it all (quite literally) it had a gorgeous ginger fringe.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Chris Jackson]

Here we have two individuals from the south of France, one earlier in the season on April 12th, and the other a later brood on August 25th.

April 12th

August 25th

Chris

[CFB]

I like this f. caeruleopunctata because of the size and brightness of the blue spots. It's a pity about the damaged wings though.

This one was in the garden:

Two and a half hours later it was still there but on a different flower, a Salvia 'Wendy's Wish' according to my wife:

--
Colin

[Goldie M]

My favourite photo's of a Small Copper were taken at Fleetwood on 28th Sept. The day was a bit cool so I was suprised to see it. Goldie

[MikeOxon]

This one was brushing up its plant names when I spotted it in the gardens at Waterperry.

Waterperry Gardens, Oxon - 6th October 2013
Nikon D300s with 90mm Tamron macro - 1/350s@f/6.7 ISO400

Mike

[Padfield]

This one was brushing up its plant names when I spotted it in the gardens at Waterperry.

It was showing an admirable grasp of Latin, too! Aurea = gold, golden or gilded - perfectly describing this little butterfly (and she even got the gender right ).

Guy

[millerd]

I have singled out a somewhat dark individual seen at Bedfont Lakes Country Park on 20th August. I think I read somewhere that the hotter the weather, the darker the butterfly, so that late broods in Southern Europe are noticeably different. If this is so, maybe the good summer here influenced this one. It was certainly very warm and sunny when I took this picture.

Incidentally, can anyone identify the flower? The leaves you can see belong to it, I think.

Dave

[MikeOxon]

It was showing an admirable grasp of Latin, too! Aurea = gold, golden or gilded - perfectly describing this little butterfly (and she even got the gender right ).

What a clever girl!

[Neil Freeman]

My first Small Coppers of 2013 were seen at the Wyre Forest in early June where I saw a couple of males...

Small Copper - Wyre Forest 08.06.2013

...which for a few weeks were the only ones that I saw.

After a poor showing in 2012 around Solihull I was beginning to get a bit concerned again about them until I finally found good numbers of second brood at all of my usual local spots, including those where I had totally failed to find any in 2012,

Small Copper - Shadowbrook Meadows 26.07.2013

Small Copper - Sheldon CP 27.07.2013

I particularly like this nice f. caeruleopunctata seen at Castle Hills near Solihull,

Small Copper - Castle Hills 30.07.2013

Like Daves example above, I noticed that some of these second brood individuals had a nice dark 'dusky' look to them,

Small Copper - Castle Hills 30.07.2013

Small Coppers are a delightful little butterfly and one that I was especially pleased to see had bounced back from some worryingly low numbers locally the previous year.

Cheers,

Neil.

[Nigel P]

This was my favourite Small Copper image from 2013. It was taken in our garden (Bucks), 28th July and was feeding on Miss Willmott's Ghost (Eryngium giganteum).

N

[Debbie]

This was taken on a trip to Dudmaston Hall and my enthusiasm for photographing butterflies must be rubbing off on my family, as my brother pointed this one out for me.

[David M]

This Small Copper, seen at Aston Rowant on 8th August, was notable for three reasons - it was quite dark in colour, the forewing spots were very large and it had a pronounced tail: