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Red Admiral - Favourite Photo of 2023

Week 14

It’s cold out there so stay in and select your Favourite Butterfly Photos of 2023!

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

Red Admiral

This was taken during my final proper outing of the season. We’d visited Stourhead hoping for the blaze of autumnal colour only to find that things seemed to be slightly delayed this year and so instead of a blaze there was more of an early kindling glow. However it wasn’t all bad as the walled gardens proved to be a bit of a haven for roosting butterflies including this particular Red Admiral. I chose this shot as the contrasting nature of it; the season was winding quickly down and everything else was looking tired yet here was this Red Admiral looking magnificent and fresh out of the box. There is also the contrast between the new looking butterfly, all neat and shiny, and the age ravaged, eroded and lichen encrusted wall it’s perched on.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

I saw my first red admiral in 2023 on the 13th June out at Cambus o may, they appeared in my aberdeen garden mid August through till mid October. I also seen loads on a visit to Pitmedden Gardens on 25th August, where they have created some wonderful wild flower meadows, and on a visit to the Logie Steading walled garden near Forres early October.

I took my shots in the Back garden on the 11th of June, the Red Admiral was in the garden from June to September and later, they were certainly plentiful last year, the weather seemed to suit them , not too hot. Goldie

A great Red Admiral year, but I never seemed able to get a shot with loads of them in the picture at once. In mid-September at one of our local nature reserves in SW London there was a group of at least 6 assembled on/ flying around a big oak tree, probably attracted by sap runs. But no more than two of them would settle within photographing distance of each other at a time.
Otherwise, my favourite shots are of the late-season-in-colourful-gardens variety. This one from Hinton Ampner NT gardens in mid-September.
And this one from Kew Gardens in October.

Lots of opportunities to photograph Red Admiral this year. Two favourites: a battle-scarred on in my Perthshire garden and one on Dahlias in Fife.

My fave for the year was a very fresh-looking female at my local winter hot-spot in Crawley.
Vince

That is indeed a beauty, Vince.

An almost impossible task to choose one from many hundreds seen and photographed during the year. Second only to Meadow Browns in terms of numbers seen on my local patch (1700+ is quite impressive, with a maximum count of 153 on 6th July), They were around almost every day I went out.

However, here is one from the end of June, just as the influx from France was kicking off - though this one looks so new it might have been locally emerged. Dave

I don't personally consider individuals with a white spot in the forewing red band an aberration, it's such a common variation I think its a bit of a oxymoron to do so. However this one's extra spot was probably the most prominent I've ever come across.

millerd wrote: ↑Tue Jan 16, 2024 6:03 pmAn almost impossible task to choose one from many hundreds seen and photographed during the year...

Agreed. I saw them in every month of the year and they were particularly common towards late summer and through autumn.

I have a couple of dozen at least in the frame.

Red Admirals had a curious year for me. Although they had a better than average year around my patch, I did not see the extremely large numbers reported from elsewhere, particularly down south but also in other parts of the midlands closer to the migration routes of the Severn and Avon river valleys.

A couple of favourites from my garden,
Cheers,

Neil.

Like many others, I took many photographs of Red Admiral last year and choosing a favourite is difficult. In May I photographed a mating pair on my garden bench and this should qualify for its rarity. However, I have already posted this and I favour an underside photograph also taken in my garden in August.

The Red Admiral was the biggest winner this year in Chelmsford with a mass emergence from the nettles on the banks of the River Chelmer in Baddow Meads - 100 + seen on one visit in mid-July.
Easy choice for my favourite of many photographs because of the detail and because of the experience of visiting the south-facing ivy Hedera helix in my local park where I would be guaranteed to see 10+ Red Admirals into November:
And my favourite underside shot from earlier in the year along a path bordered by ivy and holly:

Like the beautiful blue coloration on the forewing margins of you second one, Neil - that looks unusually bright and extensive.

overthepass wrote: ↑Wed Jan 17, 2024 12:05 pm Like the beautiful blue coloration on the forewing margins of you second one, Neil - that looks unusually bright and extensive.

Agreed, fantastic looking specimen!

As others have also found ,Red Admirals had an exceptional season in 2023 and i saw them in every month (that said ,think i missed January !) my latest being mid- December at Littlestone on sea ,Kent . Along with Gatekeepers ,Red Admirals were my years "winners ".
Heres one from Dungeness (Kent) Allan.W.

This nice, fresh specimen seen at the Botanic Gardens of Wales on 7th September was the most attractive I photographed:
However, my favourite, simply due to the degree of incongruity given that it was feeding on snowdrops on 30th January, was this one: