small inhabitants of the big wood

 

24th June

I decided to cycle to Saltoun Big Wood. The forecast was mixed but the exercise would do me good and there was bound to be something to point the camera at. If the sun was out that could be dragonflies, butterflies, green tiger beetles and ruby-tailed wasps. If not, then newts, tadpoles and bugs. And I could eat my sandwiches and cycle home. It is 16 miles away so a reasonable 32 mile cycle and a couple of miles walk round the square mile of trees and ponds. (Not sure why it earns the title Big wood!) A favourite venue although one which can be fantastic at certain times but can also be strangely devoid of wildlife at others. So I was braced for potential failure as well as a day out on the bike. 

I felt fairly strong on the bike. Which is odd as I haven't been putting in the miles and not even doing much around town since I quit working. I have had ongoing sciatica back and leg issues. So not doing much running. Every time I go out walking I spend the first couple of miles squatting and circling hips to relieve the ache between glute and calf. (On one side only.) This releases the discomfort. So I can easily do a hundred plus squats a day and I suspect it is putting some heft into my legs. I enjoyed the long hill up to Tranent and then up towards East Saltoun before the turn off to West Saltoun. I knew it wouldn't be anywhere near a course personal best of 64minutes for the 16 miles (I was carrying a load of camera gear in my usual backpack in one panier bag and padlock and coiled wire in the other - much heavier than when I set the 64mins record) but I felt it might just scrape under 70minutes. I had to settle for under 71 minutes but it felt like a decent attempt when I hadn't been out on the bike for ages. And lifted spirits, which nearly offset the light rain that welcomed me to the woods as I chained my bike 50 yards behind the old car park where it couldn't be seen.

I persisted but thought it could be an early return if things deteriorated further. I looked to the sky for blue patches. Things did slowly improve and as I walked up to the first manmade pond there was just enough sun to cast a shadow. I was welcomed by a large skipper: possibly the first I'd ever seen in Saltoun. I can't remember seeing them here before. They have been spreading nicely through East Lothian and it's those pretty checkered wings that distinguish them from the small skipper. 

The clouds thinned further which brought out a few four-spotted chasers. One landed near and posed nicely for photos. I thought I maybe caught a glimpse of a common hawker but it was at the other side of the pond and I couldn't be sure. No further sightings all day. I struggled round the perimeter of the pond which is quite choked with brambles and vegetation and not easy to access. I was there for about an hour before wandering up the track to the second pond.

I stopped at the junction, the crossroads as the trail levels off, before the pond on the right. Actually there's a small pond on the left as well. And a gnarly old tree stump that attracts all manner of flying things. In particular ruby-tailed wasps. I was there quite a while searching for RTWs but mostly only seeing other flies and bugs. I saw RTWs a couple of times but they wouldn't let me get anywhere near enough before flying off, impossible to say where. I persisted but ended up taking pics of ants. They were the only critters who found the 2 or 3 spots of honey I put out. Having had success with a honey trap at Musselburgh Lagoons I repeated the process but with less success here.

Mostly when you hear the expression honey trap it is not being used as I am using it here: literally honey is put out to trap the insects into staying still for a few seconds while I take their photo. The ants were the only takers and I have to say after seeing them a few times recently they are not really favourite subjects. They are very small and don't seem to have much visual interest even when you get up really close. I resist calling them boring but they seem devoid of the charm that for instance the grasshopper nymph below has in spades. I just don't get very excited about ants although I'm sure there are different species who have lots of personality. 

I was delighted by this grasshopper. It was far more interesting than it seemed once I got close. However it was not for holding still and pinged off every time I approached. It was very small which meant I had to get in close, so there are not loads of pics. I chased a number of hopper nymphs and they all popped off as I got close. I was also looking for green tiger beetles which were not showing themselves today much at all. Like butterflies (and myself) they prefer a sunny warm day. I have no idea why they live in Scotland.

some sort of aphid

Google lens suggest these ants are a specific species (Formica cunicularia) but I suspect they are wrong (geographically they are not a fit) so rather than sell spurious info I'll just say these are common ants and I can't be bothered to look up the big insect book and pour over hundreds of tiny ant photos. They are maybe 5 or 6 mm long and I'm sure you find them everywhere.

Okay I did look up the big insect book and yes there are plenty species to read about. A quick skim says these are maybe Small Black ants (Lasius niger). Who knew?! Or they might be Leman's ant which are often confused with the Large Black Ant. The Large Black has not been recorded hereabouts which is handy because they have exactly the same range of body length as the Small Black. 4~9mm. Hilarious! I don't think they are going to be a study project. Far too many all look the same. Except the yellow ones.

ant prospecting honey droplet

Sphecodes, a blood bee also known as a cuckoo bee
because it is a kleptoparasite (steals food from another bee)

another reluctant hopper model

Then up to the big pond on the right of the path. Initially there seem to be little here and I skirted the trees on the right as damselflies often sit there away from the water. Perhaps where I came across this large red damselfly sunbathing. It let me get really close and I love the contrast of the red with the green conifer needles. Among my favourite photos of today.

I then noticed the ground was moving. It was swarming with tiny frogs (or toads - not sure about ID). You really had to be careful as they were very small and everywhere along the pond side. Culminating in a black mass in the shallows, of tadpoles in various degrees of transformation into froglets. Some had tails and no legs, some legs and no tails and every form inbetween. There were thousands. The froglets were breathing air with heads above the waterline; the tadpoles were breathing underwater with gills.

froglet against fingers for scale

froglets moving in all directions

like the D-Day landings

I was quite hungry by now so got out my sandwich (2 cheeses plus salad and dressing on homemade bread - no shops near SBW) and sat near the pondside having a mindful moment. It was very lovely until a couple with a baby in a backpack and 2 mental-as-fuck spaniels came by. The dogs were straight into the pond. I put my camera where they couldn't run over it. The dogs were not aggressive towards me but did run in and out of the water at top speed, right into the middle of these tadpoles no doubt killing dozens. Eventually the bloke - hopefully sensing my extreme prejudice - tried to extract his fucktard mutts but with minimal success. It ruined my peaceful lunchtime but nothing compared to what it did to far too many frogs-in-the-making. Part of me sympathises with the couple who are probaby struggling with sleepless nights and under-exercised dogs. A larger part of me wishes they would stick to municipal parks where their poorly controlled frantic dogs can do less damage.

I was hoping for great things at the woodpile - wood wasps and snoozing dragonflies - but I only came across a couple of lacewings. These are a curious mix of delicate beauty and unprepossessing scowl. One spent a while trying to lose me in the gorse (admirable tactics) while the second let me get a couple of photos before flying off high into the trees. They are always worth a closer look and appear to be nearly transparent until you get right up next to them.

second one - a more traditional pose

ringlet

a fine display of hoops

Xyphosia, a fruit fly

I was trying to get a decent angle on this unusual little yellow-orange job and deeply lost in the activity when a loud voice at my shoulder asked something. I can't remember what the question was and it might have just been a greeting. But I do remember it made me jump a foot off the ground and shout FUCK as I hadn't seen anyone since the dog-baby-couple and was enjoying the solitude. I turned round to find this see you next tuesday had crept right up to me and leaned in to see what all the excitement was about. I explained it was just a fly which would now be a mile away due to recent exclamations. I didn't say that and was perfectly polite or as much as I could muster.

While we were chatting a woman walking a dog also came past. Hearing his question about parking (he hadn't been here since they changed the car parking situation) she offered her tuppence worth and we all got chatting. I chimed in with some wildlife info and she asked were we nature experts. "I'm not with him" was out my mouth and sounding more pejorative than intended, before I really considered it. And yet it was only factual. I noticed he gave me a look. But hey, he came over to poke his nose in and ruin my moment when he could have just walked on by. The lady dogwalker continued to chat to anyone interested and I took my chance to move off, hopefully breaking the connection with the bloke who was dressed unsuitably to visit a supermarket, never mind a woodland. He wasn't to be shortchanged and caught back up with me. "Oh look! a scorpion fly" I said midsentence and put the camera to my face, marching into the undergrowth. I whispered a thank you to the scorpion fly. She said "how could he have a 38 year old son and still be as unworldly as that? Wearing polished slip-ons for a walk outdoors?" I honestly have no idea. At the junction of the trail I turned left up butterfly alley and he continued straight on, looking for a ruined building. I was pleased to be parting company.

preferable company

There is always something of a lull on butterfly alley between Spring butterflies and late Summer ones. We are in that lull currently. The peacocks have laid eggs which are caterpillars now and will pupate and emerge in a while, nearer the end of the season along with commas and red admirals. A visit here is one of the absolute highlights of the year when it all kicks off around the second half of August to the first week in September. I made five trips during that period last year and each was a delight. It is a glorious way to end the Summer and seems particular to these woods having no equivalent elsewhere. It might well be on account of the scabious flowers that line butterfly alley and flower during those 3 or 4 weeks. It catches the end of the wall browns flying season as well as Southern Hawkers and Black Darters at the ponds. It is the only place I know where you can expect to see so many commas in one place at the same time.

Meanwhile I came across a green tiger beetle. (Female.) This was most of the way up butterfly alley. I had been looking for butterflies hiding out on warm tree stumps and bark litter. I had failed to find these beetles near the tree stump where they often hang out, but noticed the same collection of bark litter, moss, sparse vegetation and sandy dirt patches as near the tree stump. Maybe there'll be some here as it's identical terrain. Something flew up and when it landed it was a GTB! I followed its quick scamper and crouched but it flew up again. I had to be more ninja. As it was briefly resting I got a couple of record shots but it scampered or flew off again before I could get close enough to employ macro tactics. I think I either came across 2 beetles or the same one twice. There was a lot of looking and no further photos, a rather frustrating state. At one point it flew up and landed on a grass stem. I approached and it flew off again. They are fantastic beetles dressed in brilliant outfits and I hope to get up close enough to one soon as they are quite large and would make a great head-and-shoulders shot. They have impressive mandibles. Not sure if they ever slow down and pose for photos though.

google lens is not great for this one
who might be a digging grasshopper or a pygmy grasshopper or neither

damselfly

At the top of the hill (furthest Easterly point) there was another male large skipper. He ruler this small corner of the world and although would take off and fly at 90mph, was so orange that if you lost sight of him you could often spot him by glancing round 3 or more high points from where he held court. I spent far too long creeping up close before he zipped off yet again, landing the other side of a bush and waiting for me to slowly walk round.

I nearly turned round and retraced my steps as I wanted to see the GT Beetle again, but knew we have met admirals and commas round the back road. Sure enough most of the way back down the descending track a red admiral swooped round my head a couple of times and landed close by. I got a couple of record shots and walked over to go macro on it. But it took off and swirled round me again. I held out a hand and it almost, so very nearly, landed on it. Within inches but turned off at the last moment as if expressing what was I thinking?! It flew off and was never seen again.

Just past the next corner is a zinc boiler or water tank of some sort. It has been there kicked off the path in the scrub, for a while and is a common spot for sunbathing spiders. I saw one sat low and wondered if it would remain while I got down on the ground and hunkered in beside it. I crouched and slowly got closer and closer until I was lying flat out in the scrub and dirt, entirely focussed on the not-very-large spider. She must have been watching me with at least some of her eight eyes and wondering what all the flashes were about. I took a few single shots and when she didn't scamper off I wondered if I could rest the camera up against the zinc tank (to steady it) and set off the focus bracketing. I had it set for 36 continuous shots each tripping the flash. I had set the flash brightness on the single shots and it seemed to work despite the bright zinc background and dark spider fur. After the first attempt I snuggled in closer and shot off another dozen consecutive shots, stopping before the full 36 as I could see the focus had drifted off the back of the spider.

I did this a couple more times moving closer on each occasion and tilting the camera, making it look like the spider is sitting on a horizontal plane, whereas in real life it is hanging nearly vertical on the steeply raked plane of zinc. About shot 17 she had had enough and lightening fast turned her back on me, then disappeared. I was sorrry not to have managed to express gratitude in her presence but felt this last burst of photos was likely the most successful - least camera movement and best details round the eyes. I wouldn't be able to see the finished item until I got home and rendered the sharpest bits of 17 images into the photo (above) using Helicon software. There is a little bit of blurring round each leg which I could blend better in photoshop but it is not that important. But I am stoked that it came out as well as it did and overall the whole process is more straightforward than it can seem. I now have the camera settings programmed into the back focus button which I don't use for focussing. So I don't have to go through the menus for focus bracketing but just push this button twice and its ready to go. The flash worked very well giving very even exposure in each image and Helicon pulled this complex compilation out the hat with ease and pretty much zero retouching. I'd also like to thank Mrs Wolf Spider for being the perfect model and staying perfectly still for at least the first 17 photos. 

From what I can tell my model is a female wolf spider (they pounce rather than build webs) who is carrying her egg sac (full of eggs/baby spiders) behind her. They seem to enjoy light coloured surfaces as there is a silver birch trunk lying by the first pond where they sit in a long row when the sun is out. Maybe they are waiting for flies?

A couple of hundred yards later I saw an area that instinctively drew me off the main path and into a kinda swampy but dried up thin path next to some low trees. I wasn't sure what I expected, but to my surprise a common blue - the only one of the day - flew up from its roost. It landed on a thistle but flew off again before I could get anything better than this photo which is okay but not as good as the one I was about to take! I'm pretty sure there weren't many common blues within 10m of the path and I never really examined what combination of plants and trees caught my butterfly radar, but I was glad it seemed to work. Equally there were plenty places I checked out and found absolutely heehaw, (before I start boasting about super-powers!)

honeysuckle

speckled wood

Before I returned to my bike I did a quick scope round the easy access side of the first pond again. That skipper was there still and allowed this much proximity but no more. There were now some froglets the same as the pond up the way. Were they here earlier and I just failed to spot them, looking as I was for dragonflies? They don't mind climbing over a hand but won't hold still for long so don't make the best photos. They are constantly on the move although it is unclear to what purpose. Possibly getting away from predators and into the undergrowth although it didn't seem to be well organised. They were all headed off in random directions.

maybe Bruchidius

another scorpion fly - all females today - or maybe the same one

Rhingia campestris (or rostrata)
("easily recognised by its long snout")

another wolf spider on the silver birch log

just single shot this time

I think the cycle home took 78 minutes. It is much more downhill, but after nearly 5hrs walking in the woods so was I. I accidentally brought home one of the inhabitants of the woods which I removed with a small pair of brass Tweezerman tweezers. They are very robust little creatures, as its removal (which wasn't particularly careful) didn't seem to harm it in any way, and I photographed it as the final specimen of the day. I measured the lines on the jotter background as 8mm apart which makes the tick 1.5mm body length. I disposed of the tick permanently with regret as I don't like killing anything and can't remember the last time I did so with anything other than a tick. (Actually clothes moths get the chop indoors.) However I couldn't think of anywhere I could set it free with a clear conscience. I don't like them but I have to admire their tenacity and robust nature. Mary recently found one after she had been in the sea for 5 full minutes. Seems they can hold their breath too. And how they ever latch on to their hosts (given they don't fly) is just incredible. But not pleasant. The tweezers look pretty smooth until you photo them max macro, then they look hewn clumsily out of poorly finished brass. Isn't macro an eye-opener?

4hrs 44mins of fun! 2.5miles walked