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White Admiral - Favourite Photo of 2015

Week 19

The penultimate week! I always approach this part of the series with mixed emotions - sad that the looking back and reminiscing is soon to be over but excited as the new season is in the offing The final set next week will feature the remaining species, 'Vagrant' (for all those lucky LTB sightings ) and finally your overall Favourite Photo from the season that was 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

Didn't spend much time with White Admirals in 2015, but a trip to Fermyn Wood on 18th July threw up a handful, including this one:

This is how it all begins - a caterpillar eating its egg on a miserable August day:



And this is where it leads - dining with royalty (that's a poplar admiral on the right) in the June sun:



Both 2015 so the chronology doesn't really work, but life's a cycle, right?

Guy

I missed the start of the season for this species, but came across some worn examples on a trip to Chiddingfold for second brood Wood Whites. This was my favourite from that day (2nd August). Dave

I think my favourite is the attached, if only to explain the larval feeding pattern
Cheers,

- Pete

Yet another lifer for me in 2015 and I had a pretty good season with this one. The first one I saw was actually a caterpillar in the spring, a very lucky find since it was just an opportunistic casual search and one appeared on the first sprig of honeysuckle I looked at! To find adults I found Bookham Commons to be a good place with several visits chasing them. Not many good pictures of the adults, I didn't find them the easiest butterfly to approach but I think I have the measure of them now so fingers crossed for 2016. However my favourite adult picture will be this one which was one of my first photographs of an adult I obviously can't not mention my little charges who I've followed through their early weeks of life, most of whome are sadly no more. Here's one of a meeting of two I witnessed, something which by all accounts isn't often seen. It seems the instinct to sit on the midrib pier is strong but not strong enough for any agression to reach full on contact, this was as close as they got to each other before the interloper turned tail and returned to the centre of the leaf. 4 days later they were occupying seperate leaves.

More from my regular venue of Holmsley Inclosure in the New Forest.

The first one was quite obliging, I often see them swooping around through the trees and looking like they have no intention of stopping, but this one was hungry. First two pics taken 18th July, third pic taken 6th August. This might be the more usual view I get, I could have cropped the pic, but I like it like this, (it's my current wallpaper/desktop view).

I took my photos on the 27th of July in Blean Woods Kent, the weather had been awful in the morning, but we decided to go to the woods any way, this Butterfly was the only White Admiral I saw all the Summer so I think my self lucky to have seen it Goldie

White Admiral

This was my fave WA shot of the year as it was a total surprise. It was taken in early August when the Admirals were almost over so I wouldn’t have expected to have seen one due to the timing. Secondly I was down at the coast at Studland surrounded by sand, sea and heath so again I wouldn’t have expected to have seen one due to the habitat. Finally it was feeding on Buddliea which again I was surprised to see as I didn’t know that this was a nectar source for this species. Have a goodun

Wurzel

For some reason I just did not get around to visiting any of the Warwickshire White Admiral sites during their flight period in 2015 and consequently only ended up seeing this species on the one occasion, this being when I went to Fermyn Woods on July 15th. I saw maybe half a dozen or so WAs flitting and gliding between the trees in various parts of the complex of woods and only managed to photograph the one individual when it settled to nectar on some brambles.
Cheers,

Neil