tiny cemetery

 

8th Sept. I have had a new flash diffuser for ages and not really given it a proper road test. For those not involved with macro photography, taking pics of tiny creatures can be problematic. For reasons I don't quite understand (even in half decent daylight) macro photography often requires the use of a flash. And the light can't be harsh, but should be nicely diffused. What you need to do is spend some money on a soft box or diffuser. It is something of a niche market and there are 2 main companies making a name for themselves selling these complex devices for something like £120.  They are made from polypropylene sheets held together with snap-poppers. (So very inexpensive materials.) You could make one yourself. Or pay an extravagent amount of money to have one delivered from Australia or the US. 

However I noticed a new player in the field. A Chinese company (Guage) was getting decent reviews for their version of a flash diffuser and it was about half the price of the Cygnustech or AK diffusers. Available through Amazon. Up till now I had been using a Pixapro softbox which velcro-ed onto the front of my flash and did a fine, if low-tech job, of producing a decent diffuse light for my macro photos. It cost £10! And folds flat and sits in the lid of my camera case.

the Guage size 3 version: 6 piece folding, popping flash diffuser

the Pixapro version
(seen with the 60mm macro, before I upgraded to 90mm)

With a little reluctance I ordered the Guage diffuser (£54 that I might be throwing to the four winds) and they let me know it would be a month in arriving. I was in no great hurry and in fact it probably sat another month waiting for a test run. (I think it arrived in about 2.5 weeks, quite a bit ahead of schedule.) It took maybe 10 minutes to pop together the first time but possibly 5 minutes the second time, once I was aware of which bit went where.

My largest concern was that it would be the correct size for my set up as I had to guess which of the 5 or 6 possible sizes would best fit my camera and lens set-up. I chose the number 3 about halfway through their size selection. When I first built the diffuser I felt it was a perfect fit for the camera and lens. The lowest part of the set-up that fits round the bottom of the lens wouldn't be great if I used the clutch and manual focus but it could be detatched if that was your thing. I find the auto-focus (and animal eye-detect) works excellently with my camera when shooting macro. Also the very furthest top part of the diffuser is optional and presumably just to guide the light down onto the subject. It seems well designed and all fits together and comes apart with just the right amount of engineering heft. 

Phytocoris populi - the perfect subject,
sits so still you could confuse it for dead

But does it work? Is it an improvement over the £10 version that takes 2 minutes to set up rather than 5? Well, yes and no. The answers will depend on what your subject is. Macro photography can cover anything small, from the ball of a ball-point pen to insects and slime mould. I do mostly insects. My first trial in the cemetery wasn't on the best day. There weren't a huge number of tiny bugs crawling about the gravestones. The light from the flash through the diffuser seemed good and mostly worked very well. However there was one major problem. It the creature was fairly sentient (and not just a bit of lichen,) as I approached it often became a bit nervous of the huge gaping white jaws of the diffuser looming over it and flew off.

In order to get decent close-ups, I have to get the subject to within inches of the glass. Between 10 inches and 3. The front shield of the diffuser is about 6 or 7" ahead of the lens and frankly scares off any flighty insect. Big problem! It could be that the diffuser isn't the best size for my requirements after all. Although I'm not sure a smaller version would necessarily fit on my camera and lens. And there is no way of knowing (other than spending another £54) as they are not sold in a local shop. This is why I prefer to handle stuff (ie clothes/shoes/cameras) in local shops rather than buy blindly onlinely.

common wasp, Vespula vulgaris

Helina sp.

So now it can't have been a total disaster because I got at least medium close to this fly which the Obsidentify app has ID-ed as a non-species-specific Helina. And no doubt if I moved at an even slower pace towards insects they would be less intimidated by the large white jaws of flashing light. But it was notably the only major weak point of the diffuser which, as I say, is well designed, well-made, folds flat in a slightly too large cheap zip bag, but is mostly a pretty good addition to my equipmient. And for photographing dead or non moving macro (ball-point pens, slime moulds, lichens, bugs that don't run fast or fly off) it will be perfect. However my largest take-away from this is I'm very glad I didn't buy the AK diffuser or Cignustech one at £120! I suspect I will stick to carrying the Pixapro version everywhere, and the Guage version will stay at home except for specific macro adventures. It is relatively easy to slip flat next to the camera case in my backpack but has been on quite a few trips without ever being removed, assembled and used. 

nettle tap micro moth Anthophila fabriciana
maybe the first time I've photo-ed this?

harlequin ladybird
photo without flash which created too much shiny reflection

Helina impuncta*

Garden cross spider


here's a quick quiz - what's this familiar plant?
answer at the bottom of the page if I remember!

brand new comma

I clambered through the overgrown vegetation to the In Loving area. I had to get the secateurs out to trim back some nettles and yet still got stung on bare legs and ankles. There were some hovers and flies but precious little considering the recent warm weather. There was one cracking comma but it was camera shy and quickly took off heading upward asnd settling on a branch of the tree overhead. The 90mm lens struggled to get a photo of it up on high.

I was fast losing the joy of the macro lens and thinking about changing back to the long lens for some bird photos as there wasn't much of note in the small insect world today. I put some food out at the tunnel stream but there weren't many takers. I had a chat with my new friend Sachi, another keen wildlife photographer, who had been encouraged to visit Warriston by Rosanna I think. Both of us found the place unusually short on exciting photos. 

On the way back to the In Loving area I saw the grey wagtail, which is always a treat. He spends the Summer raising a family then returns in the Autumn and stays through the Winter. Plenty speckled woods about and a few hovers. Best specimen of the day was a red admiral at the crypts.

best beast today

The above is a weird shot. I was surprised it came out well and looking like the butterfly is sitting on a horizontal slab. From what I remember it was taken looking up towards the ledge at the top of the crypts. So it is actually hanging off a vertical face. 

Phaonia angelicae*

*I am not sure how or on what basis the Obsidentify app IDs things. It does give a percentage certainty and I always relax when it says 100% certain. However I have seen a couple of IDs I don't understand. The above looks very similar (identical as far as I could see) to the other flies it ID-ed as Helina impuncta and Helina sp. (Sp: Meaning it couldn't identify the species just the larger group that contains several flies that might fit the photo.)

Syrphus sp.

Hydrotaea sp.

Helina sp.

This specimen only IDs as Helina sp. And yet putting it up on screen next to Phaonia angelicae it looks identical. Same colour legs. Only difference I can see is the angle of the antennae at the eyes. And the stronger colour of eyes in these 2 photos. I wonder what is being seen by the algorithms that identifies one and not the other. Since none of the words Phaonia nor angelicae nor Helina appear in the Large Book of Insects, 608 pages, I cannot enlighten you further. (That book is struggling to retain my respect as various things I've found outdoors recently have not been among the 1653 species it has bothered to catch in a jam jar and describe.)

I am often glad this is a hobby for fun and I don't have to learn all these flies' and hoverflies' names like the people who contribute to Hoverflies UK facebook group. They are very particular about grid references and identifications much more than hey see this fascinating fly-like thing I came across, or here's a beautiful hoverfly in flight. (One coming up in next blog.) So I don't really bother with Hoverflies UK.

Obsidentify is my favourite new app/website and I will use it to ID stuff I don't know, whereupon it is recorded onto a database. Is it the same database as iRecord? No that would be too helpful and convenient. So I put anything rare (if I recognise it is rare) onto iRecord and most other stuff gets onto the Observation database. Except butterflies which I generally recognise so don't need help to ID. Also I totally pass the buck on ID-ing to Obsidentify. If I have misidentified an insect

A/ it was the fault of the app, not me!

B/ if the big bug book (608pp,) doesn't recognise it, how am I supposed to?

C/ does anyone really care? (Outwith Hoverflies UK) I know I don't. However...

I am doing what I can to learn these things as I come across them but there are a LOT more flies and hovers than the 30-odd butterflies we get in Scotland. Obsidentify is very handy although possibly not (unlike the pope) infallible. 

something (or not)

I very much liked the strip lighting in this snail shell (Cepaea sp.)
(it might have been reflecting the diffused flash, but not sure)

Syrphus sp.

another Phaonia angelicae

Carder bee

Syrphus ribesii

brown knapweed

rosebay willowherb

Muscina prolapsa

Obsidentify says Syrphus torvus - Hairy-eyed hoverfly

The above is another case of WTF. What is Obsidentify seeing that makes this a Hairy-eyed hoverfly? Not hairy eyes! The big book of hoverflies says eye-hairs indistinct in females. This is a female. It also says back legs blacker so that may be the kicker. Although there is also the second basal cell (of wing) entirely covered in microtrichia to seperate them from Syrphus vitripennis. But you knew that already?

Quiz - it was of course a monkey puzzle tree (near front gate at Warriston)
(unusually linear leaf line rather than offset or fractal)

front garden pussy on way home

lucky number 7

 

6th Sept. I know, this is getting ridiculous. Another trip to Saltoun. When the options are 6 butterflies at the Botanics, 4 at Warriston and a common darter and some birds, or over 100 butterflies and half that number of dragonflies at Saltoun, there really is no competition. This was the seventh trip in 2 months to Saltoun Big Wood and yet again easily in the top ten days this year. Even though it didn't go according to plan and I'll most likely do at least one more trip before the season is done! 

small tort at woodpile

I had been accepting I'd need to cycle there. When I run (from the nearest bus stop at Pencaitland) with my camera / backpack it leaves me a bit crippled (sciatica back) the next day or 2, even though it doesn't hurt at the time. Cycling is less debilitating. I had pumped my tyres and then the day went a bit overcast. I swithered, watching out the window, and eventually set off sometime after 1pm. There was a headwind during the cycle there making it a fairly grim and slow 85mins. I changed into a dry shirt and padlocked my bike behind the old car park. It was heading towards 3pm by the time I apporached the first pond. I was a bit annoyed I had left it so late as the weather was good from about 1pm and the dragonflies would have been flying. They were my primary target today having seen some hawkers last time but felt I could do better with photos and video.

common darter

I waved to Colin who was standing round the right hand side of the pond. I was fairly sure it was himself but not 100% as his hat was partly covering his face. I was pretty sure I recognised his camera equipment although he didn't have his monopod on this occasion. He waved back but rather than disturb his concentration I decided I go check out the other pond and maybe return to this one shortly.

obsidentify says Epistrophe grossulariae

I was surprised to see absolutely zero dragonflies at the upper pond. It was a little overcast but I thought there should be some out as the first pond was fairly busy. Maybe I should have stayed there? Rather than traipse back I decided to see what was up at the old woodpile nearby. There was maybe a couple of admirals, a white, a very decent comma (photo at top of page) and a small tort. And a common darter. 'Fraid to say I forgot about the odonata and went off to the back trail to see what butterflies were there. 

common darter at woodpile

speckled wood with muted background

Round the corner and up butterfly alley it was quiet to start with: an occasional speckled wood and g-v white. However in no time I came across a red admiral, several red admirals and then the air seemed filled with them as they flew up from sitting on the path and on the bracken. There were dozens! Every few yards there was another or a group of 3 on scabious flowers.

The peacocks had come and gone: I only counted 5 in total. The commas were around the same number. But the admirals were everywhere. My head was a bit boggled by them all and I forgot to make a mental note of just how many there was of everything. I decided to just enjoy the spectacle on the way up to the far end and then pay more attention and estimate numbers on the return trip back down. With lots of admirals taking off and landing in different places there was no way to accurately count each one. Like last trip I approximated groups of five while keeping a second running total of whites going at the same time. (I counted 96 RAs although there could easily have been 30 more than that. And 31 small whites.)

The small whites outnumbered the green-veined about 4 to 1. There were mating pairs of both and more of them up the top end than at the start. Lots of hoverflies and bees as well which I also meant to photograph as I had largely ignored them last visit or 2. 

another Epistrophe grossulariae

I loved this background bracken so much 
I ignored the crumpled wing imperfection of the comma

red admiral on a small tree trunk

same comma with wing damage

painted lady

red admirals

speckled wood

small tort

cracking comma
(they spend far too long nectaring upside down)

great condition green-veined white

admiral

another small tort

there were several painted ladies 
from perfect condition to a bit ragged

favourite painted lady photo this trip

small white

green-veined whites in cop

small white

small whites mating

I followed this fine speckled wood
until it eventually landed

dogwalker also enjoying the surroundings

Volucella pellucens - a favourite hoverfly
(Great pied hoverfly)

Where have they been all Summer? This might be the first Volucella pellucens I've seen this season. I really like them because they are unmistakable and have such a pretty name. And there aren't another 14 confusing species that look very similar. Which is quite rare for hoverflies. Although a good deal of that has been sorted by using the Obsidentify app. which gives a percentage certainty of fly-dentification. So any dodgy ID or misidentified species can be attributed to Obsidentify rather than my own vast ignorance.

I was pleased to spot and photograph this VP, it felt like seeing an old pal across a crowded bar. It didn't hang about for many photos but flew off. I then found another further down the trail. (Photos in a bit.) They are quite large and as they were sitting atop the scabious flowers quite easy to see. When I compared the photos that showed the wings in detail I could see a couple of small notches out the left wing which suggested this was the same individual again and again rather than several of these flies. 

wings unusually spread so wide you can see white markings on inner rears

There was such an abundance of red admirals that I only photographed ones that were particularly impressive, unusual or sitting just so for a photo. I almost stopped bothering with them as there were just so many. It was almost like the great Painted Lady invasion/migration of 2019 when there were so many of them along the East Lothian coastline that Mary and I grew bored of them and stopped taking photos because they were just so commonplace! Compare that to this year when there has been decent numbers without them flooding the market. (I recorded 9 for today.) I checked each one for condition and stuck with the freshest to see if they would pose nicely and make a decent photo.

They are very pretty butterflies and to think we lost interest in them in 2019 is hard to believe! Mary and I recently speculated this is perhaps why the Scottish butterfly scene is so strong. The weather on this Northern European outpost is rarely ideal for them and they occupy only about half the year, leaving us thirsty for more, and desperate for their return in Spring. Each rarity found (and they are almost all rare compared to abundant butterfly safaris in Spain or France,) is a treasure and infrequent joy. In semi-tropical parts of the world where they fly all year round I don't think there is the same enthusiasm for them. I am thinking of Tenerife here. I am yet to discover any Northern Tenerife Butterflies facebook group.

small tort underside

small white - there has been a recent explosion of small whites
having had a similar amount of GVWs earlier this year

peacock underside

only about 5 peacocks today and not many posing well
so I had to take what photos I could get

I was reluctant to photo butterflies on the ground. They frequently land on the path and sit, happy on the warm ground. It is impossible to make a great photo from this situation and I would often encourage a very good looking PL or peacock up off the ground hoping they would land on the nearest flower where I could compose a better photo. You can take a horse to water etc. And often they would just settle back on the trail further up the path.

this red admiral landed on a contrasting young shrub
which made a great backdrop

never going to make a decent photo!

Eristalis nemorum

I was pleased when this RA joined a small tort for a 'twofer'

trying to show the amount of butterflies on the trail - mostly RAs

soundtrack: In Memory of a Dream by Ludovico and Leo Einaudi

Now, I was really happy about the above video clip. I hadn't planned to shoot it but noticed almost immediately when a dogwalker went past, that her presence and her two doggies running alongside, chased quite a few of the many butterflies up into the air. If you watch it on a big screen (rather than a phone) you can see the amount of butterflies quite well, almost looking like Autumnal leaves being blown about in the breeze. In some ways it shows the numbers better than holding a camera and doing a walkthrough type video. 

there was a small tort that looked much darker than the rest
this might have been it, but looks fairly normal

radmiral having a mindful moment
(features in video below)

peacock on the log

caught up with the same Volucella pellucens (f)

400mm

I put the 90mm macro lens on for some macro super-close-ups

too close?
Are the white grains pollen granules?

marmalade hoverfly

Leucozona glaucia (female)

I am a big fan of this hoverfly as well, for many of the same reasons as VP above. They are a distinctive blue/grey shade, and can only be confused with one other type (that has dark legs and (non-yellow) scutellum.
Like several flies, including Volucella pellucens, eyes touching = male, eyes not touching = female.

five video clips: a comma, volucella p, small tort, umbelliflies, radmiral
soundtrack: In Limine (reworked) by Ludovico and Leo Einaudi

The cycle home was epic! I never look forward to it (after a few hours outdoors I'd rather sit down and have a cup of tea) but on the upside the wind was behind me and I could feel the helping hand on my back. My gps watch pings every 5 miles in bike mode (not every mile) and I noticed the first 5 miles (just outside Tranent) pinged at 19.59 which means averaging 15mph. If I could keep that up I'd do the 16mile trip in 64minutes. Trouble was, the big downhills were all in the first ten miles after which I'd hit Musselburgh for the final flat six miles home along busy roads with traffic light delays or the busy prom. I very much appreciated the wind direction which had been a killer on the out, but was really helpful on the back and the main reason I was averaging 15mph.

Ten miles pinged at 37something. 2½mins ahead of schedule but entirely due to the fairly sustained downhill through Tranent and down to Pinkie/Levenhall roundabout at the far end of Musselburgh. Now was going to be the hard bit but I had a couple of minutes in hand from zooming down the hills. I stood on the pedals and considered the route choice: traffic lights on the road vs crowds of people on the prom. I opted for the latter as it didn't seem too busy at the Joppa end, but I had to slow to single figure speeds at the far end where the cafes and food trucks made the place busy although it was a fairly cool evening for being out. I thought I had blown it but picked the speed back up to 16mph+ on the barren section along to the cat-and-dog home and then gasped up the sharp incline back onto the road.

I turned left at the Seafield up onto the cyclepath and hoofed it along (with due care and attention to pedestrians, natch) to escape near Easter Rd and then a last sprint (through the closed road) onto Easter Rd, Iona Street and home. I pushed stop at 64minutes. Hurray! I had heard the 15mile mark ping at 59minutes so knew I was on target. It was a meaningless challenge but the sort of thing that forces an effort beyond what you think possible, and makes a good game to pass what might otherwise feel like a chore.

I think 64 minutes is the fastest I've ever done that route although sadly it is also my personal best time for going in the opposite direction, from home to Saltoun, back when I didn't have a huge amount of camera gear in a large back pack in one pannier and a change of clothes and padlock and chain in the other. A time I will never equal until I get an electric bike. Still, I arrived home in high spirits after another very enjoyable time at Saltoun Big Wood!

2 miles in 2hrs
just before 3pm to just before 5pm - late in the day but really enjoyable