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

Grizzled Skipper

This is my favourite shot because I feel that it captures something of the spirit of the Grizzlie as well as its diminutive stature. For me it is one of the harbingers of spring. True it’s not the earliest of butterflies but they appear on the scene you know it’s about to start kicking off. This shot was taken on a glorious day in mid May. I’d already visited Coombe Bissett for the first time and I popped over to Martin Down for lunch. Once there butterflies seemed to be crawling out of the woodwork. I found a female Holly Blue, a couple Small Coppers and Dingys and Grizzlies were flying up from every footfall!
In these long, dark and cold winter days there’s a memory that lifts the spirits. Have a goodun

Wurzel

That's a perfect portrait, Wurzel. It exactly captures the spirit of the little creature.

Guy

My favourite Grizzled Skipper, photographed at the beginning of May:
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Colin

Mine is actually a double photo...
Showing a "wild-type" Grizzled Skipper compared to a taras aberration. I had always wanted to find one of these and after a number of trips out to Essex in the spring, I thought I'd missed my chance as the season was starting to fizzle out. On the way back to my car on the final trip, I spotted this one (I actually noticed it in flight and just knew it was far too pale to be a "normal" Grizzly). I desperately hoped for it to land before I lost sight of it and fortunately it did. I got just a few snatched photos, before it was off again and I lost it. I stayed in the area for some time afterwards, but it didn't return. Fabulous insect and definitely one of my butterflying highlights.
Trev

Colin's rather has the feel of Oberthur's Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus armoricanus), just possibly Rosy GS (P. onopordi). Both are reasonably widespread in that region of the south-west Alpes-Maritimes and the flight period right for both. But size would be a factor and if you saw it in the field Colin and it looked malvae-sized (perhaps more accurately malvoides) i.e. too small for armoricanus, then maybe malvoides would be an option but it doesn't look quite right for this. See what Guy thinks.

I have just seen Trev's taras aberration. I have seen a couple of taras and a few semi-taras, but this is a superb example and I wonder if this is about as extreme as this aberration gets. An amazing specimen.

I've also been very fortunate to find a 'taras' Grizzled Skipper, although this was May 5th last year on the outskirts of Lewes. I revisited this year and the site was very poor for Grizzlies this year. It certainly is a wonderful creature and rates as still my best butterfly find to date.
My favourite pic from this year was from my regular patch of High and Over at the back of Seaford on April 10th when the weather was still pretty good.

Roger Gibbons wrote:Colin's rather has the feel of Oberthur's Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus armoricanus), just possibly Rosy GS (P. onopordi). Both are reasonably widespread in that region of the south-west Alpes-Maritimes and the flight period right for both. But size would be a factor and if you saw it in the field Colin and it looked malvae-sized (perhaps more accurately malvoides) i.e. too small for armoricanus, then maybe malvoides would be an option but it doesn't look quite right for this. See what Guy thinks.

I agree this doesn't look like malvae/malvoides and would love to see an underside. I've certainly seen many rosies (onopordi) very like this butterfly, especially in the discal area of the hindwing. It is characteristic of rosy to have a well demarcated inner boundary (often with a well defined white line) to a prominent but slightly diffuse pale patch. But I wouldn't put much money on this, just from an upperside shot.

Sorry to interrupt the grizzly page with a non-UK ID discussion, but Roger was right to point it out.

Guy

Thanks Roger and Guy for your comments. Sorry to have polluted this topic
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Colin

I agree with Wurzel. The appearance of good old "Griz" really signals that the butterfly season is underway. Definitely my favourite butterfly and just so feisty... They fly with such remarkable maneuverability when protecting what they perceive to be their own personal airspace that they actually remind me of tiny little Spitfires and you can almost hear the Rolls Royce Merlin engines as they bank into yet another tight loop-the-loop or barrell-roll

Trev

This shot was taken at Aston Upthorpe during a walk led by Richard Lewington. It's always hard to take photos when in a group, so this is just a grab shot with a tele-lens but it was a memorable day!
Mike

A visit to Rewell Wood in search of Pearl Bordered Fritillaries at the beginning of May yielded a single fresh Grizzled Skipper that sat still for ages awaiting the sun, which was hiding behind thick grey cloud.
At the end of May i visited Ryton Woods in Warwickshire where i found up to five Grizzled Skippers all sat on a patch of Forget-Me-Nots. When i first discovered them the sun was shining and they all sat on the flowers basking in the warmth, but as the sun disappeared one by one they closed their wings and proceeded to roost.

This page is becoming such a lovely reminder of spring I'll add my own memory. Strictly speaking, this is malvoides, not malvae, but it's basically the same butterfly. It was flying on a hillside in the Rhône Valley on March 25th:



Guy

The first one of the year is always special, and this little chap appeared as usual when I was looking hopefully for something else (Wood Whites at Botany Bay in this case) on 21st April. The second and third were at Denbies on 19th May, when there were quite a few flying at the tail end of the day. They are significantly different in appearance - I'm sometimes glad there is only one species in the UK they could possibly be!

Dave

every year i forget just how small theses butterflies are. always a pleasure to see though.

This photo makes me smile - a gorgeous April day on the Isle of Wight

Some stunning images on here, particularly given that this species is one of the less spectacular ones.

Must say, both those aberrants are absolutely amazing.

I particularly remember the circumstance in which I took my favourite Grizzled Skipper photo this year. It was during one dull, wet and cold weekend back in May, I hadn't been out anywhere and by the Sunday afternoon was feeling the need for some fresh air.
I decided to trundle down to Harbury Spoilbank to try and find a roosting Grizzled Skipper to take some underside shots as I had noticed that all the photos that I took last year were topsides.
On arrival the weather was even more dismal with a light drizzle and a cold wind. Undaunted (well, maybe a bit ) I started looking around the grass stems and seed heads and after 30 minutes or so found my target, a Grizzled Skipper sitting on a seed head
I took a few photos from various angles, including lying down in the wet grass, before my hands started to feel the cold and I decided to head back home.
I only saw that one butterfly that day but, considering that it was exactly what I set out to find, I count the trip out a great success.
Cheers,

Neil F.

This little chap was one of the few I saw I saw this year on Walker's Hill above Alton Barnes, Wilts.