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Small Copper - Favourite Photo of 2021

Week 16

From the ‘silvers’ and onto the ‘smalls’ which must mean that there aren’t that many weeks remaining before the grand finale and the Overall Favourite Butterfly Photo…so now’s the time to be doing your last minute selection and/or making sure that you’re happy with your choice! The few remaining weeks will fly by.

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

At my small local sites in mid-Kent,Small Coppers were in short supply . None at all on my local "lockdown " walk ,and only one or two in the Orlestone forest and elsewhere .The exception was the ever reliable Dungeness peninsular . The third brood in particular was excellent ,with very high numbers on the wing,we had 2 ,400 + counts (best 469 ) and the observatory warden counted over 500 in a different (and smaller ) area.
Fair few Abberant individuals this year ,mainly in the third brood ,the one pictured is close to AB;Obseleta (but not quite ) and the first i,ve found. Allan.W.

Not a vintage year for them this year in my experience but when checking out a new site for Green Hairstreak for me in the spring, there were a few very attractive Small Coppers including a mating pair.

This from late in the season on the south coast.
Vince

A poor year for Small Coppers around my patch and also apparently around the rest of Warwickshire. They failed to appear at a couple of my local spots and at those they did, it was only in ones and twos.
On the other hand I found one at the local park by my mom's house which is a site where I have only seen a single example before and that was some years ago, therefore this one qualifies as my favourite.
Cheers,

Neil.

For me, Small Copper are one of the highlights of the end of the season and some nice weather in October allowed me to enjoy the last butterflies of 2021.

My photo of an ab that was flying at Hutchinsons Bank in the cutting scrape area for a couple of weeks during June.

Small Copper

This Small Copper instantly became my Favourite as it was the most memorable Small Copper of the year for me. Sometimes this would have been because it was an unusual variant or because it displayed a particularly fine set of blue badges, maybe because it was beautifully fresh and crisp or because it came from a mighty fine meet up or family event which meant the memory of it was emblazoned on my hippocampus. This one however was chose for none of those reasons. I saw it back at the start of June when the species was coming to the end of the brood and so it was worn and a little tired looking but it was chosen as my favourite as it was the first one that I’d seen during my lunchtime wanderings on the school field.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

Didn’t see too many small coppers in 2021. My first were at Glasdrum on 6th June and then at Fallin Bing on 24th July.

I had another good year with this species in 2021, with a selection of nice individuals on my local patch as well as some great examples elsewhere. However, amongst all of the splendid butterflies I encountered, a few stood out. First was a mating pair at Rewell Wood (7th May), amidst a little cluster of the species sheltering in a sunny spot by a log pile shared with some of the PBF.I have rarely seen this species in cop., so I was pleased to watch these two get together. The next memorable sighting came at Denbies on 29th July almost a year to the day and in very nearly the same spot as a cracking ab. I'd seen in 2020. It was not the same as that one, but a striking butterfly nevertheless.Amazingly, just a few days later I was down at Staines Moor and found this unusually marked specimen.Finally, no account of my 2021 Small Copper season would be complete without mentioning the individual I managed to follow on an almost daily basis for nearly six weeks in early Autumn. I saw it first on 12th September, when it was probably a couple of days old......and for the last time on 19th October.Extraordinary longevity for something so small encountering increasingly shorter days and poorer and poorer weather: I became quite attached to it!
Dave

This first image was chosen because it shows the earliest Small Copper I've ever seen - on 3rd April near the Swansea coast:
But the most attractive was probably this lovely specimen found at Port Eynon, Gower, in late August: