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Orange-tip - Favourite Photo of 2023

Week 12

With impeccable timing the next weeks Favourites line-up has arrived just in time to wish every a Butterfly Filled 2024! Happy New Year everyone!

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

Orange-tip
I had a fine old time with Orange-tips this past season even though I didn’t manage a single UK shot of a female(?). Still that didn’t matter as they were obviously on mission and too busy to sit still for some portraiture whereas the usually frantic males were much more becalmed this year. I thank the indecisive weather that we had during the butterflies flight as it produced ideal conditions for photographing Orange-tips in particular. So much so that I had a plethora of images to wade through when thinking about and ultimately selecting my Favourites so in the end I manged to whittle it down to two but no fewer…

Both came from Five Rivers – the first was on a dull and cool day which by all accounts/weather apps should have been better than it was. Luckily the briefest of spells of sunshine made this individual fly and then when the sun was swallowed by the cloud it promptly landed and shut up shot allowing me to capture a finely detailed image. The second came later in their flight and at first I didn’t think that I would get anything as the sun had finally decided to put his hat on. However fate played me a blinder of a hand and a cloud dove across the sun at the exact same moment that the male OT that I was watching was investigating a dandelion clock (as they are oft wont to do). It landed on the Dandelion clock and I promptly set to filling my memory card with the subsequent images. The best of these to my mind came about just prior to the butterfly leaving its perch as the sun had reappeared by this point and the light was hitting the orange panel on the top of the fore wing and lighting it up beautifully. Have a goodun

Wurzel

managed to get an open wing shot in Black-Veined White time. And a flat wing shot in Early May.

Lovely image, MrSp0ck.

Reasonable numbers locally this year .My 4 overwintered pupae all hatched succsessfully and all were realeased ,more or less where i found them as eggs , found fewer eggs than usual though.These are my two favourites ,the first a female oviposturing .........she finally laid on the fourth go .............but i missed it as i was jumped on by an over enthusiastic Spaniel .............bless it !
Allan.W.

I was lucky to take some photographs of Orange Tip interacting but can’t decide on a favourite, so three from me.

Visited a site in clackmannanshire on 22nd April and a site in Ardersier on 7th May this year to get my Orange tip butterfly photos. This little beauty always brings a smile to my face every spring..

All the best in 2024.

Bert.

I saw the Orange Tip in Tankerton Castle Park on the 9th May, I'd to be careful of the flower beds but luckily it paused in the Daises for a short time Goldie

I often see Orange Tips in late March, so to wait until 18th April was a bit of a shock.

That meant I missed their peak flight period as I was out of the country from 21st April to 10th May.

This one was amongst the few I saw before I went away:

Burpham meadows back in April

Orange-tips had a longer, more drawn out, flight period around my patch in 2023, no doubt to the long periods of cool and cloudy weather through April and into May.
I saw my first one on 8th April but it was another week before I saw another and then numbers were slow to build up.
On the days that the sun did break through, I could usually expect to see one or two pass through the garden and on a couple of occasions watched males attempt to unsuccessfully court a female.
They continued flying into June with some nice condition examples still around.
Cheers,

Neil.

Lovely, in-flight images, Neil. Hopefully just 3 months to wait for their return.

It felt like a better season for Orange-tips within the Chelmer flood plain this year, although I remain disappointed by the numbers. The earliest sighting was on the 17th April and extended to the 31st May, peaking between the 14th to 20th along the river:

Didn't manage many Orange Tip photos this year - though I usually seem to be out at the wrong time of day to catch up with them anyhow. Thought my luck might just be in when this male settled on the bluebells at a local nature reserve in SW London, but it was up and off before I could attempt a close approach so had to settle for this one with the camera pointed hopefully towards it at arm's length.