Small Skipper – Favourite Photo of 2017

[Wurzel]

Small Skipper – Favourite Photo of 2017

Week 17 – As I get older it seems that the summers fly by and the winters always drag... But now we're almost into February and so Small Torts are only a few weeks away!

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

[IAC]

The Small Skipper have now become one of the commoner species especially in the eastern Scottish Borders this past decade and more. They turn up in ones and twos at new sites very regularly and then suddenly produce plague proportions the following summer. They have made some big shifts inland to upland sites in the Lammermuirs and have now been seen in huge numbers up the Tweed Valley and through to Ettrick. I saw one small site last year that housed well in excess of a thousand Butterflies, each Marsh Thistle flower head hosting several Skippers jostling for position. This Small Skipper was from a local quarry site, one of the first places I ever saw the species back in 2007 and they are still doing well here despite a scrubbing up of the quarry this past decade.

[David M]

It's a common butterfly south of the Midlands but I saw precious few in 2017 due mainly to being absent at the beginning and towards the main point of their flight period.

I DID manage to capture an image though - of this individual in Abergavenny on 22nd July:

[MikeOxon]

Yet another photo in this thread from my memorable afternoon in Bucknell Wood, near Silverstone, Northants.

Bucknell Wood, Northants - 25th July 2017
Olympus E-M1 with 100-400 mm lens - 1/1250s@f/11 ISO 1000

Mike

[Goldie M]

I saw my Small Skipper's in the sand Dunes at Southport on the 5th of July, the weather was very warm that day and quite a few were flying.Goldie

[Allan.W.]

Small Skippers had an excellent season in 2017 in Mid-Kent with high numbers at many sites ,in particular at Dungeness ,they seemed to be just about everywhere on the peninsular for about two weeks ,certainly the highest numbers, I,ve ever seen ,that said my female is from the Orlestone forest. Regards Allan.W.

[bugboy]

I missed the start of their season due to my travels but luckily they were still around in July and I found this fresh one on one of my failed trips to find fresh Large Torts at North Stoke. It's a lovely site so even without the target species it's still a nice way to spend a day

[millerd]

Good numbers on my local patch in 2017, starting around the middle of June. This male from 13th posed very nicely, as the sun retreated behind a cloud and kept the butterfly stationary.

Dave

[Neil Freeman]

I am not sure if numbers of Small Skippers were really down around my patch or if I simply missed the peak numbers due to them emerging a bit early with me being elsewhere at the time, but whatever the reason I certainly saw fewer when I visited the usual spots at the usual times and many of those were past their best.

I only took few photos of these and most were head on record shots to determine if they were Smalls or Essex. The best I managed was this one from the park by my moms house.

Small Skipper - Langley Hall 30.06.2017

Cheers,

Neil

[Wurzel]

Small Skipper

This was taken earlier on the same day as my Small Copper favourite from Durlston. During the course of the trip we encountered four species of Skipper and a whole range of behaviours and different type of shots. Form the Small Skippers we had open wing and closed wing shots, front on showing the antennae, X-wing style shots, we saw males and females, courtship, copulating pairs, ovi-posturing and ovi-positing and also a male trying to butt in on an established pairing – phew!

This shot of one of the copulating pairs that we found is my favourite as I really like the way they arranged themselves into an almost symmetrical compositition.

Have a goodun

Wurzel