www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Peacock – Favourite Photo of 2017

Week 12 – Wishing one and all a Very Happy Christmas and a butterfly filled New Year!

Please could I ask that everyone waits until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos? 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've managed to whittle this down to the one image, one of many I came across at North Stoke whilst on Large Tortoiseshell watch!

Early one morning I came across this fresh Peacock warming itself on a dew covered bracken frond.


http://eastsussexwanderer.blogspot.co.uk

Once again my shots were taken in my back garden, I'd not seen the Peacock in the garden at all until then, shots were taken 10th of August, I was so pleased to see it and well worth the Gardening done this year Goldie

This is maybe not the best photo I had taken of the Peacock Butterflies this past season, however, it is the most unusual one I could find during 2017. It was August 15th in a woodland clearing with plenty of Creeping Thistle, Spear Thistle and Knapweed that I immediately spotted this beauty and chased it around ignoring every other Butterfly for a full hour...as you do. I liked this photo not just for the Butterfly itself , but also that odd dancing fly on top of the Thistle that I had failed to spot initially.

The Peacock is always a wonderful species for photography. I chose this shot, taken early in the season at my local Dry Sandford Pit reserve, as a favourite, because it is a little 'different':
Mike

Posted a couple of Peacock undersides that I was pleased with,the one on the thistle was taken about a minute before the heavens opened,tried a couple of shots "au naturelle " ,hopeless ! so flicked the flash up......much better,then the butterfly walk turned into a "fungal foray " ! The second was a late autumn shot ,on a Scabious plant ,both from my local patch, Orlestone forest (Kent ) Regards Allan.W.

I think Iain's butterfly looks like an ab. I have never seen one with such bold black markings on the leading edges of the forewings.

My own favourite is of an egg mass found on the underside of a nettle leaf in late April.
Subsequent monitoring revealed that it consisted of eggs from two separate batches which hatched at different times.


Vince

Aah! Simple pleasures.

This beauty is, of course, fairly common. But that doesn't detract from the pleasure of seeing them in numbers, and on 27th August, in the walled gardens of the National Botanic Gardens of Wales, I saw quite a few, many of which were nectaring from the buddleia bushes growing in this spot.

An accompanying Small Tortoiseshell merely added to the joy:

Hmm!, although supposedly common and widespread they had another poor year around the midlands, so much so that Peacock was awarded West Mids BC wooden spoon award for the poorest performing species for the third year running. They were a bit late appearing around my own local sites in the spring and in worryingly low numbers. The summer brood were also few and far between with no more than a dozen or so seen locally which is well down on what I should normally see.
They did seem to be doing a bit better further afield and I saw a fair few up around the Arnside / Silverdale area in early August...
...and from reports I saw they seemed to be good numbers at some locations further south.

Cheers,

Neil.

The best showing of this species was in my sister's Yorkshire garden back in early August. Over 20 were routinely seen each day I was there, with some beauties amongst them. On my local patch, there were a few very late in the season, pointing to a partial second brood. This individual, seen on 6th October, was attempting to squeeze between two fence slats (presumably to hibernate), but failed and flew off into some dense overgrown woodland instead. Dave

Peacock

Though not the most spectacular Peacock image that I took during 2017 this one is my favourite. It was taken on May Day at Garston Wood on a trip to check the Bluebells. It’s my favourite because of the unusual behaviour shown by the butterfly. It was basking in the weak sun between showers on a Lichen encrusted tree. I approached it stealthily but the girls were a bit out of practice and so they spooked it. Rather than taking to the wing it merely walked along the branch. Once spooked it was aware of my presence and so each time I shifted position it set off for another wander rather than taking to the wing. It was probably because it wasn’t quite warm enough for flight but I like to think that it was too much of an old codge to fly-off because of some annoying whippersnapper of a human!

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Our favourite Peacock, which I believe is ab.Diopthalmica, was seen in our garden in August 2017 taking moisture from the lid of our water butt, during the early afternoon.

That's a stunning contrast of colours (albeit in a scenario where natural meets artificial).

In Old Wood near Doddington & Skellingthorpe in Lincolnshire, the Peacock Butterfly hibernates in Pine log piles.
It emerges at about this time (Mid to late March 2018) and can be seen basking in sunshine on the felled pine. Territorial chases then can continue.
My favourite Peacock Butterfly picture of 2017, was the very last over-wintered Peacock Butterfly I saw of 2017.
It was on the south west facing side of the woodland edge where the afternoon sunshine, was: After speaking to a friend,though the picture was taken on private land (just away from a public footpath), access was permitted through a friend of a friend on that occasion.
(iPhone recording details included).
In the future, for Butterfly Conservation records, I thought similar important date related sightings (also to do with climate change) would be best, if camera recording details could not be manipulated without it being obvious.

I think that the following video link is very helpful for ones understanding of the Peacock's flight times in 2017:

1st july 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlJS_YwRnco&t=6s

"I don't think wild Peacock Butterfly flight times overlapped between the 2016/17 brood and the 2017/2018 brood in Lincolnshire".
Also, thank you (in advance) Hazelwood Landscapes for booking in some time to talk as guest speakers, at the Lincolnshire Butterfly Conservation's Spring Indoor meeting.

There are some wonderful images here but some of the colours look a bit lurid. I’m viewing them on an i-pad I know, but I do wonder if some of these are a bit over-processed? It’s so easy in a lot of image processing programs to boost contrast and clarity, and thereby introduce tonal artefacts. Just saying...

KeithS wrote:There are some wonderful images here but some of the colours look a bit lurid. I’m viewing them on an i-pad I know, but I do wonder if some of these are a bit over-processed? It’s so easy in a lot of image processing programs to boost contrast and clarity, and thereby introduce tonal artefacts. Just saying...

I find my pictures look much brighter when viewed on my mobile than on my laptop. There's also a difference if i am looking at them in daylight or in the evening with artificial light

"My Wife and I love 'butterflying' together. Melissa had an eyesight impairment which included a colour deficiency. For that reason, my photos sometimes have colour saturation and also when looking towards the sun for "blue sky reasons".
You might need re-adjust your monitors for your own reality perception.
That leads me on to my favourite Purple Emperor picture of 2017. We did not see a purple one together and I did not look too hard for poignant reasons".