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Common Blue - Favourite Photo of 2017

Week 4 - onwards and upwards .

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

Another photo from my remarkable day at Bucknell Wood in Northamptonshire. This male shows the distinctive double fringe, which can cause identification confusion, when the plain outer fringe wears down to leave only the chequered inner fringe.
Mike

For this species the thing that sticks in my mind was the shear number of 'blue' females, both ones which I saw in the flesh and those others have shared on here. They were also one of the many species that 'bounced back' after the dreadful 2016 so with those two points in mind, picking out one picture proved rather difficult A token male in the form of an Irish animal, the blue, to my eye's at least, seemed to be of a slightly different, brighter hue than English insects.

I caught this mating pair 'holding hands'.....it must be love.


http://eastsussexwanderer.blogspot.co.uk

Amongst many photos taken this year it is hard to select any one (or even half a dozen!) in particular. As Buggy mentioned, blue females seemed widespread in 2017, and when fresh these are exquisitely colourful jewels adorning the grass.

However, the more unusual individuals from the many sightings stand out in the memory: on 21st July the second brood was in full swing on my local patch, and I managed a couple of shots of a nice fresh male. Looking at them later, I noticed that there were orange spots in the angle of the upper hindwings - I have never seen any orange anywhere on the upperside of a male Common Blue before.
On 17th September, again on my local patch, I found a lovely third brood female. Again, looking later on at the underside shot I'd taken, I noticed that at least one of the black spots had its centre filled with orange-brown. I'd not seen that before either. Fascinating - whether within normal variation, or qualifying as true aberrations (whatever the definition of that actually is! ), the variety and diversity to be seen out there is amazing. You can almost appreciate why the Victorians amassed such large collections of butterflies of the same species - they didn't have digital cameras!

Dave

I favour two shots of the Common Blue, one I took on the 28th May in Southport Dunes and the other one an ab taken on the White Cliffs in Dover, I'm including the ab because it's the first ab I've seen of a CB and in spite of it being rather Blue ( my mistake with the Camera) I still like it. Goldie

Sorry folks for posting more than one or two Common Blue shots ,but for me ,these were the star species for 2017 !(along with Purple Hairstreaks ) and I took many pictures ,even more than Small Coppers,had some exceptional high counts at several local sites (in Kent )including
( as I,ve said before ) three 80 + counts in Orlestone forest ,where in most years you,d be lucky to count 5-10 . The first picture was taken at a Late Spider Orchid site near Brook ,where I also managed to see 2 Black veined moths ,and another (scarsish) plant ....Common Gromwell. The next two shots were from Dungeness a male and a female underside ,which I was pleased with. The last two were two Abs; that I stumbled across one from Lydenn/Temple Ewell on the 27th July and the last from Dungeness on 23rd Sept. Regards Allan.W.

I think I'll stay safe on this one and propose the traditional cop shot, from April 29th, South of France. Well done to Millerd for his orange-brown spots and to Allan for his aberrant individuals.
Chris

Continuing the ab theme, here's a rather smart male hoping to pass his distinctive appearance on to the next generation.


(14th October)

I took that photograph on 14th October in the Rhône Valley. On 25th October he was still strutting his stuff. This next is not particularly a favourite picture - I include it just to show his condition 11 days after the first shot:


(25th October)

He was still very active. Unfortunately, nectar sources were very thin on the ground and I fear he might simply have run out of energy by now.

Guy

The most attractive individual I saw in 2017 was this female at the Point of Ayre in the Isle of Man on 5th August:
My first male of the year was also most welcome on 13th May:

Some great photographs have been posted. For me, the "blue" females are about as attractive as UK butterflies get. Some crazy Abs. as well.
My favorite is mundane by comparison; it is my favorite as it was taken at home on a trefoil that I planted a few years ago primarily to encourage Common Blues.

Common Blue

This was taken at Martin Down during August so I guess that’s a second or maybe a third brood pairing? It’s my favourite as it was one of the few pairing Blues that I found this year and it was also the best set of Common Blues that I’d seen that day – the rest were all looking a lot more shabby. I also really like the contrast between the genders with one pale and drawn looking and the other vivid and fresh
Have a goodun

Wurzel

There seemed to be plenty of Common Blues about this year.

A male from my local patch.
During my travels, I saw a good selection of females with varying amounts of blue,
But my favourite is probably this underside of a first brood male seen nectaring at head height on hawthorn blossom at Bishops Hill Warwickshire, simply because I had not seen a Common Blue feeding so high up before,
Cheers,

Neil.

Your female from Kennack Sands is most unusual, Neil. Those anvil shaped white markings near the hindwing margins are something I've never seen before.

"Common Seals are not, generally as common as they once were. The 'Right whale' is no longer the right whale to hunt for many more people, compared with, when populations were more numerous.
Our Native Wild Flowers (which were 'in more numerous history', called 'weeds'), are now far more preacious because of declining native species that they support. Those species support our 'wildlife' higher up the habitat food chain, that some bird watchers like to watch.

In Lincolnshire, I think that the ‘Common’ Blue Butterfly might now be scarcer the Holly Blue.
It certainly appears to be in some localities that I have visited.
The species map for Lincolnshire showed more red dots on it for Common Blue sightings, but I think the Holly blue is less recorded, being sometimes on the wing, higher in a Canopy. One might be hard pushed, not to find a population of Holly Blue Butterflies in just about every village in Lincolnshire!
“A Common Blue might not be Common on a Common Orchid”