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Red Admiral - Favourite Photo of 2020

Week 14

Not long to go now – the first wave of emergences seems to kick off in mid-February – so fingers crossed and eyes peeled!

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.

Just a reminder - it might be a good idea to start selecting your Overall Favourite Butterfly Photo of 2020 now as we’re starting to draw to the grand finale.


Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

Once again in 2020 my garden in Aberdeen was full of Red Admiral butterflies. I did see my first one of the year out at Cambus o May on Deeside on 4th July. All other photos were taken in my garden in August and September.
Sitting out on a late summer day watching these beauties glide from one buddleia to the next is a joy.

Quite a good year for this species both in the garden and at my local patches.

As with Peacocks, the Red Admiral had a superb year in Hampshire. In fact, I have never seen so many.

My first was at Magdalen Hill Down on 21st March. There was a notable influx in the third week of April, which must have been replicated all over the southern counties. These then bred and led to an explosion from the end of June. They were everywhere. My highest count was 60 individuals at West Wood in Winchester, on 5th July. I recorded 575 in total.

The Red Admiral also gave me my first ever December sighting, near Winchester, on 20th December.

This individual was photographed on a bridge over The River Itchen, next to a large buddleia bush, at the end of June.

My favourite goes to one I reared (having accidentally adopting it after collecting nettles for my Peacock larvae), which emerged as a raher striking ab, ocellata and a bonus image of it as a fully grown larave, stitching up one of its leafy tents on my window shelf

The Red Admiral was the second species I saw in 2020 on 16 March in Newlyn, Cornwall. It was the last species I saw in 2020, on 17 November in a Cambridgeshire wood. The photograph I have selected was taken a few days earlier feeding high on a large Mahonia in my front garden. This Mahonia is about 4 m tall and starts flowering in early October and still has a few flowers left today. It is a magnet for late flying insects, long after the ivy has finished flowering.

I think my favourite shot of the Admiral last year was on the 1st of Sept when I found one on my Begonia I'd lots of Admirals in the Garden starting from June onwards , when I went to Kent for a short spell in July I found one in my Daughters garden which came every day and had a real fascination with my her clothes line Goldie

This beauty was nectaring on Seaside Daisy on the Southbourne cliffs, Bournemouth on 16th October, and is by a counry mile my favourite of the year.

It was June before I saw my first 2020 Red Admirals, perfectly normal for my patch. They still don't seem to overwinter here although over the past few years I have begun to see a few early records from elsewhere around the midlands. I guess the location of Solihull on the southern side of the Birmingham Plateau means the winter climate tends to be just that bit too cold for them here still https://billdargue.jimdofree.com/glossa ... irmingham/

One of my favourite shots was of this one that settled on my trousers during one of my walks to my local spot at Wagon Lane.

Thereafter, they appeared in good numbers through the summer but seemed to fizzle out by early September with just a few seen during our stay in Dorset and just a couple back home after that.
Cheers,

Neil.

A welcome early visitor to my garden before any of us knew what 2020 was going to unleash .
Mike

Red- Admiral Favourite Photo 2020

This was taken during the tail end of the season. I don’t know about you but I always try and wring out every last opportunity in the late autumn as it could be the last and so start the long wait until spring. This wasn’t but I chose it anyway as the individual was very accommodating – letting me get right up in its grill and so I was able to get some of the closest close up f this species that I’d ever gotten. What with its coiled proboscis and the ‘brush feet’ I felt that it has something of the look of a Tarantula about it, albeit a buck toothed one at that!
Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

Didn't see huge numbers in 2020, but they were regulars on the count in late summer & autumn.

This one on the south Gower coast on 27 September caught my eye as the sunlight was reflecting off the cryptic underside pattern: