good omens at SBW

 

28-07-25

Right from the bike ride there, this day went remarkably well. Not a perfect day and several of my wish-list species did not materialise, but a day that reassured me about one of my favourite places, Saltoun Big Wood; that it has likely survived the forestry machinery removing trees and mashing the place up over the last year.

The bike ride: I thought about getting the bus to Pencaitland and running the last 3 miles, but knew my (lack of) fitness meant I should be doing more and therefore slogging it out on my bike. The wind direction was from Edinburgh to Saltoun and gave me a helping hand up the long hill to Tranent. When I got to the top without changing down from the largest chain-ring I wondered if I could do the whole route without using the middle or granny ring. (Last hill up from W Saltoun was only just possible!) Also I was surprised by the time I was making and realised I wasn't far off my personal best for the route. 

This inspired me to push harder and I was glad I had taken a dry t-shirt to change into when I got there. My PB for the sixteen miles (with substantial climb) is 64minutes. I did 68. If strava tells you different it is because I started my Suunto before I left my flat and it took 2 mins to carry my bike downstairs and get going. Last time I cycled here (also with a tailwind) I took 75 minutes and the wind was much stronger (making the return trip hellish.)

It was a good omen and a really upbeat start to the day. I padlocked my bike in the depths of the woods behind the old car park and wondered what dragonflies would be at the ponds. I knew I was too early for the scabious to be properly out on the back trail, so today's adventure was inspired by thoughts of black darters and Southern hawkers. I have seen flowering scabious in several places but Saltoun seems to operate in its own micro-climate a few weeks behind the coast, due to being higher and more exposed.

I could see the air was busy with dragonflies as I arrived, although the first photos I took were of a comma nectaring at the pondside. Another good omen. (Although it was the only comma of the day.) It has been a very successful year for commas, as evidenced by the recent emergence and strong numbers. I wasn't really expecting to see any here as the peacocks and admirals turn up first and the commas are the final flourish, a bit after the scabious has flowered, and towards the end of August.

common darter

On the downside I couldn't see any black darters or Southern hawkers. Plenty common hawkers and tons of damselflies. I have seen others posting black darter photos on facebook groups so was a little surprised. However there were so many other dragonflies about, that there was plenty to point the camera at. I managed to get really decent photos of common hawkers in flight within the first 10minutes of being there which was a complete turnaround from the last dragonfly hunt at Colstoun pond where I totally failed. I think because there was so many here that they were patrolling smaller territories and would come past more regularly and hover right in front of me. I maybe arrived just at the right time as later I could not repeat the process.

nailed it!
I can go home now!

lots of flowering meadowsweet attracting pollinators

common darter in flight

gvw on rosebay willowherb

at times the hawkers would fly too close to me
to get them all in the frame

a more distant shot of a male catching a female
and flying off to a tree or perch to mate

There is a small clump of teasels just across the trail from the first pond. I know from last year that for a few days they will be covered in butterflies before the flowerheads are done. There were (at least) 3 admirals and a peacock there although they weren't super keen on my company. However the lure of the flowers would bring them back repeatedly.

Another couple of species on my wish list for today were ruby-tailed wasps and green tiger beetles. Both have been seen (around this time of the year) near this rooty oak at the crossroads before the second large pond. Neither were there today. I checked every time I went past. It (the uprooted rootball) can be useful for parasitic wasps and longhorn beetles. 

George had brought these to my attention,
I believe they are young newts (tadpoles / efts)

The sun had gone behind clouds and the second pond showed no signs of dragonfly activity. I went over to the old woodpile which was partly cleared away during the felling. Two brown butterflies flew up and then settled. The first was a meadow brown and I thought the other would be similar but it turned out (after a bit of a search) to be a really fresh wall. When I approached it for a photo it flew onto the end grain of a cut log where it was almost impossible to see. Very cunning! 

perfect hiding place

As I got closer it flew up again and landed where I could get a better photo.

perfect condition

'butterfly alley'

I had been concerned that the back trail, butterfly alley, might have been damaged by the forestry work and tree clearance going on. That the scabious lining the paths would be mashed and fail to appear this year, or that the butterflies would be chased off by the activities or trampled under the caterpillar tracks (ironic eh?) of the heavy machinery. They chopped back the edges of these trails and made a huge woodpile of off-cuts at the far end, directly on top of the best area for butterflies. My worry was that they had destroyed the best annual display of butterflies in the Lothians, if not all of Scotland. 

scabious - another week and it will be in bloom

However as I walked up the trail I could see that the huge numbers of devil's bit scabious were reappearing (still in bud) and had survived. Every 40 yards another brand new peacock butterfly would take off from the dirt trail or where it was sunbathing on a rock nearby. It filled me with joy and suggests butterfly alley might have dodged a bullet and continue its annual display. Keith if you're reading this I think its going to be okay!

Loads of fresh peacocks all along the trail. The peacocks tend to be first, closely followed by admirals and then commas. There were also good numbers of speckled woods. They were a little smaller than normal although recently emerged too. 

speckled wood

I walked round the square and back to the rooty oak at the crossroads. Not that many butterflies round the East sides although there was a large white so busy on a thistle it didn't mind me standing nearby and shooting a few flying shots.

last of the small skippers

I came across this very unwelcome sack of shit right in the centre of the path. I had earlier bumped into a nice woman who was shouting at one of her dogs Frank not to bother me. He was fine and friendly and I said nice day. However I felt leaving a poopbag on the trail was unacceptable. It might not have been Frank's. I felt moved to critique the situation, so I Andy Goldsworthy-ed the bag by leaving sticks marking the cardinal points round it. Twenty minutes later I was coming up the trail towards the crossroads again (although from the opposite direction as I'd gone to explore the memory of a buddleia bush down that trail,) when I saw Frank and woman returning up towards the poopbag trail. Possibly (hopefully) returning to pick up the critiqued dogshit.

I felt a modicom of guilt but then thought hell no - too many bags like this are being left in trees and on gates and fences in the countryside and non-dog-lovers are sick of folk using the outdoors as their personal shithouse for their dogs. Don't like picking up after your dog? Don't have a dog. And don't leave their waste polywrapped and hanging about for others to enjoy. It is shitty behaviour.

second of two bikers passing by

On returning to the old woodpile I noticed the wall I'd seen earlier had found a nice spot to sunbathe, on the end of a log. I approached cautiously and got the above shot using the 100~400 lens. However it was sitting still and there wasn't much else to do as I was waiting for the sun to come back out, so I swapped to the macro lens and took a couple of close-ups. I was surprised to get within inches before it flew off. Wall are usually quite flighty. However I had crawled along the ground keeping low and moved very slowly. While it is interesting to see the macro shots in such detail that you can see the scales, the best photo was the first, taken with the longer lens as it compliments the butterfly with the colour and texture of the wood, with intriguing holes made by who-knows-what drilling creatures. When I posted it on the ESB facebook group, Iain made it the cover photo for the group - high praise indeed!

the remains of the old woodpile

podalonia?

The sun was breaking through and I checked the oak root tree at the crossroads. No cuckoo wasps but this black insect looked like it might be a parasitic wasp. And was moving about very rapidly. Slightly easier to photograph, but not much, was this grasshopper. 

chorthippus brunneus

One of the most common sorts of grasshopper this is likely a field grasshopper. And the orange colouring suggests male. Google is not great for ID-ing them. Any input welcome. Maybe I should buy a book about grasshoppers so I can have the sort of confused relationship with them that I now have with hoverflies. 

hopper

very small spider with too short a depth of field

gvw

lots of wasps, as ever

a cracking green-blue sports car sheen

and I love the wing texture

Helina reversio
(or not)(or just looks identical to)

Now this little beauty was just standing minding its own business. I took a shot (still had the 90mm macro lens on and looking for anything small and interesting) and was about to move in for a close-up when it flew off. Which is a great shame. Luckily the one shot was almost enough and it looks pretty sharp, even cropped in further, as below. One of these pics you don't think much of at the time, as it was not anticipated and not searched for. But when I got home it stood out as a very successful image - sharp, and the fly really matching the background blurred out colours.

If you want a laugh right click the image and "search with google lens." It will come up with 25 photos of a fly that look almost identical but each is called something else. I'm guessing it has a lot of looky-likeys. I have chosen one Latin name but you could choose any number of others. Some kind of root fly maybe. I'm glad I don't have to do this for a living.

Conops quadrifasciatus

Leucozona glaucia

Eristalis - dronefly

wasp

Syrphus

emerald damselflies

another Leucozona glaucia? Again this was sitting well but
flew off before I could get round to its face

more longhorn beetle fun
Leptura quadrifasciata

Eristalis pertinax
tapered drone fly

I was back round at the first pond failing to capture the hawkers as easily as I did earlier. Then this admiral landed right in front of me, I suspect interested in the damp mud between stones unless it just wanted to be in the blog. It flew off in the direction of the teasels and I followed it over as I could see several large butterflies there. This time I was more cautious and they didn't fly off quite so quickly. Although it was slightly harder as I now had the 90mm on and had to get closer for photos. I climbed the small hump near to the teasels. If you do this note the steep sides are slippy with grass and as I left I sat down quickly (slipped and fell with a thump) on my back. Luckily I protected the camera but my back and arms took quite a jolt. Happy to say I didn't take my eye off the admiral I was chasing.

When disturbed the RAs would fly up into a tree just above the teasels. I think they were pretty hooked on the teasel flower pollen though, as they would only stay away a short while before returning.

There was enough breeze to make the umbellifers sway back and forwards making photos tricky. Sometimes (when shooting macro) it helps to hold onto the plant and steady it. I managed to get my thumb into the above image however it gives a good scale reference for the longhorn beetle. As does the wasp in the photo above it. I always think of longhorns as larger than wasps but they aren't by much. This one then went walkabout on my hand. It had been really enjoying munching away at the white flowers and I reckoned it would soon get bored of my hand as there was nothing to eat and therefore likely fly off. So I quickly set the camera to pre-burst mode and caught a series of pics of it taking off. Their wings are larger than the elytra and are folded in a very similar format to those of the cantharid beetles, at the tips.

about to take off

heading off into the future
(clue to the music used for younger readers)

Possibly the best unexpected find of the day was this bronze shieldbug instar. Far more spectacular than the adult creature it will eventually grow into, I found it next to the main trail on ferns/bracken. It was not delighted to be interviewed and kept trying to sneak off underneath the fronds. It was very small, about the size of a smallish ladybird and I took a load of photos knowing many would not be sharp. (Very small depth of field.) There was not much light about so I got out the flash and diffuser and while this helped a little, I didn't feel I had nailed it. 

Occasionally with shieldbugs the instar nymph is more visually compelling than the adult. I had remembered finding one recently in Warriston and when I searched through my blog I found it was a red-legged shieldbug, although the instar was more muted and less contrasting than this one. I also found that I had phtographed a bronze shieldbug imago (adult) as the very first macro photo I ever took way back in February 2024 with the 60mm macro lens. The very beginning of the whole macro adventure. While it is a decent enough shieldbug it has lost much of the colour and contrasting design of the nymph.

bronze shieldbug (looks unrelated to nymph)
very first photo taken with 60mm macro lens

I headed to the old car park to retrieve my bike for the cycle home. However I stopped just opposite as there was a large patch of thistles at the roadside, in sunlight, attracting butterflies. A red admiral was swooping here and there and various whites came and went. You couldn't easily get round the other side (and I didn't want to encourage the barky dog of the householder next door (behind the hedge) which had sensed my presence but wasn't sure as I was mosty standing still) which meant shooting into the sun. I knew I was just postponing the moment I'd have to get on my bike and cycle home into a headwind but it was a last moment of joy watching the butterflies anad insects come and go in the sunshine.

volucella pellucins
a favourite large hoverfly

this cheeky one landed on my hand to have a wash and brush up

I got a couple of photos before it noticed it was being closely watched.

gvw take off

byeeeee

The cycle home was bearable and much quicker than the time that almost broke me.
88minutes today vs 120mins, the whole 2 hours, for just 16miles.

Saltoun: 2.76miles in 4hrs
A splendid day out (likely to be repeated very soon)