Dark Green Fritillary - Favourite Photo of 2023

[Wurzel]

Dark Green Fritillary - Favourite Photo of 2023

Week 4

Last year I wrote about how ‘there might not be many butterflies left after the deluges’…looks like history repeated itself! Saying that I’m sure there might be a few stalwarts still out there looking to stretch their wings should the sun reappear!

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

Wurzel

[Wurzel]

Dark Green Fritillary

When it came to which DGF to choose for the Favourite shot this year there was really only one choice. It came from Martin Down and I’d had a few encounters during the course of the visit but they were mainly males that were looking a little tatty or frayed around the edges. As I started back from the Big Butt along the Dyke this little beauty flew in, landed and supped for just long enough that I could approach and fire off a few shots. Then she was gone leaving a lingering feeling that she’d been a sultry dusky maiden. As I wandered back and checked my shots I saw that she had indeed been that – a stunning looking DGF.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

I think the DGF I remember best was one I encountered on 29th June at Box Hill in the old members' car park, where it was behaving rather like a Purple Emperor. It certainly allowed a close approach...

Dave

[Bertl]

I visited St Cyrus NNR early July and as usual there were a few DGF on the wing. They were very active and tough to photograph as they moved from thistle to thistle.

Also managed to see a couple late July while walking near the River Dee at Aboyne. I had to wait and watch for about 30 minutes before I got a photo opportunity of this female.

Best photos attached.

Bert.

[ChrisStamp]

Each year we get one or two Dark greens making a 1km excursion from their Perthshire hillside colony to visit our spring-flowering buddleia globosa in the back garden.

[overthepass]

How nice to have a DGF on your buddleia globosa! Actually how nice to have any butterflies at all - I see from the Small Tort that it finds favour with at least one other species. We've had a globosa in the garden for many years - it grows very vigorously, flowers very reliably, but so far as I recall has never attracted a single butterfly. (Not that we'd have much chance of a DGF in the garden anyhow.)

[overthepass]

I didn't visit DGF sites very much during the flight period, so will settle for the only one which showed any kind of co-operation. It was perching on a rose bush in a slightly hidden space during a passage of cloud on Box Hill. The bush itself inhibited a close approach, but once the sun started to re-emerge conditions improved a bit.

[Neil Freeman]

I only saw Dark Green Fritillaries on the one occasion this year, this being at Harbury Spoilbank in Warwickshire in late June. Numbers were down on the previous few years with around 12-15 different individuals seen although these did include a mating pair that I disturbed out of the grass alongside one of the paths.
They flew up into a small oak tree where they stayed and shuffled about a bit and then opened up when the sun re-appeared from behind a cloud.

Dark Green Fritillary pair - Harbury 29.06.2023

Cheers,

Neil.

[David M]

That female's absolutely magnificent, Neil.

[IAC]

A bogey Butterfly that often gets away before Im anywhere near. This year was a little different for a while visiting on three consecutive mornings during late June. The weather was well naff however that suited me fine as I was able to stumble across piles of Dark Greens sitting silently in the grasslands around Greenlaw Dean in the Scottish Borders.The bright orange was easy to see at a distance. I was finding dozens of males sitting in leks surrounding females waiting for any warmth to begin festivities. I only ever had a few hours each day until they had fired up the engines. After that it was, as it usually is, a thankless task chasing them around.If Dark Greens are flying. Best let them be.

[Wolfson]

A very easy choice. Taking a stroll around my garden looking at the fresh Marbled White, Skippers etc. when I came across my first garden Dark Green Fritillary . They are present in a quarry a few miles away and in good numbers at Therfield Heath, getting on for 10 miles away, so it was only a matter of time.

[David M]

My favourite was this individual, taken at Alun Valley, Glamorgan, on the morning of 15th June:

[Matsukaze]

Noguera, Spain, 1 August. These were flying around a streamside patch of thistles but were rarely stopping to nectar.

[David M]

Aah, happy days, Chris! Seem to recall that High Browns were rather commoner than Dark Greens that day.

[bugboy]

It's nearly always that a female will be my chosen image and this year is no different. I like this context one, bringing back memories of sunnier, warmer days at the height of summer