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Large Tortoiseshell - Favourite Photo of 2023

Week 9

I seem to be two weeks ahead of schedule this year…the intro for this species in 2022 was wishing everyone a Merry Christmas/Seasons Greetings! Still not long to go until 2024 and the new season now…In the meantime let’s push on with the 2023 Faves. And as I'm ahead of schedule I may as well continue - hence posting this early afternoon

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

Large Tortosieshell

This is a bit of a cheat really as it wasn’t taken in the UK but actually in Corfu. However having seen Large Torts in a couple of different locations around Europe I finally managed to get some shots of one on this trip so I felt obligated to post some. Even better I had a choice to make as I saw 7 or 8 throughout the week and managed to photograph three different individuals. I chose this shot as it reminds me of the best behaved one of the bunch. It sat nicely down on the deck and rather than flying off if I got too close it just wandered along the road. Brilliant to finally see one up so close and even better to get shots of it!
Have a goodun

Wurzel

Saw a few on the continent in 2023, but I only took one image - of this individual in the Eastern French Pyrenees in late May:

I hadn't photographed this butterfly before this year, but for some reason this year they decided to be obliging.

This one had clearly enjoyed an interesting life, and at least nine months as an adult, but was still in good enough condition to be patrolling an area of garrigue in northern Var with a cluster of high trees providing shelter from the wind, and occasionally coming down to bask on the stony path.

Large tortoiseshell is a common butterfly in Switzerland, though it still has great cachet for me because of its rarity in the UK, where I was born and bred.

This was my favourite for 2023, for the simple reason that it was flying on my birthday, 16th February :



More usually, it is a March butterfly, but I've seen a fair few February individuals over the years. This was, however, the first I've ever seen on my birthday.

Guy

My only sighting this year was from Abbots Wood on Good Friday. There was the Birling Gap LT showing, which was local to us, but Lisa and I decided to head out for Abbotts Wood, where I had seen one in 2021. Just as we were about to give up I came across this one resting on a tree trunk. After rummaging about trying to get the camera out of the bag, after all, I wasn't really expecting to find one!!, the butterfly flew but fortunately came back to a tree stump. This was 3 years and one day after I found my first ever UK Large Tortoiseshell. I am now up to 4.

Badger Bob is

now up to 4

My sum total remains at precisely one. East Norfolk. (in those days the country boundary put it in Suffolk)
I even know the date - football cup final day 1948 (that's how I remember the date) - 24th April.

Jack

Six years after I saw my very first one, I came across my second one. Sadly it was rather skittish and with a stiff breeze blowing I only managed a small selection of record shots, enough though to confirm it as a LT !

Just this fresh beauty in Malaga in May for me.

Still waiting for a fresh one to pose for me like that, Andy.

I didn’t bump into any Large Tortoiseshell in UK this year but did encounter a few on my travels.