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High Brown Fritillary - Favourite Photo of 2022

Week 8

With a few advent chocolates gone there isn’t too long now until the Easter eggs are in the shops and we’re fast approaching the half way point. The nights have really drawn in so hopefully choosing the images for these threads is brightening the dreary afternoons and evenings.

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 goodun

Wurzel

I'll kick off with what will likely be the worst picture in this thread. After much wishful thinking, my choice came down to just a single picture of the only one I knowingly saw up at Arnside knott.

A first visit to Aish Tor in June 2022 was successful in seeing High Brown Fritillary. It took a while to find my way around the site but once I had explored a bit I saw increasing numbers of High Browns and Dark Greens. It was interesting to note that as the day went on more and more were on the wing, including areas where none had been seen earlier in the day, probably aided by the rise in temperature.

Only had one visit to my local High Brown site this year, and that was towards the end of the flight period (21 July) where one generally only finds females nectaring from thistles between bouts of egg laying:

An easy choice for me. I only saw one definite HBF in 2022 although there were also a couple of possibles. These were at Arnside Knott where I spotted this female still in pretty good condition at the beginning of August. I watched her for about 10 minutes as she made her way around a clearing on the lower part of the Knott before some thick cloud sent her up into the nearby trees.
Cheers,

Neil.

I visited Old Castle Down, the South Wales hotspot, in late June but the weather was not too good on the few days we were there. Nevertheless, we managed to see the High Browns, all feeding was seen to be on bramble blossom. I reckon these three I've chosen, two males and a female (the last one), are my best attempts.