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Small Tortoiseshell - Favourite Photo of 2020

Week 17

Aconites, Primroses, Snowdrops, Cocci and even Daffs are out – Spring is almost here…well almost as this week is set to be brass monkey weather! Oh well it’ll make those first butterflies all the more sweeter.

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

Seen my first small tortoiseshell on 8th April and my last of the season on 21st August. All photos taken in or close to my garden in Aberdeen city. It always brightened up my day during lockdown when one of these little beauties appeared in the garden.

My favourite is this picture of the first one I saw last year, back in the middle of March, simply can't beat a springtime nymphalid on Blackthorn blossom to blow away the winter blues

The 9th of June in my back garden is where I took my favourite shots, I took so many photos I'm lost really for choice The Small Tortoiseshell had a really great year up here in the North and is usually the first Butterfly we see in the Spring, Roll on Spring Goldie

This aberrant tort was photographed near Frome on 15 June - I haven't seen its like before.

A reasonable year here although my first sighting wasn't until 6th April.

I am going to say that the Small Tortoiseshell was my 'Butterfly of the Year' for 2020.
I saw them in the kind of numbers that I have not seen around here for some years and took loads of photos of both those re-appearing in the spring and then again later in the summer. In fact I took so many photos that I am going to limit the ones that I post here to ones taken within walking distance from home, and even then I had trouble whittling them down to a 'reasonable' number.
I saw my first ones on 21st of March, which is pretty average timing for around here, although they did appear with a bit of a bang with the most I have ever seen on my first day of sightings included a number of courting pairs.
They were then seen every day that I went out on my daily exercise walk during the first 'lockdown'.
Given the numbers seen in the spring, both by myself and by reports from elsewhere in the midlands, where was considerable hope for a good summer emergence. The first fresh summer examples were seen flying before the end of May and by early June it was apparent that they were emerging in very good numbers. During June and into July, some of my walks to my local spot at Wagon Lane produced 40-50 plus each time, and this is a pretty small site consisting of a couple of small areas of waste ground to the side of a local city park.
Apart from those seen within walking distance from home, I also saw plenty at my other local spots around Solihull and at other sites around Warwickshire.
The only times that I went further south last year was to Cornwall in early August where I saw a few (approx. half a dozen) and then to Dorset in early September where I only saw one.

Fingers crossed for the coming year and hoping that we see plenty again this spring.

Cheers,

Neil

Wow, the blue lunules on the second from bottom one Neil are stunning, I don't think I've ever seen them so prominent

I'm not exaggerating when I say I saw more STs in 2020 than the previous 7 years combined. This is based on a normal average sighting of 4 to 5 individuals a year. This has to be one benefit of lockdown and walking through the same very local fields for an hour every lunchtime and then at weekends too as part of a larger ramble. I also had one glorious Saturday wander (13 June) where I saw a daily total into double figures for the first time since I was a teenager.

One thing I found quite strange (but must just be chance) is that I saw my first ST of the year on a lunchtime exercise walk on Wednesday 25th March. I then saw my next individual exactly a week later, Wednesday 1st April and then another on Wednesday 8th April. No sightings in between. I was walking the same route every lunchtime at around the same time....maybe it was the same individual with a certain weekly schedule involving a different location every day !

One below was from 26th July.

Small Tortoiseshell

Small Torts had another good year over my way. They were present at all the usual local spots and I saw more at the end of the year than I have for a good while. Also whilst they emerged later they lasted longer, so although I didn’t seem as many in a single visit, I saw more overall. My Favourites came from the end of March. When making my choice it came down to these two because of the interesting behaviour. Over the years I managed a wide range of shots of this species including egg-laying and courting but I’ve never found a mating pair. Usually with the courting the pair fly off into the trees for, I’m guessing, a little privacy. With this pair however the behaviour was slightly different in that one seemed to reject the other, moving to the opposite side of the Dandelion and staring down its suitor to definitely avoid their advances. I was going to choose just the one image to show this but I’ve not managed to capture two Small Torts with their wings closed in the manner of the first shot.
Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

Once again rather thin on the ground on my local patch, particularly during the summer - I think those that do hatch around midsummer go straight into hibernation these days. Interestingly, they are always the species I see waking up indoors during the winter: I'm sure they have a greater propensity to hibernate in houses than other species, and this may contribute somehow to a high attrition rate from waking up at the wrong time.

There were good numbers around in Yorkshire in August though and I found them everywhere I visited. That said, the ones I remember better were firstly a courting couple I saw at Staines Moor in mid-June that clearly were not thinking of hibernation......and a rather unusual-looking individual I found up at Aston Rowant a couple of days earlier.Its rather uniform pale orange appearance when compared to the typical forms (like the two above) was pointed out to me by Mike Oxon as being similar to one he had seen in the same location a few years ago.

Dave

Normally, my favourite image of this species is from spring, because that's when they are most plentiful round my way. However, this year I managed to stumble upon a very late Small Tortoiseshell, on 26th November no less, and that was easily my preferred choice for #1 in 2020, such was the lift it gave me:

Small Tortoiseshells were in pretty good numbers near me in Winchester. My early lockdown walks had plenty of sightings and the first and second broods were fairly numerous.

I have opted for this photo as we will hopefully be seeing something similar in the coming weeks.
I do however love the colours on this summer brood individual!

Small Tortoiseshell on creeping thistle. A very very common site when I was a kid growing up on the North east. A much rarer site here in Woking Surrey. This one was taken on the 9th of September at Teesmouth National Nature reserve nr. Seaton Carew, during one of my visits to the North East. Still as common as it once was it seems, with plenty around as well as Common Blue; Small and Green-veined White and the odd Small Copper.