Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
- Vince Massimo
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Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
Here is the opportunity to post your favourite photo(s) of a particular species taken in 2012 (or the last time you saw one!).
This is part of a series of topics which will grow over 20 weeks throughout the winter until all 59 UK species have been covered. The intention is to showcase three species per week (in alphabetical order), so please wait until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos. Our overseas friends are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants.
Details of locations, dates, times and circumstances would be welcome and please feel free to contribute observations of behaviour, stories of personal encounters, anecdotes or other interesting points.
Vince
This is part of a series of topics which will grow over 20 weeks throughout the winter until all 59 UK species have been covered. The intention is to showcase three species per week (in alphabetical order), so please wait until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos. Our overseas friends are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants.
Details of locations, dates, times and circumstances would be welcome and please feel free to contribute observations of behaviour, stories of personal encounters, anecdotes or other interesting points.
Vince
Re: Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
Meadow Brown
This was taken at Old Sarum on the same evening as my fave Marbled White. It felt different from the other MB’s I’d been seeing over the course of the evening and it looked more interesting due to its seemingly darker appearance as well as the dark spots on the hind wings with their orange “halos” and the unusual looking fore-wing eye-spot. Also I had to cling like an Abseiler to the side of the ring in order to get level with the butterfly. So bearing in mind that I was holding and shooting with my right hand while my left was grasping a few blades of grass which were stopping me tumbling down the cliff, I’m pleased with how well it came out. Have a goodun
Wurzel
This was taken at Old Sarum on the same evening as my fave Marbled White. It felt different from the other MB’s I’d been seeing over the course of the evening and it looked more interesting due to its seemingly darker appearance as well as the dark spots on the hind wings with their orange “halos” and the unusual looking fore-wing eye-spot. Also I had to cling like an Abseiler to the side of the ring in order to get level with the butterfly. So bearing in mind that I was holding and shooting with my right hand while my left was grasping a few blades of grass which were stopping me tumbling down the cliff, I’m pleased with how well it came out. Have a goodun
Wurzel
Re: Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
at Martin Downin september, i found this one, a worn one doing a fine impression of alba, took a good 10 minutes for it to open it's wings after it flew on the first attempt. didn't want to chase it hence all the grass in the way. longest i've spent on a single meadow brown
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- CFB
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Re: Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
This is my favourite Meadow Brown of the year. It is one of many females with wings wide open that I saw at the beginning of September. Is she trying to attract males?
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Colin
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Colin
Re: Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
That's amazingly orange for a Meadow Brown. It's not far off Hedge Brown suffusion!
Re: Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
I like this one because it breaks the "1 spot = Meadow Brown, 2 spots = Gatekeeper" rule.
Mike
EDIT: Looking back, I see I made the same comment on my photo last year! Ageing brings not only amnesia but makes one set in one's ways
Mike
EDIT: Looking back, I see I made the same comment on my photo last year! Ageing brings not only amnesia but makes one set in one's ways
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Last edited by MikeOxon on Wed Dec 26, 2012 3:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
For such a common species the Meadow Brown is not particularly easy to get good photos of. I was pleased to find a fresh male in Friston Forest which posed well and a little later in the year a female on Cradle Hill also sat still for me.
- CFB
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Re: Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
Hello David,David M wrote:It's not far off Hedge Brown suffusion!
What is a Hedge Brown? That's a new one for me. I suspect my photo shows the form hispulla of the Meadow Brown.
Here's a more normal coloured one taken the next day:
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Colin
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Re: Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
Never mind, I've just found that it's the same thing as a Gatekeeper.CFB wrote:What is a Hedge Brown? That's a new one for me.David M wrote:It's not far off Hedge Brown suffusion!
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Colin
Re: Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
Sorry, Colin. I grew up using the name Hedge Brown and I find it hard to change now.CFB wrote:Never mind, I've just found that it's the same thing as a Gatekeeper.CFB wrote:What is a Hedge Brown? That's a new one for me.David M wrote:It's not far off Hedge Brown suffusion!
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Colin
Are Meadow browns generally more suffused with orange in that region?
- CFB
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Re: Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
In my limited experience the amount of yellow/orange varies between a lot, as shown in my first photo, and very little, especially on the hind-wing, but my second photo probably represents the most common form.David M wrote:Are Meadow browns generally more suffused with orange in that region?
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Colin
- Neil Freeman
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Re: Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
I saw Meadow Browns in very high numbers at some places this year, possibly the most I have ever seen at a couple of local spots.
The first one that I saw was this male at Babbs Mill in Late June,
The first female that I photographed was this one from Whixall Moss in early July with forewing eyespots reduced to little more than black spots,
I also saw fair numbers of individuals with double white spots including this one from Shadowbrook Meadows,
and this pale looking female at Ryton Wood,
I photographed this very orange female on Bindon Hill in early September. Nearly all of the Meadow Browns, Graylings and Marbled Whites seen here had some of the red mites on them.
I will finish off with two of my favourites, taken at Shadowbrook Meadows on a day in Mid August when the place was alive with hundreds of Meadow Browns as well as loads of Peacocks.
Cheers,
Neil F.
The first one that I saw was this male at Babbs Mill in Late June,
The first female that I photographed was this one from Whixall Moss in early July with forewing eyespots reduced to little more than black spots,
I also saw fair numbers of individuals with double white spots including this one from Shadowbrook Meadows,
and this pale looking female at Ryton Wood,
I photographed this very orange female on Bindon Hill in early September. Nearly all of the Meadow Browns, Graylings and Marbled Whites seen here had some of the red mites on them.
I will finish off with two of my favourites, taken at Shadowbrook Meadows on a day in Mid August when the place was alive with hundreds of Meadow Browns as well as loads of Peacocks.
Cheers,
Neil F.
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Re: Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
My favourite Meadow Brown image was taken at Aston Rowant on July 21st.
- Vince Massimo
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Re: Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
The 8th August 2012 was one of those rare days where the wind was calm, the temperature was high and the sky partially overcast..........prefect for photographing Meadow Browns. In these conditions they were apt to bask for long periods and if disturbed would soon settle nearby. There were many potential candidates at one of my local sites on the North Downs, so I was able to pick the freshest or the most unusual.
This first one needed the use of flash because the conditions were so dark.
This second individual was not only pale, but had double eye spots on each wing. It really glowed in the hazy sunshine.
I still, however, need to get some good upper wing shots of males........
Vince
This first one needed the use of flash because the conditions were so dark.
This second individual was not only pale, but had double eye spots on each wing. It really glowed in the hazy sunshine.
I still, however, need to get some good upper wing shots of males........
Vince
Re: Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
My favourite from 2012 was this fresh male taken on the evening of 20th June, at Southwater woods. It was the first time I had seen them in 2012. I like the graceful crescent shape.
Re: Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
In five years or so of monitoring my local patch, I have never seen as many Meadow Browns as I did in 2012. There must have been hundreds, even thousands, and there were a healthy number at nearby Harmondsworth Moor too. I have chosen a couple of early males - these to my mind are the most attractive of the many variations to be seen throughout the long emergence of this species, being dark and velvety, sometimes almost unmarked on the upperside. I have also included a mating pair, mainly because there is something on one of the flowerheads which looks a bit like a lycaenid caterpillar of some sort. It would be good to know one way or the other...
Dave
Dave
Re: Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
Just got back from Christmas Hols ready for New Year and Spring now
I saw my Meadow Brown 3ard of July in Lydden Kent the weather was cold and damp that day so the sight of this Butterfly made my day Goldie ![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
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- The Annoying Czech
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Re: Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
Must be this one, both for the lighting and will of the imago to stay extremely still even under the strong sun.
- Neil Hulme
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Re: Meadow Brown - Favourite Photo of 2012
I think we've collectively shown that the easily overlooked Meadow Brown is a rather attractive species, despite it lacking the glamour of some. It's also one of the hardest to photograph well; even faced with a meadow supporting thousands, it's all too easy to come away with nothing of merit! This one was snapped in the meadows adjacent to Southwater Woods on a foggy morning in June.
Neil
Neil