Richard Williamson's Country Life Column

Meet the Browns '“ the commonest family in the land, not only in Britain but in Europe as well. They were the ones who suddenly saw their opportunity 8,000 years ago when trees were cleared and meadows appeared. Their numbers soared. For what they needed was what all meadow lovers find so tasteful, and that is grass.

Commonest Brown of all is, then, the meadow brown. This, like the soft cooing of the wood pigeon, symbolises peaceful summertime, as it flutters slowly through the meadow flowers and tall grasses, a few inches above the herbage.

It has the dusky brown of old oak wood in its wings, but with the constant, fulvous glow of a late summer afternoon western sky as well.

On occluded days it will sit head down on a long, waving grass stem and you can get close enough to see the small dark brown 'eyes' near the wing tips '“ small and mean on the male, large and bright with a good white spot in the female.

Sometimes you'll see the female dragging the male about beneath her as she flies laboriously from flower to flower, inexorably linked in the labour of love.

Nature Trails by Richard Williamson appears every week in the West Sussex Gazette. The full version of this article appears in August 25 issue.