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Brimstone - Favourite Photo of 2020

Week 1

And so it begins…Starting this week the first opportunity to showcase your favourite shots of 2020!

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.

Also a quick reminder that it might be a good idea to select your Overall Favourite Butterfly Photo of 2020 first so that you’ve got something to post when the series of threads culminates in 20 weeks time…

Let’s get cracking!

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

The Brimstone was the first butterfly of the year for me, with no fewer than seven seen near home on the sunny and warm 11th March. However, the one that particularly sticks in the memory is a male individual seen (again close to home) on 19th May. Its behaviour was that of a newly emerged butterfly, avidly nectaring and hopping between flowers rather than patrolling the hedgerows in search of females as a hibernator would be doing. It could just conceivably have been the offspring of the first butterflies seen in March, but I shall never know! Nevertheless, its unusual behaviour allowed for some open-wing shots as it moved from bloom to bloom.It certainly appeared to be a very fresh-looking individual.

Dave

Spring ...



Guy

Believe it or not I saw only one Brimstone this year and that was whilst I was in my garden, the Butterfly flew into the middle of my Boules Mauve and was nearly hidden this was on the 20th of May and even when I went to Kent I didn't see any, usually there's loads in Blean Woods but on my visits there I saw none, mind you this was East Blean I visited not Blean Woods near Harbledown Goldie

A lifetime first for me this spring was finding a pair of Brimstones in cop.

What happened subsequently was even more amazing, as a second male tried to interrupt the happy couple:

Brimstones are never particularly numerous around my local patch but I usually get a few passing though the garden in spring, a bit more so since planting a few alder buckthorns a few years back.

A couple of males below that stopped for a bit during the notably warm weather we had from April into May.
I also spotted a couple females checking out the buckthorns and watched one laying but she was too mobile and within the shrubs to get any photos. She did however drop down to feed occasionally which gave me a chance.
Later in the summer, they seemed very thin on the ground.

Cheers,

Neil.

Brimstones are a welcome splash of colour in the spring and again in high summer. I saw my last hibernator in early June and not four weeks later, the new brood was on the wing.

This is one of my favourite shots of this year.

Brimstone

As I was starting to look back over 2020 to make my selections other memories came flooding back as well and it’s probably for that reason that I chose this as my Favourite shot of a Brimstone. It was taken at the end of the road on the way back from a dark and dreary visit to Middle Street. It had been dull, cool and grey as I’d set out; an example of prophetic fallacy as this was pre-Lockdown when Corona was an unclear but present danger, the death toll was rising and people were pretty fearful. In this fog of depression a male Brimstone took to the wing in the very faintest of brightness, a few more Lux really, and flew from end of the hedge to the other. It was a pathetically short distance but I didn’t care as the sight of it lifted my spirits immeasurably. It then clung upside to a leaf, ensconced in the hedge sitting out the drear and rain. It remained there for a further three days before the weather finally cheered up a little.
Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

I love a good action shot and the slow flapping of a Brimstone lends them so well for in flight efforts. This female took flight in the middle of a burst of shots and stayed in the plane of focus during a break in looking for Wood Whites at Chiddingfold back in July:)

I only got one photo of a Brimstone this year, so it was an easy choice
It was during the first week of lockdown, so it brightened my day.
Vince

Male & Female at Morgans Hill, Wiltshire 20th May

My favourite was this one sharing a leaf on sunny April 4th