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Wall - Favourite Photo of 2022

Week 19

The Penultimate week and the 2023 butterflies are already flying – it could be that someone already has a Favourite for next season in the bank!

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 came across several nice females last year, this one distracted me from Lulworth Skippers down in Dorset and this one managed to pull my attention from LTB and Cloudies down in Worthing

Although the Wall is predominantly a downland species in East Sussex, discrete colonies can be found elsewhere.
I have chosen two favourite photographs. The male was taking the early evening sunshine in a ditch-side reed bed on Pevensey Levels and the female was resting on a dead bracken frond in a Wealden wood.



http://eastsussexwanderer.blogspot.co.uk

I usually see this species at undeveloped coastal sites and 2022 was no exception. However, this year I also saw it for the first time in my town garden (in August and October, I assume 2nd and 3rd brood). I have chosen the photograph taken in October as my favourite.

I'm afraid my photos of the Wall are not that clear:lol: I was at Reculver on the 5th May and went back there on the 30th, the vegetation didn't help but I was pleased I'd seen it Goldie

Let the demise of the Wall Brown be a wake-up call to one and all. I would never have thought that this lovely, friendly butterfly that used to accompany me along tracks, as well as a regular in our butterfly garden, would become restricted to upland and coastal areas. This photo shows how much the drab looking carline thistle means to so many insects. Taken in August at the RIMAC nature reserve in the Saltfleetby dunes, Lincolnshire.

A garden visitor - 18 August 2022.

I didn't have many encounters with the species in 2022, but did catch up with some spring examples on a terrific trip to Wurzel country (Sidbury Hill) in May.

I say "catch up", but as I recall the butterflies were very flighty and never really allowed any close approaches... Dave

Wall

Once again I had trouble deciding between two images for my Favourite and so I went with both. The first came from the first Brood on a visit to Fovant Badges. I’d spent the first half of the morning at Bentley Wood with Pearls and Philzoid and then we split up to cover more ground; he went to Sidbury for Greenstreaks and Walls and I made my way to the other side of the county for Dukes. Once there I hopped over the stile and strode across the bottom of the green bowl of the disused quarry spotting a Duke on the way. After watching it for some time I then happened to look up and on one of the tiny terraces on the near vertical side of the quarry I spotted something much larger. I climbed up and shimmied along one terrace so that I could come round to it. As I did so the sun came out from behind the clouds and the Wall opened up becoming a glorious female. The second came from one of my baking hot visits to Shipton Bellinger in early August. I’d spent what felt like an age wandering the dusty trackways seeking out Brostreaks and a Wall had accompanied me all the way down one of the tracks. When I paused in the slightest of shade in a vain attempt to cool down it stopped as well, perching on a discarded piece of hardcore. As I look back on it now it seems to be giving me a look of “you and me both”. Have a goodun

Wurzel

This lovely, fresh female at Rhossili on 10th September was the pick of the 2022 individuals: