Brimstone - Favourite Photo of 2022

[Wurzel]

Brimstone - Favourite Photo of 2022

Week 1

Right then let’s kick things off and get started!

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.

Here we go!

Have a goodun

Wurzel
P.S. You might want to select your Favourite first so you can save it for the grand finale in 20 weeks time…

[millerd]

No contest in my mind about this - the photo I managed (largely by chance) up on Dunstable Downs back on 24th April is the one I remember.

Dave

[Goldie M]

I was in Blean woods on the 14th May when I spotted the Brimstone hanging it seems from a Blue Bell , it made me laugh at the time so has to be a favourite Goldie

[Katrina]

Brimstone in daffodil just because I hadn't seen them interested in daffodils before

[David M]

No contest in my mind about this - the photo I managed (largely by chance) up on Dunstable Downs back on 24th April is the one I remember.

I hope you are going to enter that in the 2022 photography competition, Dave?

[Wolfson]

I watched a female Brimstone select a roost site on 9 November’21 in a privet hedge by my garden gate. I inadvertently disturbed her on 10 March ‘22. She flew a few meters and was intercepted by a male, they mated within seconds. I am bending the rules by selecting a photograph taken on 31 December’21 (my last butterfly photograph of ‘21), but also include a photograph of the same female taken on 10 March ‘22 with her mate.

[Allan.W.]

Took very few pictures of Brimstone this season ,they were seen in good numbers in all of my local woodlands ,but this one is probably my favourite . Feeding on a woodland Rhodedendron ,these Rhodedendrons have hardly spread in this section of the woodland ,and have been present for 20+ years to my knowledge ,on this particular warm day ,it certainly seemed attractive to the local Brimstones ,with up to 6 feeding at a time ,as i was watching the butterflies ,they were joined by a single of the rare (but spreading !) Long-Horned Bee (Longicornis ).
I,v never seen Brimstones feeding at Rhodies before .............So a first for me !
As a footnote to the above ,when i visited these bushes a few days later .................every flower and Bush section had been trimmed to ground level.
Allan.W.

[Wurzel]

Brimstone

This was taken during the August heatwave at a boiling Shipton Bellinger. I’d been wandering around ratcheting up the miles to Brostreak ratio (one of the biggest I’ve ever suffered) and this was one of 8 or so Brimstones all frequenting the same nectaring spot. At the time I wondered if they were doing resource partitioning in a way the mixed tit flocks do during the winter; all feeding at the same bush so they didn’t waste time flying to a new source only to find it already exhausted. While I mused I clicked away and only realised that I’d gotten this shot when I got home and was looking through the days collection. I struck me that it looked at first a bit like a colourful Dimetrodon but when I saw it later, beer in hand, I was transported back to Camden Town and a room full of Punks and Ska fans watching The Selector – I mean what a hairdo/Mohawk!

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

As ever, there were plenty of spring Brimstones round my way in late March and through April.

This one was found suitably settled at the entrance to Lower Kilvey Hill on 20th March:

[Neil Freeman]

Brimstones are always a bit hit and miss around my local patch and over the past few years I have tended to see more passing through my garden than out and about, probably due to me planting a few Alder Buckthorn a few years back. Curiously these are always in the spring after hibernation and I don't see them here later in the summer.
This year was no exception and I saw both males and females on numerous occasions from mid April and through May. My favourite shots were a male and female, both taken on the same warm day in May when a mix of cloud slowed them down a bit.

Brimstone male - Coverdale 10.05.2022

Brimstone female - Coverdale 10.05.2022

Cheers,

Neil.

[Phil Bowler]

So many Brimstone shots this year, I could have chosen six, including egg-laying and mating shots, but in the end I went for this female feeding on primroses in our Lincolnshire butterfly garden, because of the camouflage.

[bugboy]

I've never been able to resist a backlit Brimstone, much easier to get when they're feeding up in high summer for hibernation. This male was notable for also having quite prominent black streaks on the underside, ab. hoefnageli.

[David M]

I posted my 'favourite' Brimstone on 23rd October, but little did I know it would be usurped on 12th November by this mint fresh male, found resting on an ivy leaf in Park Wood, just 5 minutes' drive from my home:

[downland boy]

My favourite Brimstone photograph is of this male busily feeding on fleabane in preparation for hibernation.



http://eastsussexwanderer.blogspot.co.uk