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Dingy Skipper - Favourite Photo of 2016

Week 4 - Normal service has resumed...

Week four and another opportunity to showcase your favourite shots of 2016! Please could I ask that everyone waits until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos - just to make it easier to organise and keep everything on track so that we can enjoy this throughout the winter months? 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

A few shots from Denbies on different spring days. My overall feeling was that this species was another that didn't do too well in 2016 - there weren't many of them at any of the sites I visited this year. Firstly comes a mating pair, the first time I've managed to capture the event with this species. The second shot shows the really rather unexciting underside of the butterflies. The last photo is of a worn one on an oak sapling which in life was surprisingly well camouflaged. Dave

I saw the Dingy Skipper just once this year at Gait Barrow when it settled near the Duke's site there, I was chasing a PBF at the time it was on the 30th of May one of the few days when it didn't rain Goldie

Flicking through this years haul of pictures, this particular one stood out for me. No particular story attached to it, I'm not sure I even remember taking it, but I'm glad I did

I didnt get many pictures of Dingies this year, although a couple were in the Cutting Scrapes at Hutchinsons Bank.

Dingies are relatively common near me, so I am culpable of paying lip service to them most years.

The only half-decent shot I got was when exploring my local quarry in late May just prior to visiting the French Pyrenees:

I made a couple of unsuccessful attempts to see Dingy Skippers around my patch early in the year. Once at Asfordby Hill in Leicestershire, and then at Twyford Woods in Lincs. Both are usually reliable sites but - alas - my efforts drew a blank.

I did manage to catch up with them in Dordogne in late May - though my attention was drawn for the most part to the plethora of less familiar species. Anyhoo... here's a slightly unusual side view.

Hi Folks,
My Dingy Skipper photo this year is from the South of France. It dates from April 6th, which is the earliest I've seen one yet - it does look fresh. Cheers, Chris

I don't have Dingy Skippers at any of my close local spots but they can usually be found at a number of sites around Warwickshire including Bishops Hill where the photo below was taken.
Cheers,

Neil.

Dingy Skipper

This was taken at my Duke site a little earlier than expected to be honest as I normally I see Grizzlies first and then Dingies about a week later. This year it seems the messed up spring played havoc with the butterflies timings and so I found myself spying a Dingy first. To be fair I did see my first Grizzlie about 5 minutes after this shot was taken but it still ranks as my favourite as it was so fresh and perfect.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

I struggled with Dingy Skips in 2016, they were well down in numbers,at a lot of their traditional sites in East
Kent,and missing completely from a site that is normally a cert,not sure why this should be,hope they have a better season in 2017.
These two were from Wye NNR.