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Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2024

Week 11

Whamageddon has struck and the shops have taken delivery of their Easter eggs so Xmas is only a few days away! In between turning the sprouts and wrestling he wrapping paper why not take a mindful moment and get this weeks Favourites up?

Please could I ask that everyone waits until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos as then it will be easier to keep track of things? Of course our overseas members are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants. As in previous years 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 very Merry Christmas!

Wurzel

A couple from my local patch in Bridge of don Aberdeen just after mid June.

I saw my first Meadow Brown in June on the 19th in Castle Gardens Whitstable, I found many Meadow Browns this year but very few to photograph ,they were all usually in the long grass and not many with opened wings . Goldie

Although one of the most numerous species around my local patch in the summer, Meadow Brown numbers were well down on what they should be. They seemed to do much better on warmer southern sites and I saw much higher numbers during our trips to The Lizard in early august and again in Dorset in early September.

My favourite photo is actually of the first one that I saw this year, a male at my local spot by Wagon Lane in mid June.
Cheers,

Neil.

Unusually, I managed to get images of this species with open wings, which is unusual early in the flight season.

It helped that on the date in question, 20th June, the skies were rather hazy:

Not a great photograph, but the best I could do in the moment using my iPhone. I kind of like it because the wing caught the sun in such an angle to produce a blue sheen which was slightly unusual. Plus, there was plenty of courtship activity going on with a minute Gatekeeper in the foreground busy nectaring. That morning there were plenty of browns and fritillaries within the glade of a wooded area in Hatfield Forest concentrated around a sunny patch of brambles:

Fewer Meadow Browns locally for me ,here in mid-Kent in 24' ,probably down 50 per cent in Orlestone forest compared to 23' that said still some attractive individuals to be seen.

Meadow Brown

This was taken at Shipton Bellinger back in early August. I’d arranged to meet Dave and Philzoid to go looking for Brostreaks and having pulled up in the car park this was the first thing that I trained my lens on; a pairing of Meadow Browns. It became my favourite image of this species for the year then and there as I was pleased with the clarity of the image (only a single blade of grass in the way!) making it one of the best ‘in cop’ shots I have for this species but because it reminded me of a cracking start to an overall racking day with cracking company. The fact that the also has double pupils was a bit like a few more sprinkles on the top…
Have a goodun

Wurzel

This was taken in subdued lighting and at a slow shutter speed so I was very pleased how it came out.

Also special mention goes to the seven mating pairs I came across last year in my travels, I don't always find a single mating pair!

A sequence taken at Tents Muir in Fife, 21st July.

Just in Houghton Regis quarry alone, good numbers of Meadow Browns were continuing to emerge right up until the last week of September. on the 1st September I recorded 78 individuals with 3 pairs. The last visit of the month on the 27th September produced a count of 27 individuals and 1 pair. My very last sighting of the season was also in the quarry, where I found two tatty individuals on the 19th October.