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Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary - Favourite Photo 2016

Week 17

Only 4 weeks remaining of this series - and therefore probably only 2-3 weeks until the Hibernators start putting in regular appearances!

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

I saw this species as I usually do at Bentley Wood (29th May). I dropped in this year on the way back from Seeing Marsh Frits in Wurzel country and as there were PBF as well as SPBF at Bentley, it was a three-fritillary day. The SPBF were near the start of their emergence and were not particularly numerous. Dave

Mine are from Bentley Wood also, a week after Dave's visit but despite being near the peak flight period and having decent weather I didn't see more than half a dozen at most. What I did find were very fresh looking insects and I was able to witness a mating pair who posed impeccably for us.

I saw my PBF at Gait Barrow on the 22nd and 30th May, one shot I took was in the Dukes site so it was a case of staying behind the rope barrier for this shot and on my second visit they were doing a fly past down the path we were on landing, then taking off again tantalisingly close. Goldie

The Small Pearls flight was delayed 2016 in poor weather, but not delayed too long. Not the most spectacular season ever though. This one was photographed on a dank and misty day in the Scottish Borders at Gordon Community Woodland where a newly discovered colony thrives. As the sun clawed at the cloud, the Small Pearls would rise up through the grass to bathe in the brief warmth.

I took my SPBF photos during a quick visit to Gait Barrows NNR. My target, in which I was unsuccessful, was the Dark Red Helleborine. The day was dull, with intermittent heavy showers so I was especially pleased to find these butterflies, which provided much needed compensation!
Mike

I saw plenty of Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries in 2016, all of them during a trip up north in early June. The first ones were seen at Warton Crag, Arnside Knot and Gait Barrows when we stayed in that area for a couple of days. These were mostly nice and fresh looking which indicated that we were at the beginning of their flight period in this area. At Warton Crag we were there mid afternoon on a sunny day and they were very active in the warm sun. I visited Arnside Knot the following morning and had better photo opportunities before it warmed up again...which it had by the afternoon when I dropped into Gait Barrows for a couple of hours.
We then carried on to Scotland for a few days where I saw good numbers of SPBFs at Glasdrum Wood and at Glen Loy along the river. Many of these were more faded and worn looking than those seen earlier around Arnside & Silverdale indicating that they had been flying a bit longer, which ties in with the spell of good weather that part of Scotland had experienced for the previous few weeks.
Returning to Arnside at the end of the week, another visit to the Knot in cooler and cloudier conditions enabled me to get some underside shots that I was particularly pleased with.
Cheers,

Neil.

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Often when choosing my Fave I scan through various individuals from various different sites and then having chosen an individual I then look through all of my shots of this individual and choose my Fave from it. When it came to the Small Pearl it was much, much simpler as I saw only one all year. I went with my best ever closed wing shot in the end but it was a really depressing choice to have to make due to the dearth of this species this year; possibly the worst choice I had to make this year.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

On 3rd June, I wandered onto Fairwood Common near to my home and spotted this individual pottering about taking nectar: