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Holly Blue - Favourite Photo of 2016

Week 8

Week eight is upon us and so will Christmas soon! 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

Having found a mating pair of Holly Blues in my garden in May, I watched them for about 30 minutes before they separated. The female then obligingly settled low down on vegetation for this photograph.

That's a cracker, DB. They rarely open their wings to that extent! Superbly captured and a nice, fresh female to boot.

9.5 out of 10

Thanks for that David. I think the male probably found her before she had taken her first flight and that after mating, she was still quite sluggish when she fluttered down to the undergrowth.

I didn't see a Holly Blue properly until August, before that I'd seen a flash of blue in the distance but on the 4th of Aug one landed right in font of me at Hall-Lee-Brook and opened it's wings so I got my first shots.
My next meeting was at Temple Ewell Kent on the 12th of Aug has I was heading back to the car park. Goldie

I know I saw quite a few Holly Blues this year, but finding images has been difficult....

Here's an underside shot of a male at the Alun Valley site in Bridgend on 23rd July:

This species seemed to be on it's cyclical decline on my travels this year after a bumper 2015, they did seem rather hard to come by. I've plumped for this picture as a fav. he was my first of the year and an absolute peach. Just a shame he never opened his wings for me but hey, that's Holly Blues for you, a law unto themselves!

Another really good year for this species on my patch, making three on the trot. This makes it very hard to pick out a favourite photo, but I'll have a crack.

Certainly this fortuitous (though not particularly sharp) photo of a courting pair in May has to be high on the list.I saw females laying eggs on some unusual plants during the summer, but for unusual sightings this one laying more traditionally on ivy on the very late date of 31st October also has to be up the top somewhere.I have also selected the upperside view of the same female in the orange autumn sunlight. Finally comes this shot from 16th October in the middle of this unusually numerous third brood, showing the sight of a Holly Blue feeding on Holly berries. Not something that happens very often, I'd say.
There were many, many other contenders, but choosing between them would be impossible.

Dave

These open-wing shots above are something I would like to achieve.
Being generally warmer down here in the south of France, they seem to hardly ever open their wings - its a rare occurrence.
Here is my participation from the west Var on May 29th. Chris

No luck with open-wing shots for me this year. One observation I would make is that a sure-fire way to get one of these usually very 'flighty' critters to stay still for a while is to dump a load of pond weed in a garden humper. The can't resist coming down for a bit of a furtle and a crafty drink. Here's an example of such a situation from my garden in late August.

millerd wrote:Another really good year for this species on my patch, making three on the trot. This makes it very hard to pick out a favourite photo, but I'll have a crack.

That's grossly envy-inducing, Dave!!

Seeing one Holly Blue with wings open is a challenge; to get both sexes doing this in such close proximity is noteworthy.

Well done.

Holly Blues were definitely down in number around my local patch in 2016 and apart from those seen in my garden I saw no more than half a dozen whilst out and about locally. Whether this was due to the normal host/parasite cycle, or whether this species was suffering for the same reasons other species seemed to do this season, I cannot say.
Numbers of both broods passing through the garden were also lower but the occasional individual, usually female, stopped and settled long enough to get a few shots.

A spring brood female from May...
and a summer brood one from the end of July,
Cheers,

Neil

Holly Blue

This was my Fave shot of the year, and possibly ever of a Holly Blue. The fully open winged shot of a male a la millerd still escapes me but my selection in a way is more pleasing as I’d not encountered Holly Blues in cop before. It now takes pride of place in my ‘Butterflies Having it…” book. It was good to look back through my shots when considering this posting as this is one species which actually seemed to have a good year in 2016.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

These butterflies are plentiful in my garden, where I have both Holly and Ivy plants, but the Spring brood seemed very reluctant to pose for photos. I eventually found this more amenable example, later in the year.
Mike