www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Week 13 - Welcome to 2015!

So continues sequence of posts giving one and all the opportunity to showcase their favourite shots of 2014 (or the last time you saw one)!

Please could I ask that everyone waits until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos? Of course our overseas members are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants. As like last year details of locations, dates, times and circumstances would be welcome as would any accompanying stories and anecdotes or other observations of behaviour and interesting other points.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Saw a dozen or so of this species at Ewyas Harold Common, near Hereford, on 6th May 2014:

I took my photo's of the Pearl Bordered Fritillary at Gaits Barrow on the 26th May, they always seem to fly near the Dukes at GB which is a gift because while photographing the Dukes you can always get shots with out moving very far

I managed these shots by walking slowly and just waiting by the cordons they'd placed around the Dukes Favourite sites Goldie

I had a couple of trips down to Bentley Wood in May and saw PBF both times. They were relatively new on the 5th, and just starting to look tired 20 days later, when they were in amongst the newly emerging Small Pearls. However, the second visit produced an underside shot which hadn't been a feature of the first trip. Dave

Pearl-bordered Fritillary

I love the under wing patterns of PBFs and one of my spring highlights is locating them at Bentley Wood and hoping for the classic closed wing shot. Yet this year despite finding them easily enough they were all pretty active and those shots which I did manage to get were slightly cluttered as the butterfly was ovipositing/posturing.

On a very wet and dull day I found myself with a morning free from kids and so I headed out anyway reasoning that the butterflies should be roosting and I might be able to pick up some better closed wings shots. I was hoping for SPBFs (which Pauline did find further East in Bentley) but after a few hours I was soaked to the bone with only 2 Specklies and a handful of Moths in the can. As I stumbled after the second Specklie which I’d put up I happened upon a large clump of ferns – and there sitting out in the rain was a PBF – still stunning despite the gloom of the day and the ravages of age...
Have a goodun

Wurzel

Wow. Cloudy/dull weather often plays right into your hands, Wurzel.

Excellent image.

I saw Pearl-bordered Fritillaries on two separate occasions in 2014, first at the Wyre Forest when I went there in early May...
...and then at the end of the month when travelling back from a few days on the Isle of Wight we made a brief stop off in the New Forest. We arrived here just after some heavy rain and as the sun started to peer through the clouds I saw half or dozen PBFs along a ride not far from the Standing Hat car park,
With the butterflies just beginning to warm up they were only making short flights and settling often which gave me the chance to finally get some decent underside shots.

These two are of the same individual, taken from both sides,
and this one of another example, taken from the side that was in shadow using flash and against the path which gave the background colour,
Despite the intrusive grass stem, I also rather like this shot of a full underside,
Cheers,

Neil.

Lovely images, Neil. Roll on next May!!

With so many nearby colonies having been lost, I was very pleased to find these butterflies thriving in 'classic' conditions near the sawmill at Hailey Wood, near Cirencester. They were very active in sunshine, and difficult to photograph, but I spotted this one resting during a cloudy spell.
Mike

My favourite was this cold and sluggish Pearl-bordered Fritillary that was only too keen to climb on my hand for a warm back in early May 2014...

A trip to Bentley for Pearls is always pencilled in on my butterfly calendar and this year was no exception. I have so many pictures of Pearl-bordered that it's difficult to have a favourite but the I think this female taken in the late afternoon, having a warm up on the hand of my daughter Izzy is the best, not least because of the joy it brought her as well as me .