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Swallowtail - Favourite Photo 2016

Week 18

The end of this series is fast approaching but that means the season will soon be upon us !

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

Well I could fill this one up with all the pictures I took last year, a childhood dream come true finally seeing a wild Swallowtail, but I'll restrain myself to two pictures. My first sighting was of this courting pair (courting in the sense that the female was completely ignoring the males attentions) a short while later another appeared and didn't stop for a second as it fed in the Doctors Garden. It was a case of point and shoot but it did give me some less than standard images which I'm very happy with

I'm not generally that keen on pictures taken on buddleia, but I'll make an exception here as sightings seem a bit thin on the ground.

Dordogne again, unfortunately. This fella visited the terrace outside the gîte most mornings and evenings. Rather tatty, and being buddleia and all that, I wasn't much enthused to take a better shot.

The butterfly came to see us off on the last day of our holiday in southern Italy. I had never really appreciated before how leggy these butterflies are.

Swallowtail

This was taken on 14th August…in Lisbon so a bit of a cheat (but what the heck) as I still haven’t photographed let alone seen the British subspecies. It was my Fave shot as I only managed a few fleeting images of this individual. It was taken in one of the ‘Jardims’ which are scattered over Lisbon like little green oases.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

I'm gonna be very naughty and post a few more pictures on here since, like children, I really don't have one favourite one, I have over a hundred

Didn't see this species in the UK in 2016, but visits to the French Pyrenees and Alps in May and June threw up a few individuals.

This one was seen briefly basking on a verge in the Pyrenees in late May: