Speckled Wood - Favourite Photo of 2021

[Wurzel]

Speckled Wood - Favourite Photo of 2021

Week 18

Not long to go now! Only a couple or so weeks left of the 2021 Favourites thread and possibly only a couple more weeks until the 2022 Season starts in earnest.

Please could I ask that everyone waits until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos as then it will be easier to keep track of things? Of course our overseas members are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants. As in previous years 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 and stay safe

Wurzel

[Bertl]

All my encounters with speckled woods happened late May out at my favourite haunt at Cambus o May on Deeside. All photos taken then.

[downland boy]

My favourite Speckled Wood photograph is this side-on view of a male taken in a Wealden wood in May.



http://eastsussexwanderer.blogspot.co.uk

[petesmith]

Only one candidate for my favourite Speckled Wood of 2021 - the dramatically different ab.saturatior from Chambers farm Wood, central Lincolnshire - 23rd August. Unforgettable!

[Goldie M]

My shots were taken in my Back Garden in August and September of last year, I didn't see any until then which was unusual.

The weather was hot at the time so they mostly kept their wings closed when in the Sun on the flowers and were quick going into the shade.Goldie

[David M]

..Unforgettable!

Absolutely, Pete. A spectacular ab. No doubt about it.

[Vince Massimo]

This is one of the few photographed by me this season, but it's special to me because it was my latest ever sighting of this species on 25th November.

Speckled Wood - Crawley, Sussex 25-Nov-2021

Vince

[millerd]

As usual for this species local to me, numbers were highest in the late summer. There were a few highlights though, including an individual with slightly obscure markings that turned up at Bookham on 20th July.

On 11th September on a walk round my local patch I found a series of newly emerged examples, including this female...

...and this male...

...seen very close to each other. A few days later I was lucky enough to encounter a mating pair, a sight I have only witnessed once before. On that previous occasion, I had watched the couple fall from the trees above, and I suspect this may well have been the case here too as they shortly took off and flew straight up into the foliage and effectively disappeared.

Finally, another new example spotted on the 1st became one of an unprecedented eight species seen on my local patch in November 2021.

Dave

[Neil Freeman]

As was the norm last year, the spring brood were a little late putting in an appearance around my patch with the first one showing up at Wagon Lane on 13th April but then another 6 days before I saw another one, in my garden, on the 19th.
Thereafter they had a so-so year with more than the usual number of days when I would not see any at all due to poor weather. Numbers were definitely down a bit throughout the year with even the late season increase not as numerous compared with what I usually see around here.

Speckled Wood male - Coverdale 24.04.2021

Speckled Wood female - Coverdale 26.07.2021

Speckled Wood male - Coverdale 22.07.2021

Speckled Wood male - Blythe Valley 24.08.2021

Speckled Wood male - Langley Hall 26.08.2021

Cheers,

Neil.

[David M]

Some lovely examples as ever, Neil, particularly the backlit underside shot.

[Wurzel]

Speckled Wood

Sometimes a butterfly shot sticks in your mind because it was a cracker and other times it’s because of the behaviour it exhibited. The image may linger in your memory due to the associating it with a great trip in brilliant company or it may be down to the characteristics, physical or otherwise, of the butterfly. This shot was my favourite for several reasons and not least the later mentioned one in the previous list. It was taken during some ‘down/trapped time’ whilst I waiting for my windscreen to be replaced. I was back in Dorset, a stones throw away from where I grew up in fact and so I visited a local nature reserve that I’d surprisingly only visited once before – Creekmoor Ponds. As I crossed the road leaving the urban and entering the ‘wild’ this little chap appeared at the edge of the reserve. He was holding territory and would flutter confrontationally out across the path in front of me before landing and metaphorically slamming his staff down and bellowing “None shall pass!”.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

My favourite was the first I saw in 2021, coming on 30th March just after I had been given my first Covid jab: