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Painted Lady - Favourite Photo of 2021

Week 12

Happy New Year Everyone! Here’s hoping that 2022 will be more butterfly and less Co-vid filled!

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

Not the best year for them although I did come across a minor invasion one day in Abbots Wood in Sussex. However my favourite shots come from Bookham, a couple of mint fresh examples posed wonderfully, the first a very dusky individual, possibly an ab. melanosa later in the year when Millerd and I were hunting Brown Hairstreak another fresh one turned up and was as equally as willing to pose

I saw my Butterflies in May, June and August mostly in My garden with the exception of one which I saw at Reculver In Kent In May
It was a great Summer for them, hope fully they'll do well this year as well Goldie

Wasn’t a great year again for the painted lady in my Aberdeen garden. I only seen them over a period of 5 days in mid august. All photos taken during this time in my garden.

Back in May, whilst my wife and I were walking in a local wood, a Painted Lady flew past us every few minutes and in the course of an hour we must have seen a couple of dozen. Clearly a landfall of migrants from across the channel. I took this photograph to mark the occasion.


http://eastsussexwanderer.blogspot.co.uk

I saw my first Painted Lady of 2021 in my garden on 11May and my last in Cornwall on 25 October. In between, I had regular sightings of 1s and 2s except for a day in August when walking down a track near Porthcurno, Cornwall and I disturbed dozens of fresh adults basking on the ground. Since their presence was very localised I assume they were the product of a nearby and recent emergence. However, my favourites are 2 from home seen about a month apart.

I didn't see many Painted Ladies in 2021 with most of those that I did see showing up when we were in Dorset in June. Most of these were very flighty in what was the warmest weather we had seen up until then and the few photos that I did manage were very mediocre efforts.
Cheers,

Neil.

Just a few in the garden this year. They seemed to prefer buddleia to small scabious, which is not always the case with them. In August there were plenty of small tortoiseshells on the buddleia too, and I could not keep them out of the photos.

Painted Lady

It wasn’t actually a vintage Painted Lady year this year but I did manage to see them in a range of sites across the season. My favourite however came whilst searching out for Silver-spotted Skippers a Perham Down. Having seen my quarry I was heading home and luckily had an extra 5 or so minutes until I needed to leave which was when this individual showed up. It led me on a bit of a merry dance eventually perching on the steepest and most hazardous part of the Down possible; near vertical and composed of friable sands and chalk. Somehow I managed to ascend to its level and fire off some shots with one hand whilst I used the other to cling vertiginously to the flimsiest of flower stalks. The sheer difficulty of this and the fact that I actually managed to get something make this this my favourite shot.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

This species was far more numerous than in 2020. I probably saw 100 or so, with this individual on 21 September in south Wales being particularly fresh looking:

Yes, certainly a better year in 2021 than 2020 in my experience too, with them turning up almost anywhere I went (except in the North this year, which is unusual when I look back over the years strangely enough). The relative novelty of finding one flying on my local patch in November stands out in the memory...Still, November was a bit unusual last year.

Dave

A relatively poor year, even on the coast. My best count was 10 in one day, but that was exceptional. This is a female from the beach at Lancing.
Vince