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Red Admiral – Favourite Photo of 2017

Week 14 – Or should that be week one? Here we go with the first Favourites for 2018.

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 took this photo during an end-of-season walk on Otmoor - now an RSPB reserve and a remarkable re-claimed 'wilderness' just North of Oxford. This is a nice example of the fairly common aberration known as bialbata, because of the white spots within the red band in the wings.
Mike

A couple from my home from home, Bookham Commons: the first a springtime image and the second, a vibrant example from late in the season.

I'd so many shots of the Red Admiral last year it was hard to pick out a favourite ,so I choose the photos I took in my garden in September. I really like the shot of the Butterfly on my rose right after a rain shower shot's were taken 0n the 4th and 14th.Goldie

This Red Admiral was one of my later sightings in the south of France last year, although they can be seen throughout the winter on warm days.
Photo taken on 29th November, at 12.30 pm, with a long shadow. Chris

Having seen so many on my local patch, particularly in the September-November period, it is very hard to pick favourites. However, a striking individual from 3rd October stands out, blessed with both extra white spots (ab. bialbata) and the red bands broken in two (ab. fructa).
Another interesting variety turned up on 13th October, this time with additional blue hindwing spots.This officially known as ab. merryfieldoides, which doesn't exactly trip off the tongue, but on a previous encounter with such a beast, Bugboy christened it ab. buggeri, which has somehow stuck in the mind...

Dave

The Red Admiral have continued to impress me, especially this last year. A monster of a Butterfly, seemingly bullet proof, able to adapt to any conditions and not just survive , but thrive. Not fussed at all by out of sync broods, just ploughing on, able to extract nectar sources that very few other species can utilise, strength in numbers and on top of that the single most prolific year for the species in my recording area, easily breaking previous highs. I have no doubt at all I will be seeing Red Admiral here in the spring, though I often do, in ones and twos...I feel this spring I will be seeing more than just the odd one or two. We did get a wave of migrants across the north sea very early in 2017 with east winds that barely let up, the new arrivals immediately began laying eggs along the coastal strip suggesting most females had already mated before making landfall. It only took them a few weeks after establishing a bridgehead on the coast to push inland 40 miles reaching the Ettrick hills in the Scottish Borders and beyond. Later in the season I had heard many accounts of multiple hundreds feeding at Ivy by casual observers, most of those observers saying that they had never seen so many and asking me why there were so many. They are without doubt looking to take advantage of milder winters to become at least semi resident as far north as the southern half of Scotland, as they already probably are. This might be my favourite photo, though I did manage a ton of photos of the species during 2017. It will be interesting to see if they can repeat the fete of 2017 or indeed better it.

I quite liked the backdrop to this Red Admiral image taken at the National Botanic Gardens of Wales on 27th August 2017:

The Red Admiral was my most photographed species of 2017, with many of the images being of early stages. It should really be one of these that is posted as the overall favourite, but the extraordinary sight of 6 Red Admirals all nectaring on the same plant on 20th February 2017 gets the vote.
I only managed to get 5 of them in the shot, but it was the early date of the sighting that was most significant.

Vince

Like most people on here I saw lots of Red Admirals in 2017 but my first ones were not until late May when we went down to The Lizard in Cornwall for a few days. After that there were increasing numbers through the year with a particular upsurge in numbers from mid August through September and October and into November.

One from my garden in June,
A couple enjoying the late afternoon sun during our second visit to Cornwall in August,
and some undersides that I like,
Cheers,

Neil

Red Admiral

This was another shot taken with my nieces’ assistance at Kingston Lacey which I’ve waxed lyrical about before. It’s my favourite for that reason mainly but also because it clearly shows the white spot that makes it a ‘bialbata’ from the underside.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

Vince Massimo wrote:...but the extraordinary sight of 6 Red Admirals all nectaring on the same plant on 20th February 2017 gets the vote.

That would be a laudable image at any time of year, Vince, but it is quite extraordinary given it was taken in February!!

David M wrote:That would be a laudable image at any time of year, Vince, but it is quite extraordinary given it was taken in February!!

It certainly surprised me, David. I will be checking the site again soon because the Daphne plant is already in flower.

Vince

'It's three pictures here that can help tell a story.
My Wife (holding her iPhone) took the picture of the Red Admiral on my back, while I took the pictures of other family members, with my iPhone on a monopod.
"Butterflying is often about capturing a moment. I think that the delight of human interaction, is and was way more important than 'being a poser', or:
being accused of 'being a poser'."