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Comma - Favourite Photo of 2019

Week 3

As the clocks have turned back and there are still several months until the Solstice the chances of seeing butterflies are declining quite rapidly – but cheer up as the Favourites thread is only just getting going!

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 got then!

Have a goodun

Wurzel

My two favourite Comma photo's from this year - an aberration caught on my phone camera, and an underside with the light nicely showing off the green colouration on this fresh example.

My favourite Comma photograph brings back memories of the February heatwave when I was working in the woods in 20 degrees. Brimstones, Commas and Orange Underwing moths were out in force and not much work was done that day. Downland boy.


http://eastsussexwanderer.blogspot.co.uk

I also have two photo's of Comma's, one still makes me wonder how it got the marks on it's wings, (photo taken in Blean Woods Kent) on 21st July and the other one taken in ( my Garden) on 24th August shows the contrast between the two : Goldie

petesmith wrote:...an aberration caught on my phone camera..

What an insect! Thank God for mobile phone imaging!

Commas seemed a bit thin on the ground around my patch this year although they showed up everywhere that I would expect them to, just in fewer numbers than the previous couple of years.
Having said that, a couple of Commas, along with a couple of Small Tortoiseshells, provided me with my first ever February butterflies around here.
And one from later in the summer.
Cheers,

Neil.

I can't compete with that amazing aberration! I did alright for normal-looking Commas this year, though I didn't take a better photo after 25th March, when the first individual of the year appeared on Walmgate Stray.

My favourite Commas always come from the splendidly coloured hutchinsoni summer brood. They appear in midsummer, and this year the peak of emergence was 27th June when I found 13 on my local patch. Here are a few of those. Dave

I find Comma's particularly photogenic all season, the flash of bright orange on a crisp early spring day, the gaudy summer hutchinsoni and then blending in with the autumnal palette but for me this year, the most memorable Comma moment was when I witnessed a pupae being parasitised by a Pimpla Ichneumon wasp, gruesome but fascinating.

This is possibly Britain's finest poseur, so with a multitude of images, it's hard to pick favourites.

Two late season shots (8 Sept) from West Williamston in Pembrokeshire are as good as any I took in 2019:

I was very pleased to find this early Comma, basking in the sunshine on the warm sandstone cliffs of Dry Sandford Pit, in Cothill, Oxon.
Mike

Comma

Despite seeing plenty of Commas this year which could easily have fitted into the category of ‘Favourite’ I actually chose this one. It was taken at Stourhead in the third week of October and thus far is therefore my final Comma of 2019. The reason I chose it? Because of the incongruity of the shot. It’s sitting on the leaf of a Banana bush suggesting balmy temperatures and summer yet it was taken on a damp Autumn afternoon and I had a bit of job taking the shot as I couldn’t feel my fingers despite wearing my gloves!
Have a goodun

Wurzel

Two Autumn Commas ,both from Orlestone (Kent ) the one looking down a ride towards the road I really like ,despite
being not in good focus. The other was a real beauty …………………...and my pic doesn,t really do it justice ,but anyway its another favourite.
Regards Allan.W.

"This one was with my iPhone, my favourite because most of this native DBS "flower share" was in focus, on a day when my Wife and I also independently discovered Silver-washed Fritillary in Southrey Wood, which had been absent there for a long time, prior to 2019.

I had a request. I would have liked to see an undisturbed Comma in woodland hibernation picture, as Peacocks and Small Tortoiseshell were much easier to find, often using our buildings or structures.

A contribution from La Brenne, France. https://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/p22 ... #hdbecfb2f