park life

2nd July
The weather wasn't very special but warm enough to maybe see a few butterflies in Holyrood Park so I charged the camera battery and headed up there. I am trying to get fitter so if there is a lack of butterflies I just turn it into a running session doing a few hills or bursts of speed. It has been easy to slip into non-combat mode since all racing has been cancelled over the summer and too often I just end up jogging 5 or 6 miles taking 400 photos and going home without breaking much of a sweat. I enjoy it enormously and we are lucky to have Holyrood Park bursting with wildlife, but it isn't really helping with my run training and race fitness.

On the way there I ran past Regents Road. On the steep drop to Calton Road there is a lane with buddleia bushes along the top. Andrew and Unda had found graylings here and taken photos of them on the buddleia, which is much better than the usual shot of a grayling enjoying invisiblity on rock that matches their cryptic underwing colour. I have been past several times and although I've seen an occasional grayling it has only ever been on the rock above the lane, not on the flowers. (As above.) It is great to see such an exotic species right in the centre of town.

The wildflowers in pleasingly unruly borders next to the Parliament Buildings attract lots of insects too and I usually sweep past there to see if there are any luckies. There have been small t-shells and whites coming and going - the only creatures with any integrity in the area. (Political satire.)

Eóin L - fastest thing in the park today

Richard had photographed one or more DGFs on the thistles up at the Pollock entrance. This caused me great excitement and I went there on several occasions hoping they would return. To my knowledge they were never seen again on what was a great venue for Small Ts, Meadow Bs, Ringlets and bees, but it was DGFs that got me out of bed. Then Andrew, Unda and Phil B reported there were Frits near the roundabouts opposite Dynamic Earth in the long unmowed grass patches below the rock trap mound. Which I had been running past to get to the Pollock thistles!

Silver Y moth. They have been annoying me all season until this one actually sat still for long enough for a photo. Largely disagreeable!

Lots of Burnets all over the place. Cheery chaps and more than happy to sit for a pic since they are poisonous so do not have to be so careful of predators.

At last: a Holyrood Dark Green Fritillary

2 or maybe 3 years ago I had seen a DGF roosting in long grass up the hill above Dunsapie Loch. It was about 7.30 in the summer and I was doing Thursday night intervals with the Carnethy runners. I was surprised to see it there as I only ever saw them in Aberlady. I thought it must have been passing through on its travels. Occasional reports of them in Holyrood since, including Mairi seeing a pair mating last Summer. Which has perhaps resulted in a handful of residents this Summer. It is a fantastic butterfly and brilliant to add to the list, now 21 species deep, of butterflies found in Holyrood this year. 

yellow shell moth - not particularly easy to get close to

MB

Loads of small skippers about this year. More than I remember from previous years so I suspect that means a bumper year for them. They are small and charming and buzz about like small orange helicopters. Good numbers of ringlet and Meadow Brown about the place too. If they are not over-represented here it is because they can be not only a bit drab but play awfy hard to get, too. Not an encouraging combination!

meadow brown

grayling

There always seems to be more cinnabar caterpillars (only on ragwort) than there are cinnabar moths. It's almost like they are 2 different animals. I'm guessing there is high mortality and predation of the caterpillars. It must be strange going from black and yellow striped pyjamas to a scarlet and black cloak.

common blue (male)

You can tell the rough age of a common blue by the white frilly edge. Very freshly emerged ones have a long white fringe. As they age the tassels become shorter and thinned out. The blue sheen of the wings fades and they become slightly transparent. Towards the end of their season the white fringe will be short and ragged or have disappeared altogether. They do not all emerge at the same time so some will appear old and spent on the same day as you can come across a brand new one.

common blue female

training session!

Top of Crow Hill, gull trying to spot wifi password.

A great incentive to wheeze and puff up Nether Hill then Crow Hill was Red Admirals and Painted Ladies playing king of the castle up there. The downside being the wind keeps those butterflies low on the ground which doesn't make for decent photos. But sometimes when there was no other sign of RAs or PLs in the park, the best place to find 2 or 3 would be up there on the hill summit. Inevitably there would be a breeze but this didn't seem to bother them. It didn't help me much because when I got too close they would lift off and be 100 yards away in 2 seconds. However if you hung about they would often come swooping back around (remarkably strong fliers) to a spot nearby for another round of how close can I get before they are spooked. It is an object lesson in patience and stealth.

And if you get bored with that game you can descend to the small tortoiseshells on ragwort and thistles at Pollock or the smaller butterflies (blues, small coppers, ringlets and NBAs) at the Pollock end of the Radical Road. I have been happy to ignore the barriers warning of falling rock that have been there for a year or more. (Mainly because rockfall seems limited to the other end of the Rad Road.) Less happy to hear police were enforcing it the other day. Perhaps the climbing fraternity who climb in the quarry (Bay 3 in from Pollock) have been a little too visible or have been having one too many incidents. Myself and Andrew helped move the barriers a while back to allow 3 climbers to carry a 4th to the roadside where an ambulance appeared then treated and removed the injured climber. Not the victim of a long fall but more a clumsy or unfortunate misstep from no height at all, resulting in a bad sprain or fracture. 

off to hospital!

Northern Brown Argus (f)
past the first flush of youth but still an impressive specimen

Steve C?

On the way home I noticed this Chimney Sweeper moth. I had seen several folk posting photos of them but never spotted one up till now. So I was pleased to catch this one. It was much smaller (near to NBA size) than I had suspected they were, which might account for me not seeing any as they are allegedly quite common in Holyrood.

saw the same DGF on the way home
(recognised the ruffled fur on its back)

And that was that for the day, however 3 days later on the 5th July I was also in the park. I wasn't having that much luck except for finding a solitary Painted Lady on the buddleia at the bottom of the rock shoot (below the Crags). A venue that has produced nothing of interest lately. I check it out in passing, out of habit, but as I have said elsewhere, everyone seems to be boycotting the buddleia this year. (I keep hoping to see a comma, RA or peacock, but Painted Ladies have been scarce this year so I put in a bit of effort with this one!) So I'll tag it on here as it wasn't a noteworthy trip other than that. I have scouted out a few on the top of Crow Hill but we just haven't had the numbers or influx we had last year when tens of thousands appeared from down South (France or Africa) in a massive migration. When you have a few days filled with any one species they become less special and you begin to undervalue them. This year I have been much more excited to see Painted Ladies and they have definitely crept into my top ten or even top five favourites. I also hold their migrating abilities in huge regard, the furthest flying of any butterfly species.