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Painted Lady - Favourite Photo of 2015

Week 12

I hope everyone had a great Christmas/seasonal holiday of their choice! Here 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 was a reasonable year for Painted Ladies in my part of the country, with probably 50-100 sighted.

My first was in early June on my neighbour's flowers, and is notable for its lack of hindwing markings:
This individual was also looking in fine fettle at the West Williamston Brown Hairstreak reserve in mid-August:

This sighting broke a rather long 'drought' for me with this species, since I had seen none during 2014:
Mike

This worn individual was seen in the South of France in September.
Given its condition, I presume that it was heading south, rather than north. Chris

Well after early reports of 2015 being a Painted Lady year, the end result was a bit of a damp squib for me, probably saw fewer than 10 individuals and managed pictures of 5 of them.

This one was probably the best conditioned one, seen in mid September near Eastbourne, and sat quite well for me allowing a nice range of closeups

I watched this female ovipositing while I was marking up cardinals in the Rhône Valley on 24th May:



Guy

I had a great time in the garden this September with Painted Ladies, I was so pleased to see them not having
seen them for a few years in My garden so nearly all the photos I took of them were my Favourites

I took the photos on the 22nd of September Goldie

Here is mine, I had been waiting to get a nice underside shot for years and managed to get this in Bulgaria
Andy

As noted by others, the 'Painted Lady invasion' that was publicized in the media never happened although I have to say I saw more in 2015 than for the past few years. In fact during the summer I saw more Painted Ladies than Peacocks which is most unusual for me and also a reflection on the poor numbers of Peacocks around my local patch.

I saw my first ones in Cornwall in early June where a definite influx was taking place abeit not in the massive numbers predicted. later in the summer they were appearing at my local spots regularly and I had the first one in the garden since 2009.

I was pleased with some of the underside shots I managed to get during a pleasant afternoon at my local spot at Castle Hills near Solihull.
They also showed up on most days when I was down in Dorset in early September, including at Tout Quarry on Portland where I got the shot below of three on a straggly Buddleia,
and some close ups of a couple of the individuals in the shot above,
Cheers,

Neil

Painted Lady

This was taken back in mid May at Larkhill during a morning stop-off. It is my favourite of several shots that I managed of Painted Lady though the year as it was probably the most obliging PL that I’ve ever photographed. Possibly because it still hadn’t warmed up fully in the morning sun it just sat there on an old nappy wipe while I took shot after shot of it. I remember at the time what a boost it gave me getting me to work in an extremely good mood and it still peps me up now. Have a goodun

Wurzel

My fourth summer in the Vale of Belvoir and this year was the first time the Painted Ladies turned up in my back garden. Joy!
Rather self-indulgently here's four pics of two individuals taken apart a week apart in late September.

Hardly a Painted Lady year, but this species turned up in a wide variety of places for me. The largest number I saw was on 14th June on my local patch - and that was only six or seven. Here's one of those. Here is another from 12th September - with wings closed it was well camouflaged against the sandy gravel of the path. Dave