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Small Tortoiseshell - Favourite Photo of 2023

Week 17

The ‘Small’ theme continues this week…those dishing out the common names weren’t that imaginative were they? I mean what’s wrong with Little, Tiny, Titchy, Median, Less Than Average Sized…but no it’s Small all the way. Oh well at least these ‘Smalls’ make up for their name in appearance or character.

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

Small Tortoiseshell

I chose this particular shot as my Favourite of 2023 as it is of the underside. Whilst the topside is fantastic; bright and eye catching with a brilliant mix of colour and pattern the underside, I feel often gets overlooked. Sure it’s nowhere near as showy but what it lacks in ostentation it makes up for in spades in its beautiful subtly.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

I hesitate to post this rather dubious offering, and do so with total confidence that it will be definitely the worst photograph to grace this thread. However, it is not only the only photo of a Small Tortoiseshell I managed all season, but the only one I saw, despite spending plenty of time out and about. Guess that's a sad reflection of the way in which this species has declined in the SE. This one was at a local site in the Surrey fringes of south London in mid-July, and in mitigation for the quality of the photo it was a long way away up a bank, fluttering around in the middle of a mass of vegetation, and very hard to focus on in the brief time it was visible...

2023 was definitely my poorest year for sightings of this wonderful butterfly. A couple appeared in my Aberdeen garden on 15th April and I didn't see anymore in my garden till 20th August. Even then they were not in great numbers as the previous year.

The only other ones I seen were at St cyrus nnr on 8th July.

Best photos attached.

Bert.

I'm not sure anyone had a good year with this species, in complete contrast to 2022 when plagues of them decorated the countryside in early summer but this one on Box Hill was a very welcome splash of colour back in July.

The Small Tortoiseshell had a truly terrible year here in Crawley, with only two seen on the two nearby Gatwick transect sites, plus one group of larvae.
However, the numbers were slightly better on the south coast at Lancing, but not by much.

Vince

bugboy wrote: ↑Sun Feb 04, 2024 11:04 pmI'm not sure anyone had a good year with this species...

I certainly didn't. I reckon I saw no more than 50-60 all year in the UK!!

Numbers dropped again on my local patch in 2023, both in the spring when the hibernators emerged and also in the summer when their offspring appeared. Here is one of the latter in a less usual pose, puddling for salts in a sunny spell following rain on 7th July. Dave

The big loser in Chelmsford with a significant drop in sightings, with the most seen on the day of my first sighting on the 17th of April. I have a couple of favourite images showing the start and finish of this beautiful butterfly. A newly emerged specimen from my trip to Hatfield Forest, and perhaps my favourite photograph of one hanging on earlier in the year nectaring on meadow buttercups on the flood plain of the River Chelmer:

I also saw only a few this year, and my favourite photo was also a survivor hanging on. I liked it as a reminder that they aren't as fragile as people fear. This one appeared right beside me on a warm June day during a transect at Little France Park in Edinburgh. Little France is more of a nature reserve than a "park" in the British sense, as large areas of it are left pretty much unmanaged by Edinburgh Council, who've worked with a wide range of wildlife charities and are quite sussed. The one below was spotted in Little France again, on a hot July afternoon among one of the myriad patches of thistles that are basically the emblematic flower of the wilder sections. I think this one is creeping thistle: why it's so named I've no clue, as it's highly assertive towards me. But that's OK, as no-one else wants to be thistled, brambled, nettled and leapt on by ticks, so I get to watch butterflies in peace with just the passing deer.

Unlike members located down south, I had a reasonable year with Small Tortoiseshells in 2023 even if numbers were noticably down from the high points of the past couple of years.
There were plenty of awakened hibernators in the spring with my highest count on one day being 18, down a bit from the 2 dozen or so I could see in the previous couple of springs.

There is nothing better to start the season than seeing butterflies on spring blossom
I also saw numerous courtship attempts but as usual they all ended up by disappearing into the distance.
Similar numbers were seen later in the summer, that is 12-18 through July which was quite a drop from the 40+ I could see a couple of summers back.
Given these lower numbers seen in the summer, I am keeping my fingers crossed for this spring. I am hoping that good numbers went into hibernation early, something that seems to be happening more and more in recent years.

Cheers,

Neil.

I saw the Small Tortoiseshell on the 15th of June at Herne Bay, I decided to take a walk by the sea so I took the path where I knew some plants were still not suffering too much from the hot Sun, I also went out about 4pm, I've learnt from experience that if it's too hot the Butterflies are more abundant when it get's that be cooler Goldie

High numbers of Small Tortoiseshell in Cambridgeshire are a thing of the past but numbers seem to have been fairly stable in recent years. My favourites are of visitors to the flower bed next to my house where they are very approachable.

This lovely, fresh specimen with a dark smudge around the upf discal area was seen on 15th September on the Glamorgan coast: