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Red Admiral - Favourite Photo 2016

Week 14

So here we are into 2017 proper with most people back at work - hopefully the Species Favourite Thread will keep our spirits up

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

My favourite shot was taken on the Solent shoreline at Lepe, Hampshire.

These had a rather good year, particularly when the home bred animals started to emerge, so I ended up with a fair few pictures but this one makes me smile. The positioning of it's vestigule front legs giving in a rather 'stern expression'

My favourite's this year were taken once again in my back garden on the 30th Sept/2nd Oct .
One shot I like because the weather had been chilly the night before and the RA was taking full advantage of the morning Sun The other because I managed to get a shot of the" ab Biabata " Goldie

During the 4th week of September Red Admirals were stoking up on ivy blossom in my Cambridgeshire garden before continuing on their journey south.
For the best part of that week I had daily counts in the 40s and 50s.
In this photo I managed to snap 17 of them - a few are well hidden.

WOW! I've never seen so many all at once. Goldie

This was caught on one of those brilliant, sunny, Autumn days, along the Roman Road leading onto Otmoor, Oxon. I like it because the photo has captured the fruit loving behaviour of these late-season butterflies.
Mike

Just a couple of shots,from late Summer taken early morning at Dungeness, during a morning plant hunt ! regards Allan.W.[attachment=1]P1050958.JPG[/attachment

I encountered a very amenable individual on the Norfolk coast in July. After perching on an upturned rowing boat and allowing me to photograph the wing undersides it perched at eye level on brambles and provided me with a nice front view.

A saw a scattering of Red Admirals through the summer but numbers really took off at the tail end of the season when I had more on the late flowering buddleias in my garden than I had seen all season up until then. My favourite shots were probably these two of the same individual.
Cheers,

Neil.

I saw good numbers of this butterfly locally throughout the season, and as ever they were at there best probably in September/October. Here are a few from 2nd October, a splendid overall butterflying day in many respects on my local patch. I think I probably took photos of Red Admirals on more days than any other species, and may well have more photos of them than anything else.

Dave

Red Admiral

These were taken during my first trip to my Marshie Site. I had to choose them both as they fitted together and told two halves of the same story.
I’d already seen a Red Admiral but this was the first that I’d managed to photograph. It was acting in an odd way, flitting low over the nettles and occasionally dipping down to land or circle around a particular patch. It was only when I got in even closer that I realised that it was a female looking for places to lay eggs. I stood and watched and eventually she moved in closer still so I was able to capture a few shots. Once she moved off to find further suitable nettles I examined the nettle and there was her egg, relatively protected on the underside of a new leaf surrounded by little silica hypodermic needles. When I got home and sorted through the shots my fave took on a more sinister feel when I noticed a small wasp stalking the female.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

There were plenty of Red Admirals on my 'patch' in late summer and well into autumn. This one, seen at Old Castle Down, near Bridgend, on 23rd July, was the first one I took an image of last year: