www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Week 12.

Here is the opportunity to post your favourite photo(s) of a particular species taken in 2013 (or the last time you saw one!).

This is part of a series of topics which will grow over 20 weeks throughout the winter, eventually covering all 59 species which are regularly found in the British Isles. 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 members 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

Orange-tip

This was taken at Martin Down relatively late in the season for the old OT’s, back at the end of May. Last year was wonderful for Orange-tip photography (but for the butterfly itself) with the unseasonal warm spell in March bringing them on and then the cool, wet April and May slowing them down and allowing close approaches. This year by contrast they seemed late and then over almost in the blink of an eye. The warmer temperatures also meant that when you did encounter one then they were in full-on patrol mode. That makes this my favourite as it was one of the rare occasions when I could actually approach them. I really like the way that the posture allowed me to capture all the vein detail on the wings. Have a goodun

Wurzel

Here are a male and a female Orange Tip from Marseilles. The flight period around here is no more than 8 weeks, which is a relatively short photo opportunity compared to other species.
Chris

This was a good year for Orange-tips (as well for its cousin(?) the Provence Orange-tip) in my area. Here are two of my favourites from near Roquefort-les-Pins. A male in mid-April:
and a female from early May:
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Colin

Hi Colin,
I find the Provence Orange-tip is a little more elusive, so I must concentrate my efforts more in this direction in 2014.
What about your Meadow Brown enigma then ?
Chris

cjackson wrote:What about your Meadow Brown enigma then ?

I've put the answer on the Meadow Brown page.
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Colin

I always like finding this butterfly when they are roosting, either on cloudy or wet days when nothing is flying - or just late in the afternoon. With luck, there will be some backlit examples, and my favourite shot this year is of a mating pair on a bluebell. Seen on 7th May on my local patch near Heathrow. Dave

There were plenty of Orange Tips around my local patch in 2013 although they were a bit late appearing, it was early May before I saw my first one but then for the rest of the month I saw them nearly everywhere. No doubt due to the late appearance I started seeing females at the same time as males instead of just males for a few days like usual.
I was fortunate to have loads visiting the garden, sometimes 3 or 4 in sight at once on some sunny afternoons and given the typically mixed Spring weather of sunny spells and rain showers I found that a good few of them would settle up in the garden and stay there until the weather improved. This gave me some good photo opportunities for undersides and I could also keep an eye on them and catch them opening their wings as the clouds cleared from the sun.

These photos were all taken in the garden and are amongst my many favourites of this species taken this year, I have really struggled not to post even more...
I was really pleased to catch the following sequence of a male being rejected by a female, I was just in the right place at the right time and out of 4 shots quickly taken, 3 of them turned out quite good (well, at least I like them )
By the end of May they were just about finished and going into June I only saw a few faded examples still around.

Roll on next Spring...

Neil.

In 2012, my first Orange Tip was spotted on 1st April. This year, I had to wait more than a month later - 2nd May!

This was actually the first male I photographed. He was pottering about near the entrance to Castle Meadows in Abergavenny and, although it's not evident from the image, he was abnormally small for the species (probably only two thirds normal Orange Tip size):

My photo's of Orange Tips were taken all on the same day, 14th May at Hall-Lee-Brook Westhoughton, I went back a few times after this but didn't see any more Goldie

For those who like plain backgrounds! - and, no, I didn't hold up a green card
Mike

At the end of each season I usually end up with a shed-full of Orange-tip pupae, but this time I managed to restrict myself to jut one (I have a shed-full of Large Whites instead).

This chap is the last survivor of the many eggs laid in my garden and only avoided predation due to intervention.
Hatching expected in 3 months

Vince

14th May, in my local woods:



Guy

Orange-tip on Mill Hill 20th May

padfield wrote:14th May, in my local woods:

Wow. That's so good it almost looks super-imposed. Orange Tips are only 3 months or so away so these images give us all something to look forward to.

Fantastic photo Guy, roll on Spring Goldie

Hampshire Orange-tip from 2013, synonymous with spring Roll on spring