Small Copper - Favourite Photo of 2014

[Wurzel]

Week 16

So continues sequence of posts giving one and all the opportunity to showcase their favourite shots of 2014 (or the last time you saw one)!

Please could I ask that everyone waits until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos? Of course our overseas members are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants. As like last year 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

[David M]

Small Coppers were fairly thin on the ground in my locale in 2014.

The best specimen I photographed was during my visit to Glasdrum Wood to observe Chequered Skippers on 27th May. This individual was much larger than average for the breed:

[bugboy]

Thats a nice pic David, never seen one where the blue spots drift into the orange border like that.

This is my fav of the year, not a picture perfect closeup but it's unusual to see 2 so close together that aren't slugging it out or flirting! Walthamstow Marshes 27th July

'Edit' I really like this one as well, taken in Dollis Valley Walk, 24th July

[Nick Broomer]

This photo was taken in Portugal on the 23rd Oct.

[Goldie M]

I choose two again because they both look so different, one just landing amongst the flowers and the other one which seems to have larger spots (may be because the wings are more open than the first) both photos were taken at Hall-Lee-Brook on the 9th of August on one of the rare sunny days. Goldie

[Chris Jackson]

This Small Copper is from the South of France. In the heat, they do not pose for long - best to get a couple of shots off while you can !!

Chris

[millerd]

Sadly, 2014 was the first year I have failed to see a Small Copper on my local patch. Added to this, I didn't see them in numbers anywhere, though I came across ones and twos in a wide variety of places. My favourite was at Bedfont Lakes Country Park, just five minutes walk from work and worth a quick visit any time. I first spotted this one on 16th September, but didn't get these shots until three days later - no appreciable wear in the interim, but definitely the same butterfly.

Dave

[MikeOxon]

My shot was taken at the BBOWT Seven Barrows reserve on the same day that I also photographed the Small Blue, shown in its appropriate thread. I was hoping for Marsh Fritillary (no luck) and the brilliant colour of this example caught my eye.

Seven Barrows reserve, Berks - 16th May 2014
Lumix FZ200 (fl=108mm) with +1 CU lens - 1/1600s@f/4 ISO 125

Mike

[Matsukaze]

A real abundance of these, one of the most enjoyable of butterflies, in some places locally this year. There were a few in my garden in the summer, and I am hoping they have stayed to breed on the sorrels that have self-seeded into the gravelly path. The schmidtii turned up as part of a population explosion in a colony near Bath, where numbers were running at ten times their usual levels in a good year.

[Neil Freeman]

I seems that from various comments on UKB last year that Small Coppers had mixed fortunes in 2014 with them appearing to have a poor year in some parts of the country but good numbers seen in others. Around my neck of the woods they seemed to have a reasonably good year with me seeing them at every local site I went to. This is a species that I never see in large numbers at any one place with usually two or three usually found in one corner of a meadow and maybe a couple more in another corner and this was the pattern for me this year at most of my local sites.

I find Small Coppers a good butterfly to take photos of, especially the males with their favourite perches within their territories that they will keep returning to. This means that once you have identified their perches, you can just take up position and wait for them to return.
I ended up taking loads of Small Copper photos and have really struggled to whittle them down to a selection of favourites and even now am left with quite a few which I have decided to post.

First off, a couple of local first brood,

Small Copper - Shadowbrook Meadows 21.05.2014

Small Copper - Shadowbrook Meadows 21.05.2014

By late July the second brood were on the wing around Solihull,

Small Copper - Castle Hills Solihull 26.07.2014

The individual below was one of the few that I saw last year that didn't have any trace of blue spots,

Small Copper - Castle Hills Solihull 27.07.2014

The blue spotted caeruleopunctata form seemed to outnumber the normal ones by at least 3 to 1 around my patch,

Small Copper - Castle Hills Solihull 27.07.2014

Small Copper - Castle Hills Solihull 27.07.2014

Small Copper - Castle Hills Solihull 27.07.2014

Small Copper - Bickenhill 30.07.2014

Small Copper - Bickenhill 30.07.2014

Small Copper - Bickenhill 30.07.2014

Small Copper - Bickenhill 30.07.2014

Down in Dorset in early September and I found third brood at a few places,

Small Copper - Durdle Door 02.09.2014

Small Copper - Durdle Door 05.09.2014

Small Copper - Osmington 03.09.2014

and finally, a local third brood in late September,

Small Copper - Castle Hills Solihull 28.09.2014

A lot of favourites there I know but, well, I like them all

Cheers,

Neil

[bugboy]

Great set of pictures Neil, Wurzel will be pleased to see all those blue spots

[David M]

Indeed. Image six is particularly imbued.

[Wurzel]

Indeed I am loving the blue spots!

Small Copper

This Small Copper was ‘shot’ in Wales on a visit to my Out-laws. Last year the gate to the field behind their garden was removed and so I’s sneak through and scan around looking for butterflies of which there was a nice collection with Small Skippers, Brown Argus, Common Blues, the odd white as well as Hedge and Meadow Browns, Silver Y moths and also the odd Vanessid would drop in. The real stars of the show however were the Small Coppers.
That was last year. This year the gate was back, building work was moving on a plenty and the Rhos style grass had gone; drained and grazed. I was talking with my father in-law in the garden and the change of habitat came up in the conversation. He asked if it would mean that I would see fewer butterflies in the locale. I replied “probably – but maybe they’ll end up displaced into your garden”. And that’s when this Small Copper hove into view.

Have a goodun

Wurzel
p.s. I think I may have been onto something with my displacement idea as over the course of the week I saw Wall, Meadow Browns, Holly and Common Blues and a Brown Argus all in the confines of the back garden.