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Small Tortoiseshell - Favourite Photo of 2015

Week 17

Another week and another step closer to the season beginning - still no butterflies for me so I will just have to continue to enjoy the offerings from 2015

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

Fortunately, this species seems to have recovered after a rather sharp decline, a few years ago. Thankfully so, because I think it is Britain's most beautiful butterfly:
Mike

Not as many as last year, but we had a good few in the garden nevertheless.

I saw reasonable numbers on my home patch in the spring and a few in the summer, but hardly any in the Autumn. I hope they hibernated early with the Peacocks. More were in evidence up in Yorkshire, as is often the case. Two from April, near home... ...and two from Wilberfoss in Yorkshire The most unusual photo I took was of a Tortoiseshell amorously accosting a Peacock (also on 10th April) Dave

A female laying eggs on nettle, 4th July

Most of my shots were taken in the back garden last year where I had lots of Butterflies especially the Small Tortoiseshells starting from March onwards, I hope this year they arrive early again Goldie

This little gem from Pembrokeshire, taken on 29th August, was probably my favourite 2015 image:

A Small Tortoiseshell was the second species that I saw in 2015, narrowly beaten by a Comma a few minutes earlier on 20th March. During the following weeks they then appeared in good number at all the local sites that I would expect to see them at although there were fewer in the garden this year. I witnessed plenty of courtship activity between these awakening hibernators and managed to capture a number of photos of this.
One of the joys of spring is seeing butterflies on the early blossoms,
The individual above looked a bit paler than usual and I saw a few pale looking examples among these ex-hibernators, some were obviously faded but others looked to be otherwise in reasonable condition.
From late June the summer brood started appearing and then I saw fairly good numbers throughout the season right up until October.
I have posted this shot taken at Durdle Door in Dorset with 5 STs basking in the early evening sun a few times already but I actually prefer the closer shot of the three in a line which is probably my favourite out of the lot.
I have ended up posting a few more than I intended there but I had already whittled my selection down from a 'short list' of thirty odd photos and couldn't decide between them...oh well!

Cheers,

Neil

You sure filled you boots with 'Torties' last year, Neil.

Looks like a rare sunny day when this first pic was taken 31st July - somewhere in the New Forest.
.....and one more from early September, an attempt at a more atmospheric pic than the usual close-up.

Always lovely to see a flash of day glow orange when out and about, here's one I found whilst out exploring Malling Down back in August

Despite the all-embracing distribution maps in some publications, I class this species as an irregular vagrant down in my neck of the woods in the Bouches du Rhone, in the South of France. A sighting of one of these immediately attracts my undivided attention. Some of T. Lafranchis' maps do show this precise distribution which excludes a very thin strip on the South coast of France.
Here, on globularia, near Vitrolles on March 8th. I like your multiple basking shots, Neil.

Cheers, Chris

Small Tortoiseshell

I’ve tried my hardest throughout this series to stick to just selecting my ‘Favourite Photo’ and so have had to choose a single image. However I really struggled when it came to this species as I had seen so many and photographed so many in 2015. In the end I gave in and chose two images.

The first was taken early in the season at Llanachaeron and stood out for me because of the totally fluked composition of the image. I saw movement, spun round and clicked allowing autofocus to do the rest and there was another image for another one of my collections – ‘Butterflies on Daffs’ (when I say Daffs I mean Daffodil like flowers). The second was taken at totally the opposite end of the season. It stood out because of the lush colours which seemed so out of place on an early Autumn morning. Also it was taken during my duty at break and was some consolation for having to traipse around trying to find pupils that had absconded to the local shop or nipped of site for a quick smoke. Have a goodun

Wurzel

My first sightings of this species were in mid March this year, but this photo looks like it could have been taken in the autumn.
Vince