best part of the day: the problem with bee-flies

I bet you thought the problem with bee-flies is their unpleasant parasitic nature? Well yes and no. On this occasion it was their super-fast wingbeats which presented no problems at normal speed video but when I remembered to experiment with slo-mo, their wings came out with rolling shutter like visual abberations. (See youTube-d video at bottom of page.) It distracts from the slo-mo beauty. I suspect it is a frame rate problem and I have run a few tests. However it is not obvious how to fix this as the viewer in the video-editing I use produces different results when the clip is moved along the timeline. Again I suspect frame rates. So I would be editing blind and only seeing the results when I produce a clip from the editing process. In the end I think the answer is not to give a stuff because it is fantastic weather outside and there is too much going on to be indoors doing this. Right, less chat, more getting this report finito so I can go outdoors.

Mary had seen a wall butterfly here
Alas on this occasion I did not.

potentially great place for butterflies given the flowers
Unfortunately, not today.

Wonder how much this cost to change from 'Queen's'
to 'King's'. Impressively little sign of work/damage.

chaffinch with caterpillar/larva

I saw this sign saying footpath closed and wondered if I have to rebel. Why can't I just behave normally and accept that the route I want to follow has been closed. Don't look at it as a challenge. Just follow the rules and behave for once. Okay I can get up the steps just round the corner I'll miss the Gutted Haddie and take that route. When I saw the sleepers route up to the summit was also closed I said to myself, "fuck that, I've been good all day up to now but you have pushed me too far," taking the path that joined the route just left and uphill of the closed sign. Absolutely fuck you Histrionic Environment Scotland.

The guys had all but finished building (ruining) the path in question and the reason for the footpath closed signs was 98% redundant. Typical of such a timid and H&S worshipping bunch of see-you-next-Tuesdays. How much helicopter fuel did it take to put rocks in a place to save the erosion of the rocks underneath? Too flippin much. Best to just walk on by, wave a cheery hello to the guys on their mobile phones shifting the rocks into place (actually very well done workmanship, probably just totally unnecessary but what do I know?) and saunter on to Crow Hill avoiding any higher blood pressure than absolutely necessary. Just don't ask the question how has the poor hill survived the last thousand years of erosion when what it really needs is a jaggy cornered blocky path built on top of existing rock to protect it. It will be lovely when it has bedded in, in about 20 years. I wonder if we'd all think it was value for money if we could see the accounts. How much does it cost for 8 weeks of 5 guys (on mobile phones) and a helicopter doing fifty round trips?

nothing up Crow Hill btw. Just this aging small tort
No admirals, walls, painted ladies or wheatears.

I thought there must actually be a spreadsheet somewhere or a person you could contact to find out what the cost of all this work was, so I looked on Historic Environment Scotland's website. They are a charity so they should be accountable, shouldn't they? The first thing you realise is there are no email addresses under contact us or so you want to complain? However I did notice the CEO had an email address so I wrote to her, as follows...

Hi there,

I am interested in the money spent on maintaining Holyrood Park. As a regular visitor there I see all the fences erected and the paths created and realise it must be quite some bill. I was wondering if you could point me towards the accounts - if they are publicly available - so I can get a sense of value for money. All these helicoptered in bags of rock can't be cheap?! So is there a place I can see your cashflow and how much this maintenance costs? I imagine as a charity you are held to public accountability?

Many thanks
Peter Buchanan

I will keep you posted in the unlikely event of a reply.

jackdaw, whose nose was bent out of shape that I was feeding the pheasant

you're feeding that jackass?

This was the first of three pheasants I interacted with today. They are not very bright but are very bright, so make interesting subjects. The second was immediatedly afterwards on the way down the hill to the Duddingston Steps. It was in a better position (re direction of light) for photos and came promptly across to where I was spilling my seed with little encouragement. They have bowed to public pressure to become brainless pets, although somehow avoid being savaged by the local dogs so they can't be completely without savvy. It's not on show though.

cockadoodledo!
except like a rooster being garotted on a rusty gate hinge

I was annoyed I didn't properly anticipate this 'call' and zoomed back to get all of the shake and shudder into the frame. Also the curved tail feather in the top shot - are birds in control of their feathers to the extent they can curl them? After he had eaten his fill he returned to the rock on which he previously strutted. Then decided he fancied a little walk. But had to go past me to get to where he was going. He sort of pretended I wasn't there while keeping a very close on eye on me, possibly remembering I had just given him loads of seeds, but maybe wondering about the truth of those myths about being loved and cared for by landowners for all their lives until the middle of August when they are hung on a spike in the bootroom with a cold but regulated temperature.

he's hoping I didn't notice himself passing by, just a yard away

yep nothing to see here <whistles>

couple of peacocks going at it

I then went down those awful steps and loitered to look for Holly Blues. The HBs are absent entirely from Postman's this year, the fear being those pesky parasitic wasps have caught up with them. Perhaps the reason they spread like wildfire throughout Scotland in the second brood of 2023. Still showing well in Fife but a poor year for them in the Lothians for the first time since 2019. One or two about the place but it is a thankless task hanging about the Duddy Steps using only telekinesis to get one to land on the wall-top ivy. Mentally draining.

at last, using only mental powers, I called this male down

however he said I think I saw a female round the back of the tree up there
and left shortly afterwards

Then a lochside visit to Duddingston in search of ...anything. From early chicks (I don't keep a reliable date for goslings and mallard chicks appearing) to damselflies and more holly blues. Always worth a look, not always rewarded.

And the third pheasant of the day came out when I was throwing some stuff for the birds there. He must have set up shop knowing how the general public dispose of their old white sliced loaves here and seen an opening. He even had a couple of birds in tow.

nice 'ears'

stunning if more muted than the male plumage

double busy

another disapproving jackdaw

A bit along the path round the loch there was a patch of garlic mustard in sunshine. Perfect combo for insects and I got the macro lens out for a bit of close-up work. I was there 40minutes but didn't really notice if it was ten or a hundred. I disappeared into the tiny world of nomad bees and hoverflies. Every now and then an orange-tip would land next to me and they seemed giant in comparison to the little things I was trying to photo. It really is a window into another world. I remembered to try the slo-mo setting on the S&Q button. (Stands for slow and quick, I think or maybe suck and quack.) I think it is about HD 120 but I set it so long ago I can't remember what the settings were. Looks like 4 times slower than reality and consumes a lot of hard drive even though there is no audio. Okay so I just checked and I think it is set at HD and was at 100fps. (4 times slower than reality) I have changed it up to 120fps (4.8 times slower than reality) to see if that has a better result on bee-flies' wings vs rolling shutter.

Rolling shutter is distortion caused by the sensor gradually recording the image piecemeal rather than the whole image at the same instant as it happens. Because the bottom of the sensor lags slightly behind the top, if something moves very quickly (like a train going past or a propellor at full throttle) then it can be recorded with a slant or distortion.

Also there is frame rate to contend with which might be more of the problem with the flicker of a bee-fly's wings. (I think my specific camera has a decent reputation for rolling shutter.) This has always been a problem in movies: whether stage coach's spoked wheels (looking like) going in reverse in Westerns, or helicopters blades appearing stationary when they rotate in sync with the strobe of the frames per second.

I have to remember next time I encounter a bee-fly to see if the different frame rate produces less distortion. There appears to be further settings although I think I can only use so many before I have to attach an SSD drive to the hotshoe and record onto that, an SD card being too puny to record all the data churned out at such giddy speeds. I looked into this (because it does sound FAB) however I think I'd have to spend £100 minimum to go down this road, and then buy a new computer with a fresh hard drive and top notch graphics card, so for now I can live without that particular fun. Tempted though. And it would sort the burgeoning hard drive issues I am currently juggling.

tawny mining bee?

Cheilosia illustrata (?)

'A furry bumblebee mimic with a dark cloud wing.'

nomad bee

dark edged bee-fly

orange-tip

garlic mustard patch in sunlight
where I spent 40mins recording bee-flies and insects

Platycheirus (?)

nomad bee

very small hoverfly
note very very small bug near foot of hover

might be Common Dainty; Baccha elongata

atomic scale thing

google lens suggests various, perhaps springtail or booklouse

I was trying to get decent photos of these nomad bees. I was pleased with this one as most of the pics (not flying) have wings folded over the body perhaps concealing species type. In the large book of insects you can whittle down about 34 species to half a dozen geographically, but of course none look like this one. Except Nomada flava which is only found in the lower half of the UK, which means it is likely a male Nomada panzeri which looks 'almost identical' (but not in illustrations in the book.) It is easier to just take their photos, than identify them. Anyone has any insights, do let me know.

orange-tip getting in on the action

what the Olympus 90mm macro lens does best - a terrific tool
which I love using although you have to get quite close to the subject
(didn't even require a flash for these due to sunlight)