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Small Copper - Favourite Photo 2016

Week 16

Only 5 weeks remaining now for this series of Posts - so if you haven't already now would be the time to start working out your overall favourite for the final week!

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

It seemed like these were going to have another dreadful year (except at Dungeness of course), but by late summer they seemed to have a bit of a population explosion and I started seeing them everywhere. The returned to my local patch and I was practically tripping over them at Bookham. They're such a photogenic little butterfly that it was inevitable I was going to end up with hundreds of pictures so here's favourites from some of the places I saw them last year: Of the (probable) hundreds I saw at Bookham this one stands out for me simply because I found him whilst looking for Brown Hairstreak eggs at the beginning of November! And lets not forget my first wild larvae, from eggs I'd been monitoring after watching a female lay.

It's always a pleasure to spot one of these lively butterflies, which seem able to turn up almost anywhere. My 'favourite' was taken at the Warburg reserve, near Henley:
Mike

This from my first visit to a privately-owned meadow in my home village, Vale of Belvoir. Dateline: May 17th.

After one of the worst starts to a season for finding this species that I can remember, towards the end of the summer they started to appear. The best part of this was their reappearance on my local patch after a three year absence, and regularly from August to October. It's very hard to select a favourite from these, so here is a composite of images taken locally on 2nd October (as mentioned before, one of the best butterfly days of 2016 locally). However, probably my favourite individual shot was from a late afternoon walk at Aston Rowant on 14th August. The intensity of the colour (enhanced by the lowering sun) was amazing. Dave

I saw my first and only Small Copper at Hall-Lee-Brook on the 5th Aug just before I went down to Kent, I wasn't able to go back to HLB so I was very pleased to have seen one especially when I didn't see any more that year. Goldie

Tried really hard to limit my Small Copper favourite to just one(or two),but just Couldn,t manage it,all of my shots are from Dungeness (Kent),where they appeared to buck the national trend,and appeared in very large numbers,i believe "Hoggers " made a count of over 500
on one weekend,and I had several 150+ counts myself, and the variety was incredible,with at least 5 different AB;Radiata turning up in one week alone . they seem well spread out across the whole peninsula,but certain areas ,seem to be "hotspots",in particular the moat area around the observatory. Towards the end of the season ,I started looking at other sites ,(around a dozen) and found Coppers ,in all but one ,and in 2017 I intend
to look at more areas that I,ve earmarked over the winter.I Had some,great mornings on the shingle,this past season,found some brilliant Coppers,and had some interesting chats with " Hoggers",normally ,I was leaving ,as he was starting ! really enjoyed our note swapping ,heres to 2017 !!

Regards Allan W.

That last blue badge radiata is is pretty special Allan

bugboy wrote:That last blue badge radiata is is pretty special Allan

Agreed...I have never seen that combination before

Small Copper is unfortunately another species that did not do well locally, in fact I only found a couple of individuals at my usual sites.

This species seemed to do better later in the year at more southern sites where it usually has 3 or 4 broods, 2 or maybe 3 in a good year being more usual here in the midlands.

I found good numbers scattered across the dunes at Upton Towans near Hayle in Cornwall in early September...
...and a day walking the coast path between Kynance Cove and Lizard point produced more Small Coppers than I have ever seen before at one site. I gave up counting after 100 and just enjoyed the experience . Notable features of this population was the large size of some of the females and the number of var. caeruleopunctata which consisted of 50% or more with some degree of blue spotting.
Unfortunately the large size of many of the the females doesn't really come across in photos but the example below was particularly impressive,
I also saw many instances of attempted courtship most of which were rejected with what Hoggers calls 'The Turkey Dance'...
Cheers,

Neil.

Small Copper

This was taken ‘up the Lane’ during my August trip to my Outlaws. I’m normally able to latch onto Wall Browns somewhere on this trip but not so this year. Hence one of the reasons for this being my fave – it was compensation for missing other species. My other reason for choosing this particular shot was because of the nature of the image. It really stood out against the background and the angle its holding it wings at seems fairly typical for Coppers, at least from my experience. Have a goodun

Wurzel

This is my favourite of numerous third brood Small Coppers that I saw during October along a Wealden woodland edge.

Only one place in Berwickshire, can I guarantee a spectacular number of the Small Copper each and every season. The second brood numbers are always predictably high. So, St Abbs Head NNR July 2016 just as the second brood were emerging onto the scene.

Thanks for comments on the Radiata/ Caerleopunctata ("blue badge") Copper ,Neil and Bugboy, was really pleased to find this beauty
I,ve never seen one quite like it before either,saw it on two separate occasions,but sadly it seems,no one else did. Regards Allan.W.

Didn't see too many of these in 2016, which is a worry as they've had a few poor years lately. In spite of only having one antenna, this caeroleopunctata specimen was the most striking I encountered, on the Isle of Man on 5th August: