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Painted Lady - Favourite Photo of 2022

Week 12

Happy New Year everyone! What a way to start the New Year with a trio of fabulous looking butterflies to make your favourite selection for! Here’s hoping that everyone has a tremendous 2023, may it be a butterfly bonanza!

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

Wurzel

I was lucky last year with the Painted lady, I think it was a good year for them , On the 17th of May I got a shot of one on the Boules Mauve again, in my Daughters garden , it was a side shot and because it was on the Boules Mauve I was really pleased ,( incidentally that plant is now in my new garden and doing very well)
Then on the 19th of June I was in Castle Park Tankerton when I saw these perfect Painted Ladies and got an opened wing shot, the day was hot but the Ladies were enjoying the heat.

Painted Ladies had a good year by all acounts and showed up fairly regularly for me, including at my local spots and in my garden, something that only happens here in their better years.

My favourite shot therefore is probably this one, taken on the buddliea in my front garden...
...although I also quite like this shot taken up at Warton Crag when we stopped off there on our way up to Arnside amonth later.
Cheers,

Neil

Fairly scarce in the garden this year, though this one was around unusually late, on 28 October.

This one provided a nice distraction at Pulborough Brooks whilst on a quest for some Brown Hairstreak

An excellent year for this species on the hill. Plenty of photographic opportunities.
The two below were my favourites out of many.

Beacon Hill, Wiltshire.

Fewer Painted Ladies for me this year (22') and very few pictures ,think this one was taken while i was on a Common Blue hunt at (my now)innaccessible (?) Grizzled Skipper site fairly close to home ..................... on Common Fleabane which has all but swamped the site!
Allan.W.

By no means a spectacular year for the Painted Lady on my local patch with only a couple of dozen seen all season, mostly in May and June. In fact the peak count (only 5...) was on the first day I saw them (17th May), during their initial migration. These were all rather worn after their long journey.Later arrivals were a little better.Later still, these ones looked as if they might have been more locally hatched. Dave

Not a particularly impressive year for this species. I doubt I saw more than 100. This very accommodating individual spent considerable time on my neighbour's path on 24th May:

Painted Lady

It was a pretty good year for Painted Lady butterflies and I managed to find them at various sites across the country, including in North Wales which is where my favourite one came from. Up until this point I thought that it was going to be really tricky to select my favourite for this species. Then when we were visiting Chirk Castle near Llangollen I spotted a Painted Lady fluttering around the flower borders. I leant in and I was really chuffed to see that it was an ab.ocellata (blue centres in the ‘antemarginal’ spots) as this was only my second or third that I’d seen and so my decision became much easier.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) in my garden.
La belle Dame (Vanessa cardui) on my visit to the Marais de Brouage-Moëze, Charente Maritime, France 19-09-202


https://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/

I found it curious how the Painted Lady never quite followed through from its initial arrivals in May and June, despite the extremely hot weather in July. This was one of the earlier arrivals in our butterfly garden, on the 17th May, and remained nectaring on these chives for most of the day.

Phil Bowler wrote: ↑Wed Jan 11, 2023 4:09 pm I found it curious how the Painted Lady never quite followed through from its initial arrivals in May and June, despite the extremely hot weather in July.

That extreme heat might well be the reason they didn't become more numerous since its exactly those type of conditions they are escaping from during their northward migration!

David M wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 10:33 am Not a particularly impressive year for this species. I doubt I saw more than 100.

That just goes to show how our expectations differ David, that would be a very good number for me in any but the most prolific migration years.

Cheers,

Neil.

I guess living near the coast helps, Neil. Even in that really poor year I saw about a dozen.

bugboy wrote: ↑Wed Jan 11, 2023 4:45 pm

Phil Bowler wrote: ↑Wed Jan 11, 2023 4:09 pm I found it curious how the Painted Lady never quite followed through from its initial arrivals in May and June, despite the extremely hot weather in July.

That extreme heat might well be the reason they didn't become more numerous since its exactly those type of conditions they are escaping from during their northward migration!

That's what I suspected too.