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Essex Skipper - Favourite Photo of 2023

Week 5

Week 5 already?! That must mean that the new season is on the distant horizon, Xmas is closer and the Winter Social (25th November – The Old Forge, Otterbourne) is just round the corner.

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

Essex Skipper

This was taken back in the wonderfully warm moth of July and I’m hoping that writing about from that time will imbue me with some of its warmth as I sit here typing and freezing! I chose this shot as it was one for my ‘in the hand collection’. These type of shots generally come about when I’m moving a butterfly to somewhere a little safer, in this instance from the main drag of the Rounders pitch to the edge of the field and the relative safety from trampling under year 10’s feet.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

Though as usual the Essex Skippers outnumbered the Smalls on my local patch (and emerged and then finished a week later than them - both had a season lasting not much more than a month this year), and numbers weren't too bad either, my favourite butterflies came from Hadleigh Country Park in their Essex heartland. I was on my annual trip to see the WLH, and always count on seeing lots of Essex Skippers as well - which proved to be an accurate assumption in 2023. They were a couple of heavily-marked individuals, one female and one male......and the view from where they were seen. Dave

Essex Skippers had a good if rather short season in 2023 with large numbers seen at all the local spots where they occur. As usual, exact number were hard to determine due to the numbers flying but at peak they appeared to outnumber the Small Skippers, especially at my local spot by Wagon Lane.
Cheers,

Neil.

One from a nature reserve in suburban Surrey in mid-July. The accompanying hoverfly is I think one of the Spaerophoria genus, and so far as I can judge the abdomen looks like it would extend well beyond the wings when closed, which indicates the common species S. scripta.
And one from a couple of days later, taken at a local park in SW London, displaying its unambiguous Essex credentials.

A pair of in-cop Essex Skippers still eludes me ! Hopes were once again raised when i noted two Skipper pairs ........both Small ,
....................maybe next season ! I did note reasonable numbers of Essex locally ,but must admit i never spent too much time sorting through them all .
Allan.W.

Easy one for me - I only took this single image of lineola in 2023, at Swellshill Bank, Gloucestershire, on 23rd July:

From the heartland of Essex Skipper territory are a few examples of this wonderful insect from various locations within the flood plain of the River Chelmer. Thankfully numbers seem to be stable with some of the colonies in the 100s despite the less than optimal grasssland management for the species.
A couple of males from 2 sites on Baddow Meads
And a female from Yeomanry Way
and then, one of the reasons I love them - they seem to present an angry face when I am kneeling down under them to confirm an identification

I normally try and see the season debut of these during one of my trips into Essex, it just seems the right thing to do! However I was over the other side of the country this year when the first one popped up in front of me. I'd spent the morning with copious amounts of Large Blue so it was already a very memorable day, but I spent the afternoon strolling along one of the waterways running through Stroud when this one showed up