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Dark Green Fritillary - Favourite Photo of 2021

Week 4

Sightings are definitely few and far between now but at least the Favourites will keep you going for a while yet .

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.


Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

You'd have to go a long way to beat the dusky beauty of a fresh female and this year I was lucky enough to find two, one of Denbies Hillside and one on nearby Box Hill

Very few Dark Green shots for me to pick from in 2021 ................and this individual ,was actually the only one i saw all season
but then i never did manage any trips to their North Kent strongholds (Lullingstone / Kemsing area ) ,this one was taken at the superb West Sussex site at Fairmile bottom .I was hoping to find an early morning Dark Green at roost and after a lot of searching i found this one ,perched high on a St. Johnswort flowerhead . Allan.W.

Always a difficult choice, this - a fresh bright ginger male or one of the subtly attractive duskier females...? In the end I usually go for the latter - and this year I had a choice of two crackers. Here they both are: one from Arnside on 4th July, unmistakable amidst the High Browns......and one from Denbies four days later. Dave

I didn’t see too many DGF this year. Spotted a few on a trip to Grantown on Spey on 18th July. They were whizzing around at 100 mph and very tough to photograph. Managed only 2 on fleeting landings.

Dark Green Fritillary

Butterflies certainly love to ignore the rulebook as it were. In many field guides that I’ve read over the years all have informed me that only one of two species will fly in the rain…I don’t recall DGFs being mentioned or named as one of those species which is why I knew which visit my Favourite DGF would come from this year. Back in late June we’d gone on a family walk round Vernditch and we’d made it half way round with only one distant butterfly seen and the thick leaden skies dropping plenty of rain on us. When I scanned across one of the little fields several DGFs took off and seemed to fly in between the rain drops – their glorious ginger colour looking really incongruous in the drear. However I chose this particular shot as my fave as I really rate the underside of this species and I also really like the rain drops in the background which set the scene and put the shot in context.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

I saw good good numbers of Dark Green Fritillaries (30+) at Harbury Spoilbank in Warwickshire when we went there to see these. They were nearly all males in fresh or only slightly worn condition with just one female seen.
Cheers,

Neil.

That female is an absolute beauty, Neil. When fresh they have that 'sheen' to the forewings which you have captured well.

There were good populations of both Dark Green Fritillary and Silver Washed Fritillary in the Fritillary Clearing At Chapel Bank nature reserve in 2021. Larvae were even easy to find a few weeks before, on every visit they were seen crossing paths etc. Six pairs were often seen at the same time within a few feet of eachother.

The pinkish and violet suffusions on the female DGF do indeed make it a really special butterfly. These can be even more striking on its continental relative, Niobe Fritillary, but I'm not sure I've noticed them on female HBF. However, for me this year the best day for photographs came quite early in the flight period, when it was the males which were out in numbers on Box Hill. For once they were showing as much interest in nectaring - including several in a secluded corner on a small privet bush - as in charging around non-stop looking for females.

Dark Green Fritillary did pretty well on my local downland site in 2021. On early morning visits to find roosting blues I often encountered Dark Green before they became active in the heat of the day. I have chosen a slightly different view that required lying down, as well as a more conventional pose.

Hardly took any images of these in 2021. The first I saw was on 14 June on the Swansea coast: