escaping lockdown

20th and 25th June
Lockdown was not all gloom and doom. Mary and I don't really go out to restaurants, bars and the cinema so our lives didn't change that much. Nobody we know has been seriously ill with C19, so apart from travel restrictions and a cancelled holiday, life through the early Summer was fairly untroubled by the pandemic. We behaved in a responsible manner but did occasionally feel it was all a large and elaborate game for the benefit of those who had failed to look after their health. After all, very few healthy people were dying. It was as if suddenly those who didn't look after themselves were being held accountable. A large Darwinian survival-of-the-fittest was suddenly being played out in a compressed timescale. Suddenly it was very fortunate to be fit. Something those who run have always known. Of course people whose systems have been compromised by poor health, cancer treatments or just old age were suddenly at much greater risk so I did not rub my hands in glee saying told-you-so. But my fitness means I've never felt that concerned for my well-being during the pandemic.

That may sound quite like I'm-alright-Jack. It is. I am fortunate, I appreciate that. But I saw old age coming a while back and there is enough debilitating about that process that it doesn't take a genius to work out being fat as a house is not going to make it easier. I started running (in my late 30s) to avoid obesity (not because I like running). If everyone in the world had done similar then this current crisis would have been no more serious than the average Winter 'flu. No economic devastation, no lockdown. Some oldies and sadly those with compromised health would peg out and we'd all have been saved a world-wide panic.

And the hypocrisy is exhausting and unbelievable. We close shops, airports, restaurants, hotels, gyms and bars for covid. We all hide indoors. It's on the news EVERY day for 4 months. Sometimes it's all the news. Just because humans got lazy and fat and became susceptible to a bug. There was an animated graph on social media showing how Covid went from bottom of a pile of deadly scenarios to top (above malaria) in a few weeks. It was designed to underline the seriousness of the condition. (Because nobody is going to stay indoors for 4 months if it's not sufficiently serious.) Hang on, that graph doesn't have the 2 main causes of death for humans. Cancer and heart disease. So how do they compare?

Covid has killed about half a million in 6 months. I expect it will rise to a million in a year then, hopefully, a vaccine will put a stop to it. Cancer kills just under 10 million a year. So covid doesn't do a tenth of the business cancer does. I wouldn't expect a vaccine for cancer anytime soon. Cardiovascular disease: 17 million annual worldwide. So roughly 20 times as serious as covid and no vaccine coming soon. There is actually a cure for many of the cases. Yeah, you guessed it: do some exercise and don't overeat. 

So in summary: we do lockdown, jeopardise the economy, cancel all holidays, bankrupt established companies, fill every news programme with horror stories for something that isn't a tenth as serious as cancer or one twentieth as serious as heart problems. Those 2 will be around for the foreseeable, whereas Covid will probably be a distant memory in 5 years. 

It is a sickening irony that Henderson's veggie restaurant in Edinburgh has been sunk due to Covid but every fucking junk food shop: Macdonalds, KFC etc will be open. And booze shops, and cigarettes for sale everywhere. We really are polishing the cutlery on the Titanic as it sinks. If we can stop flying planes round the world and driving our cars for 100 days due to the sniffles, can't we at least consider changing our diet and exercise routine for the bigger problems out there and the ones that are statistically much more likely going to impact on your life, and not just a few people in their dotage? If the great unwashed have no willpower and are sleepwalking into an obesity crisis that will destroy the NHS more comprehensively than Covid, surely it is the role of government to ban unhealthy junk food shops, high sugar drinks, processed foods and instigate healthy lifestyles? Why would you do all this and more for Covid yet ignore the 2 conditions that are 10 and 20 times more lethal without so much as batting an eye. How can this be? How stupid are people?

Example: the most moronic thing I saw during lockdown (apart from 4 young people getting stranded on Cramond Island, arseholes,) was a 28 year old man (half my age) who was a bit plump and looked older than I do, being interviewed on TV news. He was from Lanark. He was being interviewed presumably to ram home the idea that a young person can have a near death experience from Covid. He had survived and had missed his 1 year old's birthday during a long stay in hospital. Asked what he was most looking forward to after getting home he replied "a KFC". "And hugging your 1 year old?" prompted the reporter. But you could tell that was secondary. Absolutely no connection between diet and his recent hospital episode in that fucking idiot's head. No reflection, no lesson learned. When I see stupid on that level it doesn't make me sad to think the survival of the fittest will put the likes of him to the back of the queue.

Chocolate Fireguard Award and red faces all round for the Wuhan Institute of Virology. You can look them up on googlemaps and see the 30 mins drive from there to Wuhan South China Seafood Market where this crisis allegedly all kicked off. Yes the Simpsons title sequence springs to mind but even if the outbreak did not start as a direct result of their labs, they were pretty much ground zero when it did. And if they were unable to recognise it, contain it, reduce it, or even throw a wet blanket in the general Covid direction, if they did nothing but hand out face masks, it does make you wonder what they do for their wages. I know if I was putting fire proof paint on something and it went up in a gigantic conflagration taking out most of the neighbourhood the client might question the value of my work.

Anyway.... I made a couple of cycles to Aberlady and Gullane. Most of my butterfly hunting had been taking place in Holyrood, which has been unsurpassed this Summer. But it is lovely to get out and along the coast to see a place we used to visit weekly. I was keen to check out the nature reserve to see if the DGFs had appeared and the blues and burnets. And keep an eye out for Holly Blues which appeared mysteriously in early August last year. 

The cycle is 16 miles to Aberlady and the bridge to enchantment. (A moist hour with the prevailing wind.) I'm not a big fan of leaving my bike in full view where it can be interfered with, so climbed the hill to the Holly Blue site next to the golf course and padlocked it behind the snowberry bushes. (First photo.) It was a glorious day - no point in going all that way on an overcast one. The snowberry was in bud but probably not sufficiently in bloom for the Holly Blues.

I headed East, away from Aberlady and down the road to Archerfields. I took pics of a couple of speckleds near the gate-house (no sign of Holly Blues there either) then ran down the path beside the golf course that goes to the beach. Apart from a couple of deer I surprised, there wasn't much wildlife about, but it was delightful to be out in open spaces without crossing the road to avoid the folk you get dotting about in town.

I chased this yellow shell moth for ages to get a photo.

ringlet

meadow brown

several times I came across large numbers of ladybirds feeding on aphids

tree troll in the woods

ringo star

Gullane beach on way out

Gullane beach on way back - warming up

litter louts

I think the fact we were not allowed to go out into the countryside for the longest time made it much more appealing to the kind of folk who wouldn't normal bother. All of a sudden, as lockdown relaxed, gangs of unruly arseholes would go somewhere nice, get drunk and leave all their litter behind. Often festival tents and cheap sleeping bags. It gave the impression of being left by young people who imagined someone would come along later (their parents?) and tidy up for them. Clearly such people need some common sense flogged into them. Absolutely despicable. That and random spray paint tagging on other people's property make me see red. It is almost impossible to think how to approach the problem, other than responsible parenting and god knows that won't be happening anytime soon.

It was great to see the first of the Burnet moths. These are 6 spot and were all over Gullane Point, looking freshly emerged. They (the caterpillars) make tiny white enveloped hammocks in the grasses from which they burst forth and almost immediately start to procreate. Usually they, like the DGFs, appear in the first 2 weeks of July, so 20th June was early.

This female common blue was so small and without a sprinkling of blue scales on the uppers, I thought it might be an NBA, however it lacked the white forewing spots.

Still no sign of DGFs by the time I ran to Aberlady Beach. I had hoped to find early emergers feeding on the Chinese Privet bush near the propeller cone folly that looks out to Fidra. But the bush wasn't fully in flower and there were no takers. There were a couple of distant possible-DGFs about, but nothing definite. I saw something bright orange just after Gullane Point on a dandelion but it turned into a Small Tortoiseshell. I was beginning to doubt I'd find any but as I made my way up fritillary alley a couple of tangerine terrors flew past at great speed, fuelled by solar power and the drive to create the next generation. They really weren't stopping for anything (other than a female DGF.) I saw one disappear into a fenced off field. Gingerly checking the wires for current I stepped over but I had taken my eye off the ball for too long and it had either gone to ground or was half a mile away. 

As I retreated back to the path a couple appeared and stopped for a chat. I was intrigued by their nets, (butterfly nets in this day and age???) and they could tell I was from the same clan as them. Who else climbs an electric fence to root about in long grass and thistles with a camera in one hand. Turns out one was Katty B - a name I'd seen on East Scottish Butterflies and they were fishing for flies not butterflies. Katty is a big fan of moths and pal of Abbie. We shared chat about burnets and DGFs and I left them saying I was hoping to get a photo of the latter before end of play. Although I was less confident than I sounded.

Within 5 minutes I saw a fritillary flying about in the long grass at less than top speed. I was hoping it was looking for a likely roost and less solar-powered-frenzy than the others, earlier. It settled in some greenery and I got a record shot off, in case it saw me coming and zoomed away.

gotcha!

It did just that but settled not too far away and in a better position for a photo. I crept with ninja like stealth and got a couple of closer shots before it upped and left. Mission accomplished. I returned to my bike by heading back towards Gullane Point on the rising path beside the golf course. 

On the way I got what I felt were the best photos of the day as this bright new Tortoiseshell clambered about a vipers bugloss.

I had enjoyed the trip so much on the 20th that the following Thursday when the forecast was again good I did the same trip. Or similar. I was hunting for small skippers (and the usual suspects) and there was a place just 80yards over the bridge to enchantment where I'd seen them in the past. My plan was to cycle over, take some pics then cycle to Gullane to hide my bike in the bushes again. However when I got in the reserve there was no skippers. There was however Abbie M and it was great to see her out looking for skippers. She has had a tough year with her health, and the crisis was not helping at all. We chatted for a bit, then, sans skippers, I cycled back over the bridge. 

Abbie had suggested with the sun likely to be coming out full blast shortly that I had limited time to find DGFs etc before everything warmed up and got out of hand. So instead of padlocking my bike up the hill I cycled it directly to the Chinese Privet propeller cone bush. There was nothing there but within 10 mins a solitary fritillary turned up and sat for photos for about 8 seconds before disappearing entirely. It was enough for a few shots, but I was left feeling I could wait there 2hrs and not see another. Instead I locked my bike to the propeller and ran further East along the beach and up into the woods above where there is a buddleia that is sometimes heaving with RAs and peacocks. Only it was hardly even flowering and there were no butterflies. I have been surprised that the buddleias this year are getting very little attention from the butterflies. In other years they would be hosting butterfly balls and dozens could be gathered on their flowery plumes climbing over each other in an orgy of nectaring. It's almost as if word has gone round to boycott the butterfly bushes. 

8 seconds of DGF magic!

brambles not buddleias

This was the rest of the day's DGF story. In flight and not landing anywhere nearby. There weren't that many about and all looked like they'd emerged recently. Which is about right - last week in June with first fortnight in July the bulk of fritillary action. They had a great year in East Lothian last year (or I was down there paying more attention) and I hoped this would carry over into 2020. It has certainly been good but maybe just a small bit down on last year's numbers. 

There seems to have been a bit of a dieback in speckled woods numbers between then and now too although it is maybe just a slight blip between generations as some very fresh ones have been spotted in the last few days.

I unpadlocked my bike and cycled over the trails back to Gullane. Less ideal than running it can be hard work cycling (even with 2.2 inch tyres) over grass and sand. At one point I attempted a small steep incline and toppled over as the rear wheel spun out in the sand. Luckily nobody about to see me make a mess of it and jump up brushing the sand off in a hurry to regain composure. What a state!

Most of these photos were taken east of the car park where the trail passes a large clump of flowering bramble. A handful of butterflies hopped from spot to spot and I waited till they came round the front to get a photo. They had become acclimatised to human traffic on the path next door. However I had to jump out the way every time a family (usually with dog, BBQ kit and squawking kids) came past on the way to the beach. While not getting to Bournemouth or Durdle Door kind of saturation, Gullane beach was fairly popular for a Thursday afternoon. I went no nearer than that path. I am never drawn to large crowd scenes even outwith lockdown, and have no idea why families flock to crowded hotspots to cram in beside other families. Getting outdoors for me means getting away from other people; not finding the maximum number in the minimum space and having a picnic. 

In the game of who can last the longest, I was sad to see the last 2 letters (the M, and first R of terrace) both fell off at the same time. Or were they assisted? I'll never know. All the letters of Goose Green Road also disappeared around the same time. I suspect foul play! But maybe they just fall off in warmer weather. 

Nice to see lots in swimming, and keeping a decent distance, mostly.
I think the locals were maybe a bit chagrined to see so many arrive.

On the way up the hill I stopped at the tank trap cement blocks. Can't remember why; undoubtedly some butterfly or moth will have caught my eye. Just over a bit in the rough, I spot a small skipper. My first of the year and only one today. I'd forgotten just how small they are, and with difficulty I get close enough to get a few shots, though most are poorly focussed. It becomes an area I will return to on several occasions. There are vipers bugloss and thyme around but it is not clear why it has become one of these places. More to come.

far from the madding crowd

The cycle home is often into the prevailing headwind but sometimes you get lucky and are helped home by an Easterly. It is not a particularly welcome ride back, (80mins into the wind) but in its favour it is all flat coastal road and usually there is someone slower than myself to race, which passes the time. Mary, keen not to get NHS-fired for the slightest guidelines infringement, refused to drive outwith 5 miles till it was sanctioned. I sort of made my own moral compass and guidelines and felt they were at least as reliable and sensible as any the govt. came up with. My hatred of crowds and love of butterflies kept me off the beaten path although I may have momentarily drafted the occasional cyclist too closely before overtaking.