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Comma - Favourite Photo of 2021

Week 3

Happy Halloween and hopefully you enjoyed the extra hour The one good thing is that if the rest of the year passes as quickly as the last month we'll soon be in spring surrounded by butterflies!

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.

Another quick reminder that it might be a good idea to select your Overall Favourite Butterfly Photo of 2021 first so that you’ve got something to post when the series of threads culminates in 20 weeks time…

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

My shots of the Comma were taken mostly in the Spring when I went to Hall-Lee-Brook, that's where I got the Dog bite so I didn't venture back there too often

This shot was taken on the 15th April when they were very active and this one was looking for a damp patch Goldie

Nice shot, Goldie. I daresay Commas will be a more regular sight for you down in the South East next year.

I only managed a few decent photographs of Comma this year. One that I rather like was taken whilst looking for White Admiral.

Beautiful hindwings on that one, Wolfson.

There were rather few butterflies around when I visited Nuneham Arboretum, near Oxford, on 10th August. This Comma, however, had found a good sun-spot and was showing off its ragged profile.
Mike

I have chosen the following image as my favourite Comma photo.
When I first spotted it circling low over a bramble patch, it had a very moth-like flight and I initially thought that I was watching a male Vapourer Moth homing in on the scent of a hidden female. When it landed, all became clear. This Comma was about the size of a male Gatekeeper and appears to have suffered a malfunction during emergence from its pupa. The hindwings differ in size and both forewings have not expanded properly and are proportionately smaller than the hindwings. I suspect that it will fall victim to a local avian predator before it has the chance to hibernate.


http://eastsussexwanderer.blogspot.co.uk

Comma

Although they seemed to be a bit thin on the ground round my way I still saw some cracking Commas this year. My overall favourite came from an early visit to Martin Down. We’d experienced a run of cool and cloudy weather and despite checking all the usual hotspots and the timing be spot on I saw very little on my trip; the exception being this Comma. It served as the highlight of my trip out but I had to wait until my visit was almost over before it turned up. It was down on the deck, closed up and pretending to be a dead leaf and when I offered it my finger it willing clambered on to get a bit of a thermal boost – my first ever Comma on my finger – and so it had to be my favourite shot of this species.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

Wurzel wrote: ↑Sun Nov 07, 2021 5:42 pm ... my first ever Comma on my finger – and so it had to be my favourite shot of this species.

So good you posted it twice

My fav will is this one from a few weeks ago on Two-tree Island in Essex. A Comma on ripe Blackberries will always be a tough one to beat for me!

Although showing up everywhere that I expected them to during 2021, my impression was that Commas only had an 'ok' year around my patch in 2021, certainly well below Small Tortoiseshells and Peacocks in numbers.

My favourite is going to be the one below, taken on spring blossom at my local spot by Wagon Lane Park in Solihull back in mid April, a reminder that there are better days to come on the other side of the next few dark and dreary months.
Cheers,

Neil.

Been a strange year for this species round my way. There were plenty in early spring but they became quite scarce by mid-April. There weren't too many around in the summer, and this one which I saw on 15th September on the Gower coast was the first I'd come across for quite some while:

Photographed this one on my first butterfly trip out this year, just a short stroll in a local LNR at the end of March, after what seemed like a really long winter.

Commas have had a very strange kind of year round my way. After a dearth last Autumn, there weren't many hibernators seen in the spring over a rather drawn out season, and I was concerned that there might not be that many hutchinsoni in early summer. This turned out to be largely the case, with no more than seven or eight seen as a maximum on any day, but they are a lovely sight, with a lot of variety.After hardly seeing any at all during the autumn of 2020 (Sept-Nov), and the low numbers thus far, things did an abrupt about turn. During September 2021, I counted locally a total of 168 sightings of new Commas bound for hibernation, with a maximum of 24 on 11th of that month. Out of all those, it is impossible to pick a favourite, but this rather unusual looking one, apparently intoxicated by fermenting blackberries, does stick in the mind. Dave

Contenders for the 'mixed synchronised nectaring' gold medal here.