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Duke of Burgundy - Favourite Photo of 2015

Week 5

So continues sequence of posts giving one and all the opportunity to showcase their favourite shots of 2015!

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

It's great to look back at this species at the opposite time of year, when the grey shortening days could do with a bit of spring sunshine. I sought them out principally at Ivinghoe Beacon on the Chilterns, but was also pleased to see a couple in Bentley Wood (Wilts/Hants) as a sideshow to the Pearl-bordered Fritillaries. Such a lot of character these butterfles have.

Dave

I had a good year for a change with the Dukes, they were actually there when I went to Gait Barrow usually I've had to make two or three visits before I actually see them, this time I saw them on the 4th ,11th, 20th,30th of May at the same time looking for the allusive PB and SPB Frits, so I did try my best with with them but had no luck
I took quite a few shots so it was hard to pick out the ones I like best, plus you've to keep behind a rope cord on a path, so filming them can be quite difficult, because of this i took my distance lens with me which is okay but not as good as the close up lens ( not Micro ) so I decided to post one from each time I went up to Gait Barrow Goldie

I only saw one example this year but, fortunately, in excellent condition. My photo was taken in a small hollow near a car-park towards the North end of Rodborough Common, where I have watched a small colony over a few years.
Mike

I missed out on seeing Duke of Burgundy last year so this year had decided it was one of the species that I wanted to see. This is also a species that my son Chris had not yet seen and in the end we both managed to arrange a day of work together and decided to head down to Prestbury Hill at Cheltenham which is probably the most accessible site for us.

On our arrival we soon started to see plenty of Butterflies including Dingy Skippers, Small Blues, Common blues, Green Hairstreaks and Brown Argus but it was some time before we saw our first DoB of the day. After initially drawing a blank in The Bill Smyllie Reserve we walked through to The Masts Reserve where we ended up seeing half a dozen or so Dukes at the bottom of the slope. We then went back into the Bill Smyllie side and saw a handful more, mostly around the hotspot by the gate.

I have noticed before that examples of this species from further south, particularly those from Sussex, often appear to be darker than those I have seen at Prestbury Hill and was interested on this occasion to see a good variation in the individuals that we saw, especially as they were all males.
Cheers,

Neil

Another lifer for me this year so loads of pictures to go through. Several trips to Ivinghoe Beacon gave me lots of encounters with beautiful little insect.

This was my very first Duke (Duchess) Another Duchess doing a bit of mud puddling And I watched this male vigorously defending his territory for some time

One day and one alone in 2015 with this precious species.

That was at Rodborough Common on an isolated perfect day weatherwise on 23rd May.

Over 20 individual specimens were seen, along with good numbers of many other species including Green Hairstreak, Dingy Skipper, Small Heath, Brown Argus and Adonis Blue:

Duke of Burgundy

I was starting to worry about the continued existence of my Duke site this year as I made several visits once they started showing up on various threads on UKB but each time I went I drew a blank. Luckliy my site must be a ‘late site’ as when I visited at the end of May I found my target.

This was my favourite of all the shots that I took as it is from a different angle and the three quarters open wings show off both the topside and underside nicely. The huge eyes being sharply in focus also gave it a ‘cute’ look which is ironic due to its normal belligerent sex maniac ways! Have a goodun

Wurzel

I was lucky enough to be invited to visit a closed site at Porton Down on the Hants Wilts border to help with Duke survey this year. The Dukes here are in a woodland setting and use Primrose as the food plant and although the weather wasn't brilliant we spotted good numbers and I even tracked down Marsh Fritillary just inside the Hampshire border.
Best Wishes
Mark