A gatekeeper butterfly

One of the things that can make identifying butterflies problematic is the variation within species. I've recently photographed what my eyes suggest is a quite rare High Brown Fritillary but my mind is fairly sure is a much more common Dark Green Fritillary. I've also photographed this Gatekeeper, and even though it looks somewhat different to my previous photograph of the species, both have variations in colour and markings that correspond with fairly common examples of the type.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

View from Garway Hill

Our second visit to Garway Hill coincided with blue sky and moderate winds on an October morning. The views as we walked through the bracken and sheep-cropped turf were great and only slightly subdued by the fast disappearing morning mist. Sugar Loaf and The Skirrid were in view for a while and I photographed the latter as we climbed towards the summit. Our upward trajectory was slowed as we repeatedly paused to watch about twenty ravens, above the top of the hill, rolling, tumbling, even flying briefly upside down, for all the world looking like they were simply enjoying the October morning just like ourselves.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Early autumn bracken

I've always known bracken. As a child it was common on the hills on which I played. As an adult I have enjoyed watching the plant's life cycle - its slow uncoiling from the ground, through its expansive, arching greenness, to a slow subsidence through a palette of orange, gold, brown and black. One of the houses where we lived had bracken in the garden, under a willow by a stream. There are those who see bracken as an invasive pest that forces out more interesting plants. I can forgive its trespasses because of the year-round beauty it offers to the sharp-eyed observer. The plant above was growing under oaks in the Forest of Dean, the onset of autumn driving the green from its fronds and replacing them with brown.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Gatekeeper or Hedge Brown

Both English names of the butterfly Pyronia tithonus indicate something of the species' habitat. Gatekeeper alludes to it commonly being found on flowers growing in gateways, whilst Hedge Brown describes how it likes hedgerows and field edges. The species' food plants include wild marjoram, common fleabane, ragworts, and bramble. This particular example - and others nearby - favoured bracken, but this was probably only used as a place on which to sun themselves. Gatekeepers exhibit some variation in their markings. The butterfly in the photograph has four small brown "eyes" as well as the big dark eyes with double white spots.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Bracken in morning light

Morning light has the power to make even the most prosaic of subjects something special. When the vigorous plant, bracken, starts to die off in autumn its green fronds go limp and turn brown, orange and black. It looks past it, dishevelled and slowly slumps to the ground, the strong green and symmetrical jaggedness of its maturity gone. But, when seen with a low, late autumn sun behind it the dank vegetation comes alive and it exhibits a dark, marmalade glow.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Bracken and horizons

The ascent to the summit of Sugar Loaf takes the walker through an area of bracken with grass tracks criss-crossing it. On the day of our climb the unseasonal weather contrasted with the brown of the fading plants. However, it did make for great skies and successive, beautiful and subtly graduated horizons. I took this shot from about half way up and included my wife and grand-daughter for scale and as a point of interest.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Hanging on to summer

With wife, oldest son and oldest grandaughter I climbed Sugar Loaf in the last week of October. We set off in the morning carrying jackets and as we ascended our exertions made us remove the outer layer leaving single, summer-weight garments. However, once we had clambered up to the summit, looked around and taken some photographs we replaced our discarded layer and donned jackets to eat our lunch. What had looked and felt like summer soon changed to autumn chill as the wind struck. The photograph shows nothing of this. Only the brown of the bracken and the tints of the trees give away the season.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100