best part of the day: east lothian lovelies!

9th May. Another brilliant Spring day and fabulous Friday! Hard to believe this is Scotland! It's as if someone put the sun on for the tradidtional 10 minutes of Spring sunshine but wandered off and left it burning. It is not without potential problems. The grasses are all dried out and need a watering and the flowers will be wilting or failing but I really love it and it cheers me up no end. I am already the sort of brown I normally only get by the end of Summer and it feels like we are in Europe, not a northern outpost where butterflies and dragonflies huddle in a cold damp corner waiting in vain for our few hours of sunshine rationed over a drizzly grey Spring and Summer. Even if it rains from now till September it will still be a legendary Spring. As far as I can see the wildlife is really enjoying it too.

bluetit

Naturally the half-empties are saying well it could end badly, butterflies emerging before foodplants are flowering and the like. The sudden change throwing nature's balance out of kilter. But if you look at Europe where the sun shines more consistently, the 200+ species of butterflies all manage to survive. Compared to our 30 species. In fact as you travel from Scotland to the equator the butterflies constantly increase in species number and size. Not that big is best! Note the photo at the top of this page: a tiny moth half a thumb-nail in size. My favourite encounter on this day.

What I am saying is I feel there is room for Scotland's climate to warm up a bit! I have been run ragged trying to chase all the beauties that have appeared on account of it. Time will tell if it has a downside but I'm betting the butterflies would vote for this current heatwave over the dismal washout we had last year when caterpillars and eggs were drowned and washed away in the monsoon that replaced last Spring.

sparrow

OT female

looking North - Gullane from Drem

I had decided to catch the NB train and dismount at Drem. There used to be a path round the fields across to Luffness; now it is something of a distant memory but you don't have to trample crops to follow the route it took, so I felt there was permission to proceed. After a field perimeter you come to the bridal pathways used by horse-people locally. Signs say not to ride on the wildflowers bordering the crops, that they are an environmental project. Presumably to clear the pollinators off the crops without pesticides. What a fantastic project. The last few years I have loved seeing these strips of phacelia, charlock and pulmonaria host parties of flip-flopping large whites, GVWs and orange tips with occasional commas, walls, small torts and RAs. More than you ever see on crops. I hope it works out more efficiently than poison pesticides. Everyone will benefit.

yello whammer

I found it hard to get past the pretty cottages of Drem without stopping to photograph the birds peeping and cheeping from the trees and rooftops. Probably butterflies as well but I was keen to get to the fields of crops. I remembered a glorious day in the corner of a field of rapeseed watching large whites and commas land while I stood shoulder deep among intoxicating yellow flowers. Just blissed out! (Blog here.) It was magical and in the first week of June. Many of the same photo-subjects as today. (Also called East Lothian Lovelies!)

Walking down the first lane outside Drem there is a high hedge on the left. I heard a yellowhammer's distinctive call and seeing me, it dove into the depths of the hedgerow. I had a feeling it would (on seeing me pass by) pop out and back into prominence to sing "a little bit of bread, no cheese" once more. BTW I bet they would be horrified to hear their repetitive call has been mistranslated to turning down cheese. Is there a bird on this planet who says no thanks to cheese? Not yet found one. I like to think it might be singing a little bit of bread, more cheese. I walked on a few steps (in a overstated panto fashion) before sneaking into the field on the right ducking down a bit and waiting with breath held. Sure enough the whammer popped back out and gave a quick chorus although he also spied me and moved on almost immediately, but not before I had his signature tune on video...

yellowhammer
'a little bit of bread and no cheese'

bird video from Holyrood Pk not East Lothian

This reminded me of another couple of birds with notable songs at this time of year. They are escapees of another blog I binned because I am a fortnight behind and the hard drive is crammed full of butterflies, dragonflies and birds and something had to give. (I can only clear the pics off the hard drive once a blog is finished.) Sorry about that 5th of May, you were enjoyable but I am chasing my own tale/tail in circles. The above video is of a sedge warbler who has an almost beatboxing style and a whitethroat, a more delicate tuneful singing. Both available as town turns to countryside. Both filmed in Holyrood. I have heard many grasshopper warblers but haven't yet managed footage this year.

several skylarks flew up from the fields

this one was very close by and held my gaze
trying to work out if I was trouble or not

only admiral of the day, very fresh, very flighty
and never came near

whitethroat

I asked my sister (who has horses) what the mask is about. She confirmed it is a fly deterrent while also suggesting the horse was a little overweight. I probably won't pass that on.

reed bunting (m)

quite a few female OTs about

gvw

crimson clover - not as popular as some of the sown wildflowers with pollinators,
but builds soil and prevents erosion

buzzard overhead

charlock

peacock

It was too early for the migrant hawker dragonflies I found here last August but I had a bit of a wander and came across several beehives stood in a row filling the air with bees. I shot some video although there was a massive camera shake right in the middle of it when a bee flew right into my ear. When I played it back I was surprised I didn't hear the superloud buzz I heard first time.

aging speckled

greylags giving me the stink eye

Helophilus pendulus

nervous mallard family stayed as far away as possible

a larva on a silken thread
a couple hung from a sycamore

Normally approaching Luffness Farm I follow the trail out to the main road, then go left along towards Luffness House and Postman's Walk. On this occasion I stayed one or two fields parallel to the road and followed the perimeters. I thought I saw a couple of jays fly this way though it might have been pigeons. Then a deer cantered into the woods. It seemed to be rich with wildlife and no humans about so everything was just wandering about in the sunshine. I certainly felt relaxed although there was a deep ditch to negotiate and I hoped I'd be able to skirt round the field perimeters rather than retrace my steps.

This proved to be the case and it was easy to find my way without having to wade through crops or trespass. And on a beech hedge along one field boundary I came across a gang of longhorn moths. They were very lively and I couldn't quite get the angle right for getting video of them flying. Their long antennae make them almost float downwards and look very unique and puppet-like, so I was getting frustrated with how little I was able to get the performance on film. I remembered I had a slo-mo facility on the camera and so shot a couple of seconds of them scurrying about and taking off. However at something like 4 times slower than real life they look just about normal speed. It was a decent solution although it doesn't record audio and the short video would be better with apt soundtrack. Maybe later. They are fantastic oddities and I really enjoy their brief appearance around now, the metallic-like wings, crazy flying competitions and of course those outlandish antennae.

longhorn video - stills and slo-mo - no audio

Within yards of one spectacle, another. This lilac bush in perfumed bloom was just behind the hedge and I could see this splendid large white was way up towards the top. Not quite close enough but not out of reach either. I put the camera into pre-burst mode again and got some shots (after an interminable wait naturally) of it as it opened its wings to climb higher and then fly off the flowery plume. The results were much better than the still shots with closed wings.

up and away

The next encounter was considerably less successful. I crossed the road into Luffness House estate and as I wandered under the trees through leaf litter I scared up a hare, presumably snoozing in the shadows. Even though it spooked up right beside me I got no decent photos. I still had the camera set for the bright skies and full sunshine of the last shots and the shutterspeed was ridiculously slow now I was in the dark woods, making for huge amounts of motion blur. By the time I speed-dialled the ISO back into four figures, the hare had made sixty yards and was pointing only its ears at me from safety. Oh well, ye cannae win 'em all.

lunch at Aberlady

Postman's walk was pleasant but no butterflies of note and no Holly Blues. It looks like, for the first time in 6 years, we are not going to see any Holly Blues there. We can suppose the parasitic wasp that lives with Holly Blues in neverending cycles of boom and bust has finally caught up. Which maybe the prompt behind the massive expasion of Holly Blues in the second brood of 2023. It does feel like one of the previous stars of East Lothian has been taken out the picture although hopefully it will return. In England where both butterfly and wasp are well established, they take turns at thriving in a continuous sine wave of growth and decline.

I walked into Aberlady for lunch from Margiotta's. Sandwich, fizzy water and cold juice fit for a king! There was also a chocolate homebake, out of shot. (So's not to melt in the sun!) I had exchanged comms with Mary who had done her duties for the day and was now considering a walk at Gullane. I reckoned it'd take her an hour twenty to get out the door and drive to Gullane car park. I think it was going to be a 3pm rendezvous which gave me an hour to check out the quarry after lunch then make my way along to Gullane.

a small copper reveals the true nature of their antennae

There was some small copper action at the quarry and only distant walls. Those same walls had brought about the end of one camera (years ago) and I was reluctant to climb up the steep slopes and give chase. Also the place was full of crispy dry grasses (and slippery as anything) and shouldn't be trampled for fear of destruction of habitat. It should be getting some rain this weekend at least.

whitethroat (see earlier video!)

I actually managed to leave the quarry and get to Gullane spot on time which surprised myself and would have surprised Mary had she also been on time. I passed the moments waiting, chatting to Hazel the ice-cream. She will have been enjoying the ice-cream weather even more than myself this season and there's hardly been a day not worth hauling out to sell cones. Hazel did have a big smile on right enough, but she always does. Although she does get tired of people thinking that selling ice-creams is just fun and frivolous and doesn't actually involve a good deal of planning and hard long days working. Actually last time I was there recently with Nick, there was no sign of Hazel, and I did wonder if she had made her fortune this Spring and just retired!

Mary turned up, also looking cheerful, glad to be out and about, and we walked up towards the Millennium Cairn, checking the long red wall for walls. Just one, doing the same as we were. It wasn't stopping.

large white

an orange-tip at the lilac bush, far end of the wall wall

Just below the top of the hill one of us spotted a small heath. First one of the year and looking bright. They are never the most dynamic of butterflies and tend to sit on the ground like a dropped postage stamp, although that flatters the butterfly somewhat. In order to get some added value I tried to take photos of it (using pre-burst again!) taking off and showing its never-normally-seen upper wings. Which are a pretty warm-naples-yellow-colour. For whatever reason I did not make a very good job of this. Mary was long bored and off looking for admirals, walls and small coppers. Meanwhile I struggled onwards and downwards, shutterspeed too slow and the thing wouldn't sit still or take off at the right moments and WHAT is that awful smell?

I had knelt in dogshit. (Or similar.) Thankfully I was wearing shorts because taking my trousers off and burning them would have been problematic. I always carry kitchen roll and splashed some juice from a bottle to help clean the offending knee. A little later I was able to do a considerably more thorough job down at the new toilet block using a lot of paper towels and soapy water although I never really shifted the ambience of leprosy until much later, home, in the shower, scrubbing.

Was it worth it - no! Not even close to the freezing the action. But it has not stopped me kneeling and lying in the long grass. You can't even take the time to check for poop most occasions or you'd lose the shot. I just hope I've used up some of my bad luck. Statistically there is more safe ground than dog-tainted. One of the hazards of the business, in fact I'm surprised it hasn't happened before. I was carrying a small square of ex-camping mat for a while. Like a little prayer mat on which to kneel if there was gravel underfoot. I don't think I ever used it in battle conditions.

Other than that, a fabulous day out and many treats in great weather. AND I got chaffeured home which was much better than running with heavy backpack on lumpy field perimeters to get to the station before the train. Although I do like a bit of that!