more longhorn

 

16-05-23

Next day we went for a cycle. Mary is trying to get cycling to replace running. With mixed results. The low impact on her knee is great but the activity is not any kind of satisfactory replacement for running. We cycled to Musselburgh lagoons and back. Largely an unnoteworthy endeavor however there were a couple of points of interest along the way.

end of the prom at Joppa

new tarmac cycle-path at the lagoons

I believe they have just opened a new hide at the lagoons. It was not open when we went through last month. It looks a bit stark from photos and will be great in a while when the surrounding areas grows around the structure. We had a quick check in the older hides but there was nothing to point the cameras at. There is a nook on the way back near the racecourse which is good for butterflies. We were hoping for red admirals but had to settle for a couple of walls and an orange tip.

From there we cycled on the main road back into town turning left at the Brunstane Burn. A short way along the narrow cycle-path I shouted to Mary to stop. I had seen a small gang of green longhorn moths clustered on leaves catching the sunshine. Once you have seen them they are easy to recognise again despite being very small. Those antlers are a giveaway. Even from a bike.

green longhorns in their metal capes

With the sun shining strongly I hoped to get photos of their metallic-like wings. As we stood around taking photos they slowly cleared off to higher leaves. However as we were considering packing up and continuing into town, a holly blue flitted through the picture and eventually stopped where we could get a photo. Right enough, we were not a mile from Newhailes Estate, one of the record sites from way back, before they became famous in East Lothian. They have probably been keeping a low profile presence around this neck of the woods for some time. The explosion of new sightings and new sites for Holly Blues this year has been something else, and it will be interesting to see if it calms down or continues into July/August for the second brood.

male holly blue

And that was pretty much that!