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Overall Favourite Photo 2016

Week 20

The final week! We made it through the Winter and Spring is just round the corner, the Snowdrops and Crocci are blooming, the Daffs won't be too far behind and some have seen and even photographed the first awaking Hibernators Here's wishing everyone a very productive 2017 season

This is the culmination of the complete series of threads - its the time to post your overall favourite shot of last season!

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

Overall Favourite Photo from 2015

Despite it being a tricky year it was hard to pick my overall favourite as normally at the end of these types of year there are only a few stand out moments from which to pick your overall faves. This year it was the same because even though numbers were down, I made fewer trips out and had even fewer opportunities I found myself with a wealth of choices – Glanvilles, Wood Whites, Large Blue, aberrant Pearl, Small Pearls, Greenstreaks, my first Geranium Bronze – which to pick from? Once I’d made my decision of course it would make my choices for all the other individual faves easier which only heightened my quandary…

Searching through shot after shot I kept coming back to one in particular. It had to be my male Brostreak. Shipton seems to be a really good site for males as they will often come down low enough here to be photographed and so it was with this one. This shot ticked all the boxes – site, reminder of the day, species, behaviour, pose and to top it all it’s an aberrant – the orange flashes are missing from the upper fore wing. It certainly made my year!
Have a goodun

Wurzel

My overall favourite was taken in Rome on 7th October at the Palatine Hill. It stands out for me because of its novelty value and because I am unlikely to get anything similar in a hurry.
Vince

My favourite photo was of three Zephyr Blues up to some naughtiness. S.W.Bulgaria 2016.

Tony M.

In recent years, I have become fascinated with the life of the Fen Raft Spider (Dolomedes plantarius). My favourite overall photograph was taken in June 2016 and shows a male (left) approaching a female, presumably intending to mate with her. After taking the image, I watched them from distance through binoculars for about 20 minutes but no further activity took place and so I left them alone. This is only the second occasion that I have managed to get a male and female in the same photograph.

Well I am rather snap happy when I get out in the field so sifting through and finding one picture does take some doing. I was was tempted to post another Swallowtail picture but you've all seen most of them already .

One of my other aims last year was to improve on some of my 2015 lifers and one which I was very happy with was the Green Hairstreak. At Denbies Hillside several seemed to be using a small Hawthorn as a Master Tree and so provided the perfect subjects. I managed to get plenty of close ups but the one I've chosen I like due to the way the light and shadow picks out the details on the wings including the scent patch on this males forewing and also the way the golden border contrasts with the intense green, they really are a stunning looking little insect

I don't normally post in this thread because I usually have so many favourites photos for so many different reasons that I find it impossible to pick an overall favourite.
This time however, I find it much easier to pick the photo below as it is one of the better ones that I took of the last species for me to see on the UK mainland and it represents so many memories of a glorious few days up in Scotland.
Cheers,

Neil.

Seeing Violet Copper for the first time in the French Pyrenees in May was a highlight, even if the images were ordinary:
At home, I suppose this underside shot of a near immaculate female Brown Hairstreak was my most satisfying:

So very difficult to choose: the egg-laying Holly Blue on Hallowe'en, the beautiful PBF ab. down in Bentley Wood, the open-wing Wood White I just posted, the first Small Copper for a few years locally and the first ever Green Hairstreaks down the road from the ofice at Bedfont Lakes (north side) - all are memorable in what was a very average season.

However, I think this fresh male High Brown Fritillary from North Devon is my favourite butterfly. It has a nick out of its right hindwing, but it was the only HBF I saw, and it felt like a real achievement after the long and winding road from Taunton via the Bristol Channel coast. This is the only clear underside photo I have at all from anywhere. Dave

I'm not sure what I could possibly see in 2017 that would "top" a Chequered Skipper pupa But, whatever it is, I'll definitely be giving it a go ... watch this space
Cheers,

- Pete

Returning to the car after a morning with the Pearl Bordered Fritillaries,
I noticed a Peacock nectaring on some Bluebells.
One of my reasons for the choosing the resulting image as my favourite of 2016
Is simply because to get the shot meant laying prostrate in some very wet grass.
I so very nearly walked on without turning on the camera. I think the result was
worth the damp clothing.

Trevor.

I was pleased with this shot, not only because it's two for the price of one, but also Neil Hulme was only a few yards away and he missed it

Kithurst Flower Meadow, 15th May 2016

Cheers
John W

Having already posted my overall favourite picture ,a couple of times last season ( Roosting ,Grizzle underside ),thought I'd
post something a bit different and plumped for a couple of "habitat" shots from Dungeness (Kent). The pictures were taken 5 months apart
ie; mid- June and mid-November, along the power station fence,as you can see from the June shot, a mass of Birds foot Trefoil,which attracts large numbers of Common Blues, along with Small Coppers,Brown Argus, Skippers,numerous Whites,and is also one of the first places,where arriving Clouded
Yellows,stop to nectar ,its also a bit of a hotspot for Hummingbird Hawkmoths which appear in most years,the power station wall,is also a handy perch for arriving and departing passage migrants,like Redstarts,Pied Flycatchers, Wheatears and various Warblers.

Regards Allan.W.

John W wrote:I was pleased with this shot, not only because it's two for the price of one, but also Neil Hulme was only a few yards away and he missed it

Always nice to see two different species in close proximity. Even better when each is a species normally intolerant of close company.

Well done.

David M wrote:

John W wrote:I was pleased with this shot, not only because it's two for the price of one, but also Neil Hulme was only a few yards away and he missed it

Always nice to see two different species in close proximity. Even better when each is a species normally intolerant of close company.

Well done.

Thank you David, although as always with butterflies, it was mainly a case of being in the right place at the right time!

John

I've gone through most of my shots and I think I like the one's i took of the Tort, I took the shot in my back garden on the 10th of October.
Although the Butterfly was rather worn I was so pleased to see it not having seen too many around this area last year and the fact it flew onto my Buddleia cutting I'd grown through the winter was a bonus. Goldie

I chose this photo because I made it one of my missions to photograph a butterfly on a flowering daffodil and now that it's March, I want to pass my mission on to someone else !
I think butterflies generally ignore daffodils or try them just once as I think this one did: This picture was taken on the 25th March last year which was warm and sunny in Lincolnshire,
Take Care,

Philip

For me there were many highlights, but if I can only have one, it has to be the Cynthia's fritillaries from the French Alps. I have wanted to see these for years and, last year, I achieved this!

essexbuzzard wrote:For me there were many highlights, but if I can only have one, it has to be the Cynthia's fritillaries from the French Alps. I have wanted to see these for years and, last year, I achieved this!

essexbuzzard wrote:For me there were many highlights, but if I can only have one, it has to be the Cynthia's fritillaries from the French Alps. I have wanted to see these for years and, last year, I achieved this!

Was nice to share the moment, Mark.

Some things we largely missed out on last year, but for this species I reckon we caught them on their absolute optimum day.

Can't be many who can say they racked up approaching three figure numbers of Cynthia's Fritillaries in a small area during an hour and a half's stay.