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A thread in which to post your favourite photo(s) taken in 2011 of Chalkhill Blue.

Part of a series inspred by ChrisC's thread about 'Favourite Photos' and hopefully growing throughout the winter until all 58 British species have been covered.

Details of places, dates, times and circumstances also appreciated. Feel free to contribute observations of behaviour, personal encounters, anecdotes, anything really...

my favourite for the year.

A difficult choice, but here are two favourites. They are both from Denbies Hillside. The first is from 3rd July immediately after seeing Purple Emperors at Botany Bay, and topped off an astonishingly full day with an equally beautiful coda. The second was taken on 31st July and features the most butterflies I have managed together in one shot - and has been impressing friends ever since!

Dave

PS. I hope the second shot qualifies as there is an interloper in the picture...

that top one is a very striking butterfly.
Chris

Some cracking open wings shots there!

My favourites (again I'm greedy) were both taken at Stockbridge Down on 10th August. The butterflies were everywhere, much more numerous than at my usual site of Martin Down, and they fluttered up with every footstep! One pair didn't move though, and after I took the shot I felt a bit "wrong" as it was so x-rated! The aberrant was special for me as I kept reading about all the Denbies aberrants and was itching to find my own, so I spent literally hours looking at every Chalkhill I could find to try and get a photo of one, before this obselata (if that's how you spell it?)appeared amongst the grass. Have a goodun

Wurzel

Sooo many to choose from. A quick flick through of my pics from this year, discounting all the abs, this one caught my eye. It looks very dainty as it tiptoes across the flowers. Taken at Denbies on 25 July.

These are my favourites from 2011, I love the feathery flower heads. 23/07/2011, Kithurst Hill

I love Chalkhill Blues because they are so variable. I have a good site at Colley Hill, Reigate, Surrey which is quite close and I often have it completly to myself. This year I was lucky to find many mating pairs and this turned out to be one of my favourite images.
I only visit early in the season in the hope of seeing as many fresh individuals as possible. This particular male was newly emerged and sported orange flecks at the base of the hind wings. Close examination showed these to be areas of missing scales. Unfortunately not the cleanest background, but a lovely individual nonetheless.
Vince

Some lovely Chalkhill photos on here.

Vince - so the orange you see is from the underside lunules?

I've seen a few like that and it's good to know why!

Cheers

Lee

Lee Hurrell wrote:Vince - so the orange you see is from the underside lunules?

Actually Lee, I hadn't thought of that and I don't even have a theory.
Here is a closer image.
Does anybody know what is actually going on?

Cheers,
Vince

I saw my first male Chalkhill Blue back in 1952 when I was only ten years old up on Painswick Beacon. A local beauty spot in Gloucestershire which as I write this, I can see from an upstairs bedroom window as it is only three miles away as the butterfly flies.

To my eyes, the male in flight appears larger than life and when I saw that first one, my inexperienced ten year old mind immediately thought ~ Large Blue ~ which did occur then not far from Painswick Beacon. I have seen Large Blues in flight and they do not look as large as the male Chalkhill.

Of all the british butterflies, it is the one which I think has the most appropriately descriptive name. It is indeed THEE blue of the Chalkhills. Not always though, In the close on sixty years since I saw that first one, I have seen it in many places on both Chalk and Limestone in the UK. Not always though, I have seen one deep inside Bentley Woods in Wiltshire back in the 1960s when looking for Purple Emperors. Although relatively small, it is powerfully built and capable of strong flight when moving around outside typical habitat.

Great pictures folks. Enjoyed seeing those. Thanks.

I've already posted this one as one of my favourite photos of 2011:


Royston Heath, 4-Jul-11. Sony A700, Tamron 180/3.5 macro, 1/200s f/13 iso200

And I liked the evening sunlight on this one too. (Shame about the brown stripe of grass in the background though):

Royston Heath, 4-Jul-11. Sony A700, Tamron 180/3.5 macro, 1/125s f/8 iso200

Vince Massimo wrote: Does anybody know what is actually going on?

From the symmetry, I wonder if it is where the wings got stuck together at or before emergence, as was suggested for Adonis Blues in nfreem's diary page.

Here's a male and female chalkhill blue sharing the same scabious flower. Taken at one of the northerly outposts for the species at Barnack Hills & Holes NNR near Stamford, on a very windy and overcast 23rd of July.

My partner, Tara, is just out of shot holding the stem of the flower so it wasn't bent double in the breeze. The weather around that time might go some way to explaining why all the individuals on this site seemed to be so battered and worn so early in the season.

Normally all my images are cropped to a 6 by 4 format - I do that because it's the way they do them at the place I get the photographs printed (yes, I do still get a print of most of my images... ). But this image is cropped square... I dunno why... it just seemed to fit.

I spent a lot of time on Denbie Hill from late July, until the end of August.(Yes, i love the place). Chalkhill Blues were out in very large numbers, which made it easier for the photographer, talk about spoiled for choice. So out of the many pictures i took this is one of my favourites.

It was taken on the 27.7.2011 shooting mode/AV shutter speed/ 1/125 AV/ 13 ex. compensation -1/3 ISO 200 white balance daylight using a Canon 450 and a Sigma 150 macro lens.

nick

A couple of photos from me, both taken at Aston Rowant during the last week of August.

First a male. I particularly like his colour against the flowers, wild marjoram I believe but not too good at plants.
And a female. Most of the females that I saw, both here and elsewhere seemed to be a bit worse for wear so I was pleased to see this fairly fresh looking one.
Cheers,

Neil F.

I saw a few good Chalkhill Blues at Aston Rowant, and got some nice 'open' wing shots, but this aberrant photographed at Rodborough Common (near Stroud) in August was my favourite of the year - not a particularly good shot, but it was about the best I could do considering the windy conditions etc. Plus I have fond memory of just lying down in the grass trying to get a photo....of course, a few days later I realised the local ants had made a feast of me at the same time

Michael

This was the best I could muster. From Lulworth on a dull breezy August day....

I have to Include this cute CHB has one of my favourites, I love the way it looks almost part of the flower Goldie M

This is my favourite pic of a CHB this year as I spied it in my back garden on 3rd September.
This is the first time that I have noticed this species here as i am less than 100 yards from the Colwell Bay shoreline and their usual habitat on the Downs is some distance away