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

Wall
This was my favourite shot of Wall this year as it was the only one that I saw. I’d stopped off on the way home from work at one of the SPTA tracks in a futile attempt to find Green Hairstreaks. It was mid May, it was warm and sunny and the MOD track was lined with Hawthorn bushes on both sides and right the way up to the top of a low hill. So I set off in good spirits hoping to break my Green streak duck only to be disappointed on the journey up the hill. There were a few whites around and then something orangey caught my eye. My only Wall Brown of 2012. It was very flighty and even though I didn’t attempt to approach it it headed off down the hill, flitting from one side of the road to another. In the end I got fed up watching it and so directly approached it when it dropped to the ground and waited patiently while I took a couple of shots. I backed up and it was off again and gone. I could do with finding a regular site for this species because I generally rely on luck – which will probably run our sooner rather than later! Have a goodun

Wurzel

Wall Brown undersides are something that I have paid scant attention to during my lifetime. That said, I was determined to photograph the single example I saw of this species at Alun Valley, south Wales, on 12th May last year. After several abortive attempts at an upperside shot, I simply settled for this (merely to provide evidence of its presence at the site that day), and it turned out to be quite a nice shot (accidentally, of course):

Another underside: mine was at Sand Point on a memorable day, which included Glanville Fritillaries and several rare plants.
Mike

As some of you may know I am a bit of a Wall Brown addict! I am lucky to be in a very good area for this species. It is however one of the hardest species to photograph as they are very sensitive to movement and often all you get is a butterfly taking off, as shown here. For all the hours I've spent I have managed to get a few half decent shots as well as a lot of rubbish!!! One path nearby late in the day loses the sun and occasionally a Wall will settle on the bushes instead of on a bare bit of ground to get the last bit of the sun.

It had been many years since I had seen Wall Browns, they have not been seen in Warwickshire for some time although I remember them being quite common back in the 1970s by my parents house.

I was therefore well chuffed to find one at Horsey Dunes when I was in Norfolk at the end of last May. I did see a few more in Dorset in September but the photos below are my favourites due to them being of the first one in recent years.

To me they will always be Wall Browns.
Neil.

I also saw my first Walls for several years in 2012. I remember them from my youth in North London, from teenage years in Somerset, and then from several years working in Dover. I headed for High & Over (a known hotspot) on a warm, sunny but very windy day in August. I saw quite a few up on the Downs and also all along the path down to the river and along to Exceat, behaving as an ordinary hedgerow butterfly. It seems odd not to see them in similar habitat all over the place. The wind, added to their flighty habits, made photographs difficult to get. But I was pleased to see them.

Dave

Not only a nice underside, but a mating couple into the bargain! On the site of an ancient volcano near Biot in the Maritimes-Alpes.
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Colin