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Overall Favourite Photo of 2015

Week 20

The final week and so the final opportunity to post your favourite photos looking back on the 2015 season. This is your opportunity to post your Overall Favourite Photo from the 2015 season.

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

I'm assuming that as in previous years there is no restriction on species or subject matter for this category.
I always like to try a capture interesting behaviour in a photograph and so it boiled down to a choice between courting Fen Raft Spiders or a confused frog. As I submitted a spider photo as my favourite of 2014, the confused frog has it for 2015.
The photo was taken in early March 2015 at a downland dew pond in East Sussex. Downland boy (more images at http://eastsussexwanderer.blogspot.co.uk)

My favourite photos of last year are an amusing sequence of Male and Female Brimstones taken at Gait Barrow
on the 16th June, the reason being, this time for a change the Female seemed to be chasing the Male

She was busy, when he flew in and seemed to ignore her, she spotted him though and started her acrobatics For once the Male didn't seem that interested which still has me puzzled, either that are she was scaring him off Goldie

Two 'lifers' are my favourites from 2015.

The first is of the scarce Provence Hairstreak, seen in Var in mid-April:
The second is a butterfly that took a week to find in the French Alps. We were all looking out for it and it was finally located on the last full day - the gorgeous Alpine Blue:

Overall Favourite Photo from 2015

Each year that I sort through my photos and select my favourite shots for the appropriate Species Thread I have a range of criteria that I use to select my favourites – rarity/aberration/lifer, particular pose that fits with one of my ‘collections’, behaviour capture or the most important a memory nudge of a fantastic visit or day. Often a shot may clearly meet more than one of these criteria but this year one shot met all of them and so was my obvious choice for Overall Favourite Photo of 2015.

This Weavers Fritillary isn’t an aberration but it was a lifer and a rarity to me.

It could fit into my ‘butterfly on a stick’ or at a push ‘close up’ collection.

In terms of behaviour it was taken in the early evening and shows the butterfly settling down ready to roost for the night.

It was taken on my Czech Holiday so the when I see it the scenery it brought back to mind, I can almost smell the warm grass, feel the heat and taste the Holba. Even better than that it reminds me of how I came to see it in the first place – my older daughter came running to fetch me from the field, dragging me away from HBFs and Dusky Large Blues as she’d found a little butterfly which she thought was a Fritillary. And so we both approached it and enjoyed its company together. Have a goodun

Wurzel

My overall favourite is this group of newly emerged Brimstone larvae.They had just hatched from three eggs laid on a leaf lower down the plant and had all made their way to the newest leaf at the top. This was the first time I had observed such behaviour.
It was a particularly special occasion for me because the plant was in my garden and I had waited several years for a female butterfly to be attracted to it.

Vince

Finally caught up with this wonderful butterfly in Bulgaria last year. It had long been on my ' wish list'.
Tony M.

Two for me if I may.
The first is a headshot of a Pearl Bordered Fritillary taken at Porton Down in May last year - I just love the grey eyes which i had never noticed before The second is a Camberwell Beauty taken in Santa Fe in July. I had spotted several of these during my trip but none had stopped for a photo. This one was on a bank under a small willow tree that overhung a twenty foot drop to a small stream below and it led me to a female and another male in the same tree - its seems that the female was trying to hide from the other two males amorous advances.
The photo is not particularly brilliant as it was taken one handed as I leant out over the drop to the stream, whilst hanging on with the other hand to the tree, always aware that a significant amount of the roots had been washed away by the stream - very precarious!! Kind regards
Mark

This is an impossible task! I take loads of photos and 2015 was a good year for me, with many pics that I like for all sorts of different reasons. I thought, perhaps, I would post a Rajah Brooks Birdwing, from my Borneo trip, because it seems to be the epitome of the exotic butterfly, but I've already posted photos in my diary and on my website.

So, I decided to restrict myself to UK butterflies and started skimming though my collection, until I reached the records from a memorable day at Strawberry Banks (Glos.). Not only was the site teeming with Marsh Fritillaries but I found a nicely-posed mating pair. Not just nicely-posed but on a Lesser Butterfly Orchid (Platanthera bifolia), which is another speciality of this reserve. This shot shows more of the flower spike than others I have posted previously. A remarkable juxtaposition
Mike

My favourite photo of 2015 has to be this one, purely because of the patience and perseverence necessary to get it.
Now I can focus on something different in 2016. But what, mmmm .......? Two-tailed Pasha, August 25th, Vitrolles, South of France.
Chris

Chris Jackson wrote:Now I can focus on something different in 2016. But what, mmmm .......?

False Mnestra Ringlet?

David M wrote:

Chris Jackson wrote:Now I can focus on something different in 2016. But what, mmmm .......?

False Mnestra Ringlet?

I need better shots of Provence Hairstreak, David. Your photo above certainly does this species credit.
I'm sure that your adventures in 2016 will reveal many surprises.
Chris

Duplicate due unknown problem.

Post by Jack Harrison » Tue Feb 23, 2016 7:28 pm
This shot by David M:

could almost make me believe in a god with a sense of humor when a 'creation' went a trifle wrong.

"My Green Hairstreak and Small Copper have somehow got mixed up. That Darwin fellow is going to have a field day explaining this! But the "Creationists" will be happy.
S*d it - I think the result is rather good!"

Big G

LOL! Nice handiwork, Jack.

Not only does it look like a composite of Green Hairstreak & Small Copper, but it behaves like one too. It meanders amongst the shrubbery like rubi yet it likes to bask on bare earth just like phlaeas. A real oddball!

Very tricky to decide....

Two things stand out, though. The first was a photo of a Green Hairstreak at Bedfont Lakes CP (south part). Green Hairstreaks in Middlesex are really hard to come by, so I was very pleased to see this one. The second was the extraordinary three-way mating of Graylings I encountered at Dawney's Hill. Not something I'm likely to see again, and providing an opportunity at the same time to see the uppersides in all their glory. Dave

It's a toughy for me since I do take heaps of pictures when I go out but after much thought I'm torn between two, a butterfly and a bird one.

This one of a Grayling simply because they force you to work hard to get something a bit different from the normal 'Grayling pose'. My other favourite was catching this Swallow inches from the ground as it swept past me, more luck than skill!