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Large Skipper - Favourite Photo of 2018

Week 9

Apparently Christmas is coming ? So we must be entering the 9th week of the Favourites Thread

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

Chobham Common once again proved good hunting grounds for Large Skippers. I love this shot, just capturing the face of an incoming Honey Bee homing in on the unsuspecting Skipper.

I took my shots of the Large Skipper on the 5th of June at Brockholes CP, it was another hot day so I was hoping they would be flying, I picked the coolest spot in the meadow and there they were.
I liked all three of these photos because it was my Husbands Birthday Goldie

I'm torn between them, the first one is Woodwalton Fen on 24th June and the second is Aversley Wood again on 7th July. I was having a particularly lucky day

I took a number of perfectly nice, but unspectacular, photos of Large Skipper this year. This one stands out, however, because it was such an extremely late record of a perfectly fresh individual - taken on 24th July at Fenn's and Whixall Mosses NNR on the first day of my fieldwork campaign.

Perhaps not quite as many as usual on my local patch this year. One from 5th June, however, stands out in the memory as a slightly unusual view showing the characteristic wing alignment common to certain species of skipper.Comparisons to biplanes and x-wing fighters have been drawn...

Dave

Difficult to know how this year's weather affected Large Skippers. On the one hand, they entered the world when conditions were perfect. However, by mid July the grassland had dried out due to the drought so this species may not be around in great numbers in 2019.

This male was seen at Crymlyn Burrows, Swansea, on 10th June:

My favorite Large Skipper, taken 3-07-2018 Dordogne, France. https://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/p56 ... #hbf6af873

Large Skipper female, 12th July, French Pyrenees.

Large Skipper

I’ve been working on ‘collections’ over the years; ‘stained glass’, ‘butterflies on poop’, ‘butterflies in the hand’ and of course ‘butterflies in cop’. During the first week of June I was checking out the Schools meadow and wild area when I spied a large, odd looking butterfly like shape in the Bramble. As I got nearer it resolved into three butterflies - a pair in cop and a voyeur sitting on the side. I therefore chose this shot showing my first Large Skipper paring, a great addition to my collection and also the first of a hat-trick of new ‘in cop’ additions.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

Like many of the summer grassland species this year Large Skipper numbers seemed to be lower than usual. My first ones were seen in early June, slightly later than usual, but then, again like other summer species, they seemed to burn themselves out fairly quickly in the hot weather later in the summer.
I particularly like the shot below of a male on lavender in my garden,
Cheers,

Neil.