third time lucky

 

27th August

Two days after the last visit to Saltoun Big Wood I was there again. Third visit in 8 days. Mary was counselling against too many visits as it might grind the pleasure out of a special place. But I couldn't think of anywhere that had half the butterflies, never mind several ponds of dragonflies. Plus, I get another shot at the 65minute cycle, and this time I'd be ready! Last time I was hoping that hard tyres would do the trick. This time I had that recent cycle as a training run and I'd start the effort from the first mile this time. It was just like Graeme Obree attempting the World Hour Record the day after failing it first time. Well, maybe! Ha! His hour covered 32 miles exactly or twice what I was attempting. In fairness my route was more hilly!  

walk in to the first pond

I had planned a solo trip this time and was thinking I'd maybe go a bit off piste and into the depths of the jungle. Just me and the elements, lost in a wilderness of exotic birdsong and venomous snakes. Then Nick got in touch to ask what I was up to and so I invited him along. His butterfly education is coming along nicely and he knows most/all of the species we saw. We were so busy chatting I forgot to explore the heart of darkness and also there was just so much going on along the main paths. 

When I arrived, sweating profusely (having managed 64.14 a new pb! Hurray!) there was a large black car checking out the limited parking. The window rolled down and it was Jimmy, a dude I am fb friends with but haven't actually met till this moment. (He takes outstandingly good macro photos of spiders and insects of all sorts.) He and his son Aiden were here to fish stuff out the pond and plop it into a mini-aquarium he had with him to help look at it closely and take photos. He didn't feel there was enough room to park and was off to park down the road in West Saltoun a couple of hundred yards away.

Meanwhile it is almost becoming mandatory to find a hawker on arrival on the (birch) trees round the edge of the first pond. I saw one land high on this trunk and when I approached, there was this one much nearer eye level. I took loads of photos before it flew off.

The more I see dragonflies up close the more I like them. They look like a combination of high quality plastic and aerospace alloys. And finished in Humbrol enamel paint. They are incredible fliers and can go from a hover to 60mph in the blink of an eye. 300 million years has seen them evolve into a super efficient creature and when I see them close up I get that feeling of prehistoric lineage as well as the space age alien tech thing. Like many insects they have a combination aesthetic of both streamlined beauty and thugly killing machine. I have pretty much given up trying to photograph them in flight. Either my camera or myself isn't up to the task, and I rarely get any result worth the frustration of waiting at the pond side to snap one as it zips by. Then find it is either out of focus or there is movement blur. I suspect my camera begins to write cheques its central processor can't cash when it boasts shutterspeeds over 1/2000th of a second.

pond number one

common darter and damselfly

emerald damselfly showing pruinescence
powdery blue dust-like patina that comes with age

some sort of ladybird
I can only be bothered to research them (and bees) when there's no butterflies.

Now these pond bugs I assumed to be water boatmen. Then Michael asked if it was swimming on its back. I had noticed this and wondered if they were all like that. Nope. There are water boatmen (Corixa Punctata) and there are backswimmers (Notonectidae.) Apart from swimming right way up or upside down, the 2 species are quite different. Water boatmen are placid creatures eating plant debris and algae. Backswimmers are voracious predators and will go for anything they can, from aquatic insects to tadpoles and even small fish. They can even sting humans with a wasp like bite and toxin but it is no more serious than a wasp sting. Backswimmers prefer manmade venues, or slow moving streams and ponds. I see them more often than water boatmen at Saltoun, though I think both are present. I am going to sneak in a photo from a later date which was taken at Saltoun and I think shows both species - I think the backswimmer might have been trying to eat the pair of mating water boatpersons. 

from the future!

I took the above photo just as the backswimmer moved off with a powerful push of its legs/oars - you can see how much turbulence it created as it scooted across the surface. They have ridges covered with hairs that collect air bubbles so that they can stay under water longer and breath the air, not unlike a scuba tank. Both water boatmen and backswimmers are air breathers and have to come to the surface periodically to breath.

black darter

I was a bit hacked off with the black darters. I like their sleek black appearance but they refused to perch on something up high where I could get a decent shot, preferring to stay among the grass and undergrowth. 

At last a male black darter found a girlfriend and perched up on a shrub at a decent height. But hang on, he's made a mistake. I was pretty sure this was a common darter female he had caught with his claspers. Female black darters are black on their underneaths, (yellow above) and black on the last couple of segments of their tails. And they have yellow & black stripes with a brown patch on their thorax. I checked online when I got home and I am 99%+ sure this is a female common darter. She wasn't looking very happy. In the video below you can see the male BD twitching and flexing - signalling the female to curl her tail underneath and engage in the process. Being larger she at least is able to convey her displeasure by standing her ground and not responding to his suggestion. 

At this point Nick arrived and I turned to shout hello as I was hidden in the undergrowth. I possibly disturbed the unhappy pair; when I returned to look for them they had gone, so I never found out what the upshot was. I trust the male released the female and that he continued with greater caution and  precision. So it's not just humans that have trouble discerning the various ages and genders of dragonflies. (Not only are they sexually dimorphic, but most have 3 stages of adult appearance: immature, mature and over-mature and can look subtly different in each.) 

black darter, common darter

Mister

not Missus

video of the odd couple

I saw another couple - this time a proper pair of darters fly up into a tree. I was so busy getting the correct focus I didn't realise I had chopped the head off the female. 😢

As we walked up the trail to the second pond we bumped into Jimmy and Aiden again who were fishing for pond life. They had caught tadpoles and baby newts and transferred them to the mini-aquarium. It is surprising how a small amount of inexpensive equipment can really make for much more fun. We could clearly see the critters and get reasonable photos of them. Up till then I wasn't sure if there were newts in the pond. Often this pond is easier to see them in as it has a long shallow beach and you can see newts sunbathing in the shallows. Hadn't seen any last visit. Turns out there are plenty but they are tiny. Newtlets or Efts. Actually that might refer to the terrestrial juv phase. 

messin' about on the water

black darter

I really like the way the glass reflects and refracts the light. And the blue-green glass colour contrasts the orange-red sand. At the time I was trying to get shots of the newts and tadpoles, but I like the abstract fields of colour as much as the actual subjects. Just having a cuboid of glass and water out on a bright day lends itself to the picture and you hardly need any beasties to make interesting images.

The frogs are just beginning to develop legs and the newts have large external gills. Big thanks to Jimmy for bringing this kit along and instigating the fun. His son was revelling in this - who wouldn't - and it did occur that these are the sorts of days that spark off a life-long interest in nature in a youngster. Another really great tip Jimmy passed on was that he had seen ruby tailed wasps on the tree stump and roots on the oak at the junction. And that green tiger beetles could turn up just next door on a patch of sand and dirt. I saw a beetle before it took wing and disappeared (no photos) but saw nothing of the miniature wasps. (Spoiler alert - until NEXT trip!) They were high on my list of things to see and photograph but where do you ever come across them? On that tree stump for one. 

I was a bit worried the sun might disappear at any moment so was keen to go to 'butterfly alley' the trail at the back of the wood. You turn left up a half mile of tree lined track. The track is also lined with devil's bit scabious, a lilac coloured bloom atop a long stem that attracts butterflies. There were dozens of peacocks up and down the trail as well as red admirals and lots of passing whites. Most of them were in brand new condition and are often so busy on the flowers they don't mind you taking their photos. 

peacock

Nick taking pics with his phone.

comma with symmetrical notches out its forewings

painted lady

large white

this makes me think of the three tenors

small copper

comma showing underwing

red admiral

flipped left through 90'

how it was taken

Richard and Linsey were also there and the four of us stood chatting at one of the busiest parts (for butterflies). The peacocks began to see us as furniture and from time to time landed on us. Above is one on Richard's pocket.

here is a before and after

I don't do this with many photos as it can take ages. I thought I'd post this and show my workings as it were. Sometimes you can tell if a bit of work with a cloning tool to make annoying bits of grass disappear is worth it. I reckoned in this case it was. Usually a photo has to be pretty good before it is worth it, and few pics come up to that standard. It took about half an hour to make the extraneous bits of foliage disappear and I slightly toned down the bottom right flower. If you didn't see the before photo above you wouldn't know. Free of clutter your eye now concentrates on the butterfly. I also removed some light catching highlights from the butterfly while I was working on it in photoshop. Usually I don't bother, just very occasionally. Some people would call this cheating or fakery and yes, it is. But not maybe a mortal sin. Just encompassing the available tech. But so is taking a photograph rather than doing a sketch or a painting. And when you consider the improvements in photograph and the ease of use of today's technology I have no idea how anyone ever produced a half decent photo of any wildlife before digital cameras. Hard work and struggle I would think. And paying out a small fortune in getting 36 exposures back from Boots.  Lets say it cost £10 to develop 36 pics and £5 to buy a 36 exposure roll of film. Then to take the same number of photos I took on this trip and have them developed would cost around £450~£500 and I'd throw more than 2/3rds directly in the bin.

about 33miles cycled and 2.5 walked
fantastic day and looking forward to next visit!