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Peacock - 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

Peacock

I found Peacocks to be more flighty than usual this year, particularly the fresh ones that emerged during the summer. This explains why I made the choice that I did as this one was the exception to the rule as it sat at a very manageable height feeding on Bramble at Shipton Bellinger and served as some compensation for the lack of Brown Hairstreaks. I also chose it out of guilt as less than an hour later all thought of it went from my mind as a stunning male Brown Hairstreak appeared and put on a bit of a performance for me.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

Peacocks had an excellent season ,here in mid- Kent and i had some fairly high counts of fresh individuals quite late in the season ,with up to 40 counted on two different visits . This one was a quite striking minor AB;Diopthalmica. Allan.W.

Peacock butterflies were abundant in my Aberdeen garden and at one of my favourite places Logie Steading gardens near Forres.

So many photos to choose from.

Bert.

I was pleased when I saw the Peacock in my Garden earlier In the year, but in July they were Numerous, On the 13th this beauty landed Goldie

These had a good year, both post hibernation and the summer brood plus, as is becoming normal down here, signs of a second brood again. There were quite a few at Bookham in the summer.

2023 was a poor year for Peacocks around my patch. They were later appearing out of hibernation than the Small Tortoiseshellls and Commas and numbers were well down.
The summer brood was also late appearing around here with lower numbers than usual seen at my local spots. Having said that, in recent years they have disappeared into hibernation very quickly so I am hoping that this was once again the case.
Cheers,

Neil

A few larval webs in my garden resulted in a flush of Peacock in late July. Lovely to see the Thistles, Ragwort and other wildflowers feeding one of our most colourful butterflies. I’ve chosen a photograph that reminds me of those far off summer days.

The one which posed best was this one, on 17 August at the Botanic Gardens near Cross Hands, Carms:
The freshest individual seen was, surprisingly, on 10th October at Aberthaw Beach, Glamorgan:

My favourite photo of a Peacock is from April when I enjoyed this one nectaring on the early flowering bluebells carpeting the hornbeam woods here in Chelmsford. I had to chase the poor thing around to get a good shot:
Good numbers in April [first sighting on the 3rd] but lower overall - although I did see my first larval web containing 30+ 2nd instar and a week or so later their shed skins. And a final sighting occurred along the River Chelmer on the 22nd October.

This isn't the best-composed photo, but it recalls a hot day in July when there had obviously been a mass emergence of Peacocks, and dozens were nectaring on a buddleia clump in a clearing in pine woods in SW Surrey. Although there were so many charging around that a definitive count was impossible, I estimated that 50+ were present.
A visit to Denbies Hillside in summer often produces one or two Peacocks speeding around, but they generally don't seem minded to stop. This one, from late July, obligingly lingered on the scabious.
At the end of September, a visit to Borde Hill gardens in Sussex found the Peacocks on good form in the late summer sunshine.

Like that final image, OTP. Always nice when they show off those blue hindwing spots.

Peacocks had a very good year on my local patch in complete contrast to Small Tortoiseshells (which performed dismally).

The zenith of their emergence came in mid-July, when I recorded 113 on the 17th and well over 70 on several days thereafter. Here is one of that multitude, seen on 23rd.There was also a small second brood, with a few individuals appearing in late September......and early October.It was also the first butterfly I saw in 2023 (on 3rd February)......and also the last (on 8th December). Dave