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Overall Favourite Photo of 2020

Week 20

With almost impeccable timing the butterflies of 2021 have started to show up in earnest and the season is upon us…just as we wrap up the Favourites threads from 2020. A massive thank you to everyone that contributed over the past weeks – almost time to start thinking about making next years selections.

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 and stay safe

Wurzel

Overall Favourite 2020

There was only really one choice for me as my overall favourite as it was a ‘threefer’ for me – ‘close-up’, ‘stained glass’ and ‘in cop’ all rolled into one shot of a cracking male Orange-tip!
Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

My overall favourite photograph is of this helice female Clouded Yellow which I took on a very bright sunny day in September. Usually, trying to take photographs with the sun in front of the camera can be a real nuisance but sometimes backlighting can be used to good effect. This croceus was moving around constantly as it nectared on a scabious flower-head and as I followed it with the camera I was chuffed to get this shot.



http://eastsussexwanderer.blogspot.co.uk

My overall favourite of 2020 is this one, showing a Wall Brown male and Speckled Wood male 'warming up' together. They didn't stay like this for long, so I was lucky to get the shot. They were basking on an old jerrycan left there by the previous occupant of our house. I was going to dispose of it, but I saw so many butterflies using it as a place to bask and warm up, that it is still there now, waiting for this years 'sun bathers'

That's a beauty, Mike. Perhaps you can oblige with the French form aegeria this year, or are you too far north?

Think we're too far north, David

My favourite comes from rearing some Clouded Yellows from eggs in October. It's of a male butterfly which is nearing emergence and showing it's strongest colouration within the pupal case.
Vince

It's not often that a Meadow Brown gains a place on the podium, so I'm pleased to give this pair the top spot. I just love the delicate beauty of the subtle undersides.
Mike

My favourite photo of 2020 has to be my first White-letter Hairstreak.

It was a totally unexpected find whilst looking for Purple Hairstreaks in Green Lane Wood, Wiltshire. Unexpected because there had been no records from this site for at least a couple of years. The Elms that had been the site of a small population had succumbed to disease and were eventually removed in 2020 by Wiltshire Wildlife Trust.

A few weeks later I managed to find another rather worn WLH that I assumed was the same one as previously seen. However it was subsequently identified as a different individual by Guy.

This proves that they are still extant in the wood and I'll certainly be searching again this year.

In a year when very little went according to plan, my overall favourite from 2020 was an easy choice - a most unexpected and immaculately fresh female Purple Hairstreak aberration, ab.flavimaculatus at my local woodland hotspot in Lincolnshire. She just happened to appear in front of me during one particularly memorable day of freedom in early July - already posted a few times previously so apologies for repeating myself!

My overall favourite photo has to be the one I took in my Daughters garden in Kent, a lovely Holly Blue laying an egg, it was on the 24th of July in Kent and I was just relaxing when she arrived on the Ivy . Goldie

So many pictures to choose from and so many memorable moments. Couldn't decide on just one but both relate to the same context, that is my captive rearing I did last year. It's the first I've attempted for many a year and brought back some happy childhood memories, even the permanently numb finger tips from having to provide a constant supple of stinging nettles, I'd forgotten how ravenous the nettle feeders can be .

So here's some Peacock pupae and one of my Holly Blue larvae

petesmith wrote: ↑Mon Mar 01, 2021 8:37 pm..already posted a few times previously so apologies for repeating myself!
Purple Hairstreak ab flavimaculatus

You could post that every week and I wouldn't tire of it, Pete.

Domestically, I think my favourite from 2020 would be finally getting an uncluttered image of a Large Heath, from Whixhall Moss in mid-June:

Of the overseas species I saw, Ripart's Anomalous Blue stood out. Pete S tipped me off about a site near Lac de Serre Ponçon in the Alps, and having searched for over an hour I was ready to wave the white flag and drive off when this little beauty popped up right in front of me:
It was also nice to see several Moorland Clouded Yellows (hitherto I'd only ever seen two separate singletons). Even better was when I came across this mating pair, something I doubt will be repeated:

David M wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 9:53 pm Of the overseas species I saw, Ripart's Anomalous Blue stood out. Pete S tipped me off about a site near Lac de Serre Ponçon in the Alps, and having searched for over an hour I was ready to wave the white flag and drive off when this little beauty popped up right in front of me:

I am so pleased this beauty showed up for you David! It's always even more special when you have to work hard for it

This was a tough choice for me.

Should it be the Geranium Bronze that turned up in Winchester and that I was lucky enough to see?
One of the White-letter Hairstreaks that I was so delighted to see after having not seen them for nine years?
The Clouded Yellow photo that I liked so much that if I never photograph one again, I would be (almost) okay with it?
The stained glass Brown Argus undersides?

In the end, I have opted for this image of a roosting second brood Common Blue, taken at golden hour in July. I spent many evenings photographing at golden hour last year, and this is probably my favourite photo of the thousands that I took. I just love it.