www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Here is the opportunity to post your favourite photo(s) of a particular species taken in 2012 (or the last time you saw one!).

This is part of a series of topics which will grow over 20 weeks throughout the winter until all 59 UK species have been covered. The intention is to showcase three species per week (in alphabetical order), so please wait until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos. Our overseas friends are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants.

Details of locations, dates, times and circumstances would be welcome and please feel free to contribute observations of behaviour, stories of personal encounters, anecdotes or other interesting points.

Vince

This is only the second season that I have managed to photograph Dukes. Two years ago I saw my first at Martin Down and was so surprised that I forgot to get a photograph! Last year I had more luck finding one individual in roughly the same area as this one. But this year I think that they were having a great year as they were several individuals about and I saw them on three separate visits to Bentley Wood. This was taken at Bentley Wood in the first week of June when the good weather finally arrived. Philzoid, me and our girls were out looking for Small Pearls and had a cracking morning in the Eastern Clearing with Pearl, Small Pearls, Grizzled and Dingy Skippers and several different Dukes. There was also an Argent and Sable hanging around to the great delight of the “Moth Heads”. This is my favourite shot as not only was it taken on such a great day when it actually felt like early summer but it’s one of my first closed wings shots of a male (four legs right?). After this fantastic morning it got even better as we moved onto another site in the county and were lucky enough to hear Nightjar (Philzoid actually spooked a grounded pair) as well as seeing Tree Pipits, Cuckoo and Marsh Fritillary.
Have a goodun
Wurzel

Hi Wurzel,

Ignoring the number of 'obviously' visible legs for a moment, and purely considering wing shape and abdominal length and shape, that's a very feminine looking male?

Kind regards. Mark

Mark is correct - she's 100% Duchess. The slightly reduced front pair of legs are being held parallel, almost hidden behind the left leg of the second pair. Wing shape (more lobate, less pointed) and abdomen are both female.
BWs, Neil

Heyshott Escarpment, 19 May 2012

Open day ...

Patience and perseverance …
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=5432&start=400#p59804

on a day when i bumped into fellow UKBers Pauline and RobS at noar hill and only the 2nd time i've seen them.

I think this picture,taken in Denge wood in Kent,is my favorite of the Duke this year. At this stage,there was still (false!) optimism for the season. It was taken on 24 May,during a brief spell of vintage weather, which we hoped had broken the spell of a very poor spring.How wrong we were!
Later that day,we had the pleasure of seeing Adonis Blues and Dingy Skippers at Mill Hill in Sussex.

Very difficult to decide. I saw these lovely creatures at Noar Hill in April on a sunny but really rather cold day, and then in May at Dunstable Downs and Totternhoe on a day which was somewhat similar. So... a cop out - one from each spot.

Dave

Unfortunately I only managed one short trip over to Heyshott this year for the Dukes. I arrived quite early and it was a while before any activity. This started with Dingy Skippers followed some 15 minutes later by the first Dukes. It was for once a hot day (22nd May) so they soon became pretty active with around 10 individuals seen.

My one and only trip out to look for Duke of Burgundy this year was with the Warwickshire BC visit to Prestbury Hill in Gloucestershire back in May.
During the week before our visit the weather had been dull and rainy and there had only been a few DoB seen here, usually singles, and so we were fortunate that the weather cleared up a bit and we saw around half a dozen. I am not sure how they fared here in the end this year but the weather for most of their flight season was awful. I remember visiting last year in mid-April and seeing more flying nearly a month earlier.

Two of the half dozen seen, both males I believe.
Cheers,

Neil F.

I like this simply because it is the best one I've taken of the Duke Goldie

Up until this year i had never seen this species and the first thing that struck me was how small they are. Several trips to Rodborough Common in May yielded good numbers and i managed to photograph several individuals.

I like this one because he seems to have stardust in his eyes!
Mike

Taken at Heyshott

I like this one because of the setting. Taken at Kithurst Hill on 13/05/2012.

Here are some of my best photographs of the Duke that I took in 2012. I have included one of a male nectaring on wood spurge in Cirencester Park, because I believe this species rarely does so. In the Cirencester Park woodlands, this species is very rare. I have only seen one male on three visits during the last three consecutive years in exactly the same place in a primrose clearing. I especially like Nigel image of a duke, on a bluebell, that one is superb. Peter.