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Overall Favourite Butterfly Photo of 2022

Week 20

This is it! The grand finale and the culmination of 20 weeks of selection – the Overall Favourite Butterfly Photo of 2022!

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

Overall Favourite

What is normally the easiest of choices this year became really difficult. Many of the selections I made could have easily passed themselves off as my Overall Favourite. However when it came down to it and working through all my usual criteria it came eventually came down to two. In a way the extra effort was worth it as by the end of the process I’d made a great many of the selections for the individual threads!

My first choice came from early in the season – at the same time as my favourite Wall shot in fact. The Duke that I encountered prior to the Wall was a delicately coloured Duke – with cream coloured almost white markings instead of the usual orange. I wondered if it was just tired and worn but it was the first that I’d encountered in the season and the fringes were all perfect and intact. The ground colour too was lighter and greyer as well and not the deep chocolate brown that I was used to seeing. In short it was a stunning individual…so stunning in fact that I included my second Favourite shot of it in the actual Favourite Duke post. This one was my Favourite hence it’s selection here. The second came much later at the tail end of the season. It had been a good season for Cloudies and come mid-September the progeny (or a fresh influx?) were starting to emerge. I’d seen some stunning shots from Southbourne and I was tempted to head down but for some reason I still found myself veering towards Martin Down. I was really glad that I went as I was treated to three different individuals throughout the course of the morning and then to put the 100’s and 1000’s on top of an already nicely iced and cherry bedecked cake I spotted a ghostly, sun bleached looking Cloudy. It turned out to be my first ever Helice hence its inclusion in the Overall Favourite spot. Absolutely mesmerising it was! Have a goodun

Wurzel

I have chosen this image of mating White Admirals as my overall favourite photograph of 2022, not for the quality of the image but for the quality of the moment. I had never before seen courtship in this species that led to mating. It was a good year for the White Admiral in my local East Sussex woods and on a warm, sunny day I was watching up to half a dozen flying along a woodland edge. Suddenly, one dropped into a bracken bed only a few yards away from me, quickly followed by another. I was able to look under the uppermost fronds to see a female being courted by a male. He was fanning his wings all around her and I dared to hope that I was about to witness a mating. After about 20 seconds, the female flew straight up out of the bracken with the male in close pursuit and they landed about 30 feet up in a Birch tree where coupling occurred immediately. The resulting image was taken at the extreme limit of my camera's zoom capability. I waited for some while in the hope that they might come down for a better photograph but they where staying put for the duration. I was absolutely thrilled to have witnessed this event in the wild.



http://eastsussexwanderer.blogspot.co.uk

I must admit I'm still in awe of the shot I took of the Purple Hair Streak last June on the 25th in East Blean Woods. I'd never seen one with open wings before and although there's bits of Grass in the shot , this makes no difference for me

I must admit to posting the shot before , but I took so many of this Butterfly that posed so good for me at that time before flying off that it may not be exactly the same one. I think it was the surprise for me of finding it that sticks in my mind, so it's got to be my favourite for last year. Goldie

My overall favourite was taken through the kitchen window and features a Comma and our resident vixen.
Vince

I was searching all over the sedum for that Comma until I noticed your black arrow, Vince.

My favourite Swallowtail picture was basically a tie between the fully grown caterpillar and an adult I finally managed to photograph nectaring on Ragged Robin, both had been high on my wants list for some time. Having plumped for the cat in that thread it was an easy decision to choose a picture for this thread

I struggle to find favourites for each of the individual species, and hedge my bets horribly most times. With two "lifers" on the 2022 menu, plus both LTB and QoS as well, I suddenly realised there was a much more ordinary butterfly I did keep returning to.

Here then is my favourite from among a selection of shots I took of a very amenable fresh Green Hairstreak seen in a distinctly spring-flavoured setting on Denbies Hillside on 10th April.I was particularly taken with the way the butterfly appeared to be holding the flower petals back with its front legs to allow its proboscis easier access to the nectar within.

Dave

My overall favourite photo is one I took on 18th June 2022 at Grantown on Spey. This site was recommended to me by Jack Harrison a couple of years ago and I have visited it regularly ever since. I initially visited to see my first NBA but the site is rich with ringlets, small heath, scotch argus, dark green fritillary, common blue and small Pearl bordered fritillary.
It was a sunny day and the NBA were very active with around 20 to 30 on the wing. I initially thought this was a female common blue as the blue iridescence sparkled in the sun. Only managed a quick burst of shots before it flew off.

Even a boring 'Cabbage' White can make a nice photo, so I shall give this one a moment of glory. Photographed on 12th September at Nuneham Arboretum, near Oxford, where it was nectaring on the attractive white flowered shrub Heptacodium miconoides.
Mike

As my favourite I have chosen a “lucky” shot that reminds me of a good day, rather than a “good” shot. Having had limited success in taking an in flight photograph I was taking a break and in conversation with the NWT Warden. Two Swallowtails flew down the path towards us and I pointed my camera in their direction. Fortunately, the camera settings were appropriate capturing a nice photograph of two Swallowtails disappearing into the reeds.

That's a beautiful image, Wolfson. Not easy to get two huge butterflies like that in the same frame that close.

In the UK in 2022, there are three images of common butterflies that I can't easily choose between.

The first is a Small Tortoiseshell that posed almost perfectly on a thistle:
The second is a lucky moment when light cloud cover becalmed this fresh female Holly Blue in April and tempted her to open her wings:
The last is probably my favourite - a Peacock that decided to nectar on blackthorn blossom at that wonderful and precious time of year when nature is accelerating towards its apogee:

On my European travels, three images stood out. This first one is of a False Grayling in Montes Universales, Spain, in August, which was posing, rather unusually, with its wings open. It was only when I looked later that I saw the spider lurking underneath the flower, which may explain this strange behaviour:
The second one is this beautiful Little Tiger Blue from North Greece in early June:
The final one is undoubtedly the most memorable though. Seeing any of the Swallowtails in cop is a rare event, so to find two alexanor paired up next to a quarry in Piedmont, Italy, in mid-June, was extra special:

My favourite picture of the year.

Taken in a damp Cote-d'Or woodland ride in June this year.

cecropia117 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 10:21 pm My favourite picture of the year.

Taken in a damp Cote-d'Or woodland ride in June this year.

Fantastic location to get eyeballed by a mint fresh DGF!