20th Oct.
I had booked some dates online to visit the botanics. If you get decent weather they can be full of Autumnal marvels about now so I matched the sunny days of the week's forecast to the annoyingly-one-day-at-a-time booking schedule on the website then waited for the forecast to change and everything to go to the dogs. This it pretty much did, but also the sun came out on Tuesday all of a sudden. Since the fans of the botanics (fantanics?) are being slowly ground down by the booking system and changeable weather, which can make 2hrs of wet leaved branches slapping your face more of a punishment exercise than a blessing, it is recently much easier to book same day entry. This I did. Also they aren't as scrupulous about checking your entry time as they suggest on the booking site (within 45 mins) and have let me in 2 or 3hrs after the sun failed to come out on schedule. I should really be grateful they are open at all. And free of charge.
no kingfishers
no kingfisher, no heron
It is a year since the last butterfly of 2019. Which I thought was here (in the demonstration garden on Valerian.) Actually that was fake news as I made a Red Admiral materialise on some ivy over in Aberdour on 30th Oct by a combination of optimistic yearning and hard, indirect staring, looking away from the obvious to concentrate on the intemperate.
It is not an easy trick to pull off. Also (I read in my blog) Ken spotted an Admiral in the Botanics on the 5th Nov 2019. The blog further reports my last butterfly the previous year was on the ceratostigma minus (a blue flowering shrub in the rock garden,) on Oct 28th. This year a lot of things have arrived early and so perhaps it is fitting they left early too.
I was pleased to find this RA (below) on the Valerian in the demonstration garden. I was fairly sure it would be the last of the year. Because the forecast was taking a nose dive for the following week. So unless we get a blip of unusually high temps in Nov. this is the end.
I nearly missed this one as well. I had been checking all the likely flowers and by this point had given up hope. Several of the shrubs (Purple Torch in the herbaceous border, the buddleias by the cafe) had finished flowering, and there was little left to attract any insects. This Admiral was nearly motionless, sooking the last of the nectar out these flowers, and I could have walked past without noticing. It was too distant for macro shots, but it hung around for 10 mins so I photographed the hell out of it before it flew up and over the road to some tall trees.
It is not an easy trick to pull off. Also (I read in my blog) Ken spotted an Admiral in the Botanics on the 5th Nov 2019. The blog further reports my last butterfly the previous year was on the ceratostigma minus (a blue flowering shrub in the rock garden,) on Oct 28th. This year a lot of things have arrived early and so perhaps it is fitting they left early too.
I was pleased to find this RA (below) on the Valerian in the demonstration garden. I was fairly sure it would be the last of the year. Because the forecast was taking a nose dive for the following week. So unless we get a blip of unusually high temps in Nov. this is the end.
I nearly missed this one as well. I had been checking all the likely flowers and by this point had given up hope. Several of the shrubs (Purple Torch in the herbaceous border, the buddleias by the cafe) had finished flowering, and there was little left to attract any insects. This Admiral was nearly motionless, sooking the last of the nectar out these flowers, and I could have walked past without noticing. It was too distant for macro shots, but it hung around for 10 mins so I photographed the hell out of it before it flew up and over the road to some tall trees.
bee on ceratostigma minus (or similar)
Having sated my addiction with all those shots of RA, I walked around the place with a light heart enjoying the trees and colours. It was enough to inspire several further trips here over the next 2 weeks but it did prove to be the last of the year's butterflies as temps have dropped to mostly single figures at which point they have the good sense to leave by the magic portal not to return until mid March or later. Again I should be grateful it has been a fine year for local species with many sunny days hunting. And yet that just isn't quite enough to keep the miseries of Winter at bay, and they slowly creep into my soul sure as water into a sack of kittens thrown into a river.
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