best part of the day: walk in the park

Sunday 21 August 2022

walk in the park

12th Aug

Ahh the glorious twelfth. Let's go and shoot something!

We decided on a constitutional walk round Holyrood Park and to shoot any wildlife we saw there. It was not a bad day. Blue skies and and prob still during that heatwave we enjoyed recently. Nice for Scotland to have something of a summer. I'm fully onboard with this global warming, which has raised Scotland's climate to just about bearable in the height of Summer. It's a shame Spain has to burn and France to crisp and blacken at the corners, but too bad. Scotland now has 12 days of warmish weather rather than just the 2 of days gone by. If you don't like it, stop flying abroad. Ironically.

one of those

Mary had seen some butterflies when out doing her constitutional and took me over Whinny Hill to show me them. They were mostly in the same place. There was this small copper which mischievously refused to stand still or upright and have its photo taken. I took hundreds of photos before giving up. None of them were as good as the reality.

We were trying (and mostly failing) to portray the long blonde grasses of Holyrood. Quite difficult to capture the essence of it, both close up and from a distance. It is properly amazing. Then we came upon this meadow brown. One of the least glam butterflies it is often ignored because it is just so boring in colour scheme and forgettable pattern. They are a good test of photographic skills: it is far harder to take a good meadow brown photo than just about any other species. I was pleased with the pic at the top of the page - backlit but not silhouette, the sun catching the trailing edge of the wing, the butterfly involved in nectaring at the thistle, a nearly perfect blurred out background. The butterfly continued to feed at the same thistle and I got several more shots as it opened its wings. It wasn't in perfect condition but shows it is possible to take decent photos of this otherwise pretty dull specimen. They have had a great season this year. Possibly seen more of them than any other species this summer. Maybe their lack of spectacle is a strategy, nobody including predators paying them much heed?

small copper on rosebay willowherb

small heath - another fairly unspectacular appearance
although they have a certain charm and rarely seen yellow uppers

Mary does some catalogue model posing

small copper - victim of shark attack!

still flying strongly even with missing bits

small heath
Looking lovely despite the unflattering description earlier.

another meadow brown - careful of all those spikes!

a fantastic small copper but could we get a decent
pose and background - not a hope!

ditto grayling - these are appearing all over the park
not just in the several known spots of previous years

antler moth on ragwort

Mary strides up Crow Hill

jackdaw keeps an eye on things

grayling

festival tour on wheels

haar makes the view over to Fife more infinite

high road

small copper

wall

wall (m)

So when taking the High Road round from Dunsapie it is worth keeping an eye on the flowers and plants next to the road on both sides. We saw walls, small coppers, small torts and graylings on the plants on the side with the big drops offs down towards Duddingston. And there were a couple of holly blues on the large ivy patch on the uphill side. This year the holly blues have gone from myth and legend to regulars all around the Duddingston area. We are regularly seeing them on the Duddingston Steps although photographs are not always possible.