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Heath Fritillary - Favourite Photo of 2019

Week 7

Another week passes and we’re another week closer to the new season starting – only another 3 months to go now! Closer than that is the Winter Social at the newly refurbished Old Forge, Otterbourne next Saturday – hope to see you there!

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

I'm afraid my one shot of a Heath Fritillary isn't very good It was the 17th of July and I was in East Blean Woods Kent, I was hobbling a long with a walking stick trying my best to keep to the paths and out of the way of tree roots ( Fractured Foot)

I was convinced that I'd not see any H Frits thinking it was too late for them so I was concentrating on trying to find White Admiral's, having been in Blean Woods before looking for WA I knew where these butterflies liked to fly, I'd seen them in the same place each year ( not always able to get shots) So imagine my surprise when I spotted this Heath Fritillary, too late to get really close and limited with the walking stick I got at least one shot but the the Butterfly stopped very briefly and never really settled, so it has to be posted because I was so pleased to see it Goldie

I saw these at two sites this year, both the woods they still occupy in Essex. This shot comes from a dodgy day weather wise with numerous showers and only fleeting glimpses of the sun, but when I arrived at the hotspot I found in excess of 50 sitting around doing their best to make the most of the poor June we had.

My two pictures ,like Goldies ,were taken on one of two early morning visits to East Blean wood, Kent,one morning ,the weather went from bad to worse ,and the wood was also partially flooded in many places ,and that morning I only managed about half a dozen .
Bumped into a couple of gents who pointed out a fair group of Fritillary larvae ,and in turn I tried to put them on to,one of two Norfolk Hawker
dragonflies ,that were zipping about ,the other picture is of a slight abberant ………………….. AB;Obsoleta I believe.
Unusually last season Heath Frits from a partial second brood were seen in several other sections of the Blean forest, right up to early September ! Allan.W.

I've seen hundreds of these in Europe this year but haven't got an image worthy of posting, so it's nice to see a few folks paid greater attention to them in the UK this year.

A stop off at Haddon Hill on the way down to the Heddon Valley in June on a wet and dreary afternoon produced a single roosting Heath Fritillary, the only one I saw this year.
At least the conditions meant that it was not moving and allowed me to trim away some intervening grass stems and get my best underside shot of this species to date.
Cheers,

Neil.

I had a couple of visits to Hockley Woods in Essex this year, both almost as side trips from seeing other species. The first was a postscript to the Swallowtails in Norfolk, and I only just made it before the rain came down, However, this meant conditions were actually favourable for seeing the butterflies catching the last warmth from the strong June sunshine filtering through the thickening cloud. Most were males.I returned a couple of weeks later after seeing the White-letter Hairstreaks at nearby Hadleigh, and in hot sunshine saw many more - though they were far trickier to photograph. This interestingly marked female stood out......as well as a pair spotted by Dave Cook, who I had bumped into well away from his usual Sussex haunts. Dave

It's not actually 2019 (was 2018) but I have just added a short video to my athalia page, linked from YouTube (best at 1080):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj-pmbNNrro

It's readily apparent why I haven't received a BAFTA nomination.

Roger